There were people who placed the tent to sleep at the top of the sanctuary of the Virgin of San Luca and get the first position on the fences that protected the runners. You had to walk up from the center of Bologna in the unbearable heat. There were doubts that the effort, perhaps, with a consented escape, would not have been worth it. What a mistake and what a lack of faith, the one that drives the Tour and the one that always turns this race into a magical event. Tadej Pogacar attacks! Jonas Vingegaard answers! What more could they ask for?
There are two stages and two things have already been discovered. First, that Pogacar He is a nonconformist beast and the ‘cannibal’ of the 21st century, there was no doubt. The other, however, the exquisite form of Jonas Vingegaard It had to be demonstrated on an asphalt that seemed to melt with a righteous thermometer.
It all started early in the morning inside the UAE bus parked in Cesenatico, the Adriatic city that saw the birth of Mark Pantani. Everyone knew how difficult the climb to the sanctuary of the Virgin of San Luca was because the inaugural time trial of the 2019 Giro was held there, which was won by Primoz RoglicIt wasn’t even 2 kilometers of effort, but you had to twist and suffer if someone decided to start.
Pogacar He listened to his directors who recommended him to attack. “We had to check if Jonas had arrived at the Tour in the right way,” he explained on Rai Joxean Fernández, ‘Rebel’the Basque coach of Pogacar“The pace was high and we had to try. Jonas was quick to respond. It was not a surprise for me,” he admitted. Pogacaralready wearing the yellow jersey, after getting off the podium.
The escape was ahead, from which the Frenchman emerged victorious Kévin Vauquelin. It seemed that the peloton of the illustrious had already concluded the stage and everyone would arrive calmly in Bologna. However, Vingegaard ran with the fly behind his ear. He did not have at his side Wout van Aert He had crashed and was running with sore legs. He kept turning around, looking for Pogacar. Slopes over 10 percent were an invitation to attack. Vineyard He knows his Slovenian opponent all too well.
Suddenly, as if a balloon burst, as if a collective joy took over the streets of Bologna, an explosion of joy, Pogacar attacked; the typical change of pace patented by the Slovenia phenomenon. Just like the ones he did in the Giro. But, my lord, with a notable difference. There was a response, which he did not get in the Italian round or in any other race throughout the year. And it was not that of a spontaneous cyclist in his afternoon of glory. Pogacar He turned slightly and saw the only one he would rather not have seen; none other than a magnificent Vingegaard.
On the second stage, with heat, with cold, with rain and even with snow if the occasion arose… on the second stage the spectacle that only two cyclists are capable of putting on, broke out, Vingegaard y Pogacarwho were left alone, taking turns, pedaling from one to another, as if speaking from winner to winner from a speaker’s platform.
There they were both; one to grab the yellow jersey by accident, and the other to earn infinite admiration and show that he was back, that he had no complexes when it came to heading downhill – even though he got a scare when he touched the pedal to the ground – after the accident in Álava on April 4 and that the Spartan preparation in Tignes During the month in June it had been worth it, as much or more than putting on a bib to compete.
It was 10 kilometers of fantasy, of cartoons, of special effects, of total ecstasy. Pogacar He discovered that there is someone who stands up to him and that if he wins the Tour he will have to work much harder than he did when he won the Giro. Vingegaard verified that he was the same as before the fall in the Basque Country and that as in 2022 and 2023, in the two victories in Paris, he was not afraid of Pogacar, I could follow it perfectly and who knows whether to finish it in the Alps or the Pyrenees. “It has been a small victory for me especially because I can announce that I am back,” celebrated the Danish runner.
As if that were not enough, even though he got loose on the climb, Remco Evenepoel responded from the distance, showed his enormous stubbornness, launched himself like a madman on the descent, always followed by Richard Carapazand captured his opponents at the goal. Roglic He didn’t even try and reached the finish line 21 seconds behind, in the group that included the Spaniards. Juan AyusoPello Bilbao, Mikel Landa, Enrique Mas y Carlos RodriguezIn Bologna, something much more beautiful than a consented escape began to take shape, nothing less than a joyful, festive and exciting Tour.
All classifications.
2024-06-30 15:24:20
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