The Dane and the Slovenian, in very good shape at the end of the season and title holder in Lombardy, finally meet on Saturday in Italy, after their duel on the Tour de France this summer.
It was time. Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar find themselves in the race for the first time since their formidable mano a mano at the Tour de France, on Saturday at the Tour of Lombardy, the last great classic of the season.
It will therefore have been necessary to wait until the last outing of the year to see the two champions who lit up the month of July pick up the thread of their rivalry. The setting for their reunion lives up to expectations: the fifth and ultimate monument of the cycling calendar, “the classic of dead leaves», born in 1905, usually closes the season in style between the Lombard mountains and Lake Como.
This is even more true this year with, in addition to the duel between the first two of the last Tour de France, the jubilee of two giants, Alejandro Valverde and Vincenzo Nibali, who will compete, at 42 and 37 respectively, in the last race of their august career.
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There will be a lot of emotion on Saturday on “Lombardy», especially since the two veterans are still in the game and announce that they are aiming for victory on a selective course of 253 km between Bergamo and Como, with in particular the formidable Civiglio (4.2 km at 9.7% average) and the double ascent of San Fermi della Battalia (2.8 km at 6.6%) in the final.
This promises a thrilling, aggressive race, especially since Pogacar, winner last year on the reverse course linking Como to Bergamo, has clearly applied for a double. “The course will be more difficult than last year“, underlines the Slovenian. Which is not necessarily to displease him, he who is in good shape as evidenced by his victory on Tuesday at the Trois Vallées Varésines, preceded by a second place in the Tour d’Emilie.
«Explosion mentale»
Vingegaard also did the Tour of Lombardy “one of the main goals of the season“. Unlike his Slovenian rival, with an already well-developed list (two Tours de France, two Monuments), the Dane currently has a fairly meager list of results with the Grande Boucle as the main asset and a 14th place in the Tour of Lombardy 2021 as the best result on a Monument.
Since his success on the Tour, celebrated in Denmark as a victory at the Football World Cup, the exhausted former fishmonger has disappeared from circulation, even skipping the Tour of Denmark and the World Championships, which does not did not please everyone in the kingdom.
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«When you win the Tour de France, it’s a kind of mental explosion that happens to you. It’s very difficult to talk to the media and the fans every day“Explained the discreet runner of the Jumbo-Visma in August on Danish television. He only made his comeback at the end of September at the Tour of Croatia where he won two stages.
Pogacar continued to fire on all cylinders, winning the Montreal Grand Prix in early September before doubling time (6th) and road race (19th) at the Worlds in Australia, and moving on to the Italian campaign.
His victory on Tuesday is already the 45th of his career and the 15th of the season, the same total as the brand new world champion Remco Evenepoel, the main absentee on Saturday. The Belgian has a good excuse: he is getting married.
His Quick-Step team will therefore bet once again on Julian Alaphilippe, Evenepoel’s predecessor with the rainbow jersey, which is heating up at the end of the season.
On the French side, where David Gaudu and Thibaut Pinot have already ended their season, we are also counting on Romain Bardet, in this classic cut for climbers.
