Tour de France After Pogacar’s climbing gala: “The real takeover”
Tadej Pogacar’s third Tour victory seems to be a sure thing. Photo
© David Pintens/Belgium/dpa
Who will stop Tadej Pogacar on his way to his third Tour victory? The Slovenian cycling star is in outstanding form – and is receiving hymns of praise.
For the French sports newspaper “L’Equipe”, with Tadej Pogacar’s climbing gala on the Alpine giant Col du Galibier, it is already clear that the Slovenian cycling star will dominate the Tour de France this year.
“The real takeover,” was the paper’s headline after Pogacar had left his rival Jonas Vingegaard behind on Tuesday and had already built up a lead of 50 seconds. Pogacar had essentially “pulled out his baseball bat to settle the score.”
In 2022 and 2023, the exceptional talent was duped by the Dane – defeats that were difficult for Pogacar to accept. He wanted to “hit hard,” said the two-time Tour champion. He is already planning the next attack: “The next rendezvous will take place on Friday in the time trial.”
For the newspaper “Le Parisien”, Pogacar was “like an eagle flying out of its cave towards its prey down in the valley”, even in view of the rapid descent to the finish.
Outstanding UAE team around Politt
In his quest to become the first professional cyclist since Marco Pantani 26 years ago to win the Giro d’Italia and Tour double, Pogacar has one major advantage: his overwhelming UAE team. While the 25-year-old was regularly worn down by Vingegaard’s Visma team in the past, the situation is now reversed.
UAE had overrun everything, from “Nils Politt’s pachyderm squadron to the deployment of the light brigades in the Galibier,” as “L’Equipe” martially put it.
On the flat sections, Cologne time trial champion Politt is a huge asset for Pogacar, and on the first climb of the highest category, his helpers managed to tear the entire field apart, so that Vingegaard, who had a serious fall in the Tour of the Basque Country in April, lost all of his helpers. “To ride like that, you need balls. We have them,” enthused Pogacar.
dpa
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