On his first Giro, Tadej Pogacar dedicated to hegemony – Libération

Big favorite, the Slovenian rider crushed the first Tour of Italy in which he participated, winning six stages before arriving in Rome, this Sunday, May 26, with almost ten minutes on his first pursuer.

It happened on Wednesday, in a fold of the Dolomites, during the last climb of Passo Brocon. There were two kilometers remaining before the finish of the 17th stage of the Giro. On a narrow pass road, along a stone wall, Tadej Pogacar accelerated. Not really a sharp attack, more like a few strokes of the handles like a dancer, as if to revive a pace considered too sluggish. Nobody tried to follow the pink jersey. Neither the sharp Daniel Felipe Martinez, nor the veteran Geraint Thomas, nor the best young Antonio Tiberi, respectively 2nd, 3rd and 5th in the general classification. So Pogacar broke away from the group of favorites, as he had already done every time the road got higher.

At the time, we didn’t really understand this movement. Martinez, Thomas and Tiberi maybe not either. It was not a question of trying to win the stage, since the German Georg Steinhauser had a sufficient lead not to be caught. Further widen your lead in the general? But the leader of the UAE Team Emirates was already more than 7 minutes ahead of his first pursuer, a gap that no one expected to be filled. So what ? Ants in your legs? Or the ontological impossibility of evolving at the same altitude as others. At the end of a final stage in the form of a formal parade, this Sunday, May 26 in Rome, Tadej Pogacar will win the first Tour of Italy in which he has competed. Without ever shaking and crushing the race from start to finish.

Clothing pranks

The matter was closed on the second day. At the sanctuary of Oropa, a place of worship perched in Piedmont dedicated to the Black Madonna and scene in other times of a miraculous ascension, tinged with occult magic, of Marco Pantani, Tadej Pogacar grabbed a pink shirt that he would never let go. He therefore wore it 19 times, this Sunday included, enough to give the Slovenian the opportunity to try all possible combinations: with pink bib shorts, with black bib shorts (the best effect in our opinion) or with mauve bib shorts . Clothing antics as if to alleviate the boredom of a locked race, a double turn from the first time trial (2 and a half minutes ahead after a week of racing), a triple turn after the second timed exercise ( 3 and a half minutes on the evening of the 14th stage). The TV commentators tried to sell us an exciting fight for the other two steps of the podium, but we quickly yawned. Final addition: almost 10 minutes on the second, Martinez.

Failing to thrill for the general classification, there always remains the winning of the stages, this issue put back into the pot every day, promised to jousters with varied characteristics according to the undulations of the course. It’s time to highlight the great French harvest, with the successes of Benjamin Thomas, Valentin Paret-Peintre and a Julian Alaphilippe in newfound colors a few weeks before the Olympic Games. But in this picture too, the elephant in the room was Slovenian. As an ogre of the great roads, Tadej Pogacar won six stages, celebrated by as many stickers stuck on his frame plate. With a completely Merckxian appetite, the pink jersey ate almost everything, leaving its opponents only crumbs. Or sacred relics, like when after having eaten it one kilometer from the line on the 16th stage, he gave the Italian hope Giulio Pelizzarri, after the finish, his glasses and his pink jersey, like the good king of the peloton .

Such hegemony does not come without compensation: fading the star of a rider with radiant coolness but who is boring to win everything (Merckx, again – minus the coolness) and awakening the inevitable suspicions which surround any extraordinary cycling performance . Especially since Tadej Pogacar never seemed to have to exert his talent throughout his Italian campaign. The fact remains that the races are contested by several people and if the Slovenian has magnetized everything, it is also for lack of resistance to put up against him. He was the big favorite at the start, both for his personal qualities and for his contrast with the rest of the competition. “I think what is missing here is that there is no Evenepoel, Roglič or Jonas Vingegaard to compete,” said Richard Plugge, the manager of Visma Lease a Bike this week. This is unfortunately the case. We will have to see at the Tour de France what the real level is.” While waiting for July, the three riders mentioned are healing their wounds from a nasty fall last month at the Tour of the Basque Country. Tadej Pogacar is having fun.