It needed to be him. The most novel finale to the Tour de France within the race’s historical past nonetheless contrived to supply probably the most predictable of endings, as Tadej Pogačar cruised to his sixth stage victory to crown a crushing general win.
When the concluding Nice time trial was confirmed two years in the past, ASO likely dreamt of a repeat of 1989 and all that, when Greg LeMond snatched yellow from Laurent Fignon on the final. There was merely no method, nevertheless, of Pogi-proofing this 12 months’s race. The Slovenian has merely been on one other stage to all comers in 2024, divesting the grand finale of all suspense.
Indeed, Pogačar additionally achieved the outstanding feat of profitable the final three levels of this Tour. The UAE Team Emirates rider ended the race as a contest together with his solo effort at Isola 2000 on Friday after which he hammered dwelling the purpose by sprinting previous Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) to win once more on the Col de la Couillole.
Pogačar entered Sunday’s time trial from Monaco to Nice already armed with a lead of greater than 5 minutes on Vingegaard. Some puzzled if Pogačar would take his foot off the fuel right here. No probability. Instead, he delivered one other high-octane show, beating his rival by 1:03 to stretch his closing profitable margin out to six:17.
For the previous two years, Pogačar had stood on the second step of the rostrum on the Champs-Élysées, watching as Vingegaard was feted within the yellow jersey. The roles have been reversed on Nice’s Place Masséna on Sunday night, the place Pogačar claimed his third title and likewise grew to become the eighth rider in historical past to win the Giro d’Italia and Tour in the identical 12 months.
“I can’t describe how blissful I’m,” Pogačar stated earlier than the rostrum ceremony. “I had two onerous years within the Tour de France, at all times some errors. And this 12 months, every thing to perfection. I’m out of phrases, I’m tremendous blissful to win right here, it’s unimaginable.”
The setting could have been unfamiliar for the Tour, however Pogačar, a resident of Monaco, had detailed data of the route of the ultimate stage, which took in his and his associate Urška Žigart’s coaching roads alongside the Côte d’Azur.
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The very Olympic Games that created this Nice finale are simply 5 days away, however Pogačar had no considered sparing himself for Paris right here. At one level on the drop into Nice, with the Tour and the stage lengthy since gained, the speedometer on the bike behind him hit 93 kph.
“In my head I may hear Urška saying that she hates me for doing this street on a regular basis in coaching,” Pogačar stated. “We did it so many occasions this 12 months, so I stated I might not waste it. I might hold it underneath management, however I might not waste the preparations for immediately.”
Double
Pogačar has been hailed as the best rider of his era – and the best since Eddy Merckx or Bernard Hinault – kind of since he coasted to his second Tour victory in 2021. Since then, nevertheless, it had begun to seem that Vingegaard had his quantity within the month of July, very similar to Rafa Nadal’s superiority over Roger Federer on the clay courts of Roland-Garros.
Last winter, when Pogačar introduced his resolution to aim the Giro-Tour double in 2024, the corsa rosa had the texture of an insurance coverage coverage given Vingegaard’s pre-eminence within the earlier two summers. Nobody had achieved the double because the late Marco Pantani in 1998, and even a few of those that tried it efficiently intimated that they’d produced their greatest performances of the 12 months in Italy.
Pogačar by some means appeared to be the exception to the rule. UAE Team Emirates sports activities supervisor Matxin Joxean Fernandez confirmed to Cyclingnews in Nice what the stratospheric climbing occasions on this Tour had instructed – Pogačar’s stage in July was one other rung above his dominant Giro show.
“I feel that is the primary Grand Tour the place I used to be completely assured day by day,” Pogačar stated. “Even within the Giro I bear in mind I had one dangerous day. I gained’t inform which one. This 12 months, the Tour de France was simply superb, I used to be having fun with from day one till immediately.
“If I solely gained the Giro, that will already be an unimaginable 12 months. But to win the Tour is one other stage. And to win the 2 of them collectively is one other stage above that stage.”
In France, as in Italy, Pogačar racked up six stage wins, together with 5 within the chief’s jersey. All instructed, the 25-year-old has racked up an astounding 21 victories to date this season – ‘to date’ being the operative expression. As nicely because the Paris Olympics, Pogačar confirmed that he had designs on the World Championships in Zürich, and a Triple Crown beforehand achieved solely by Merckx, Stephen Roche and Annemiek van Vleuten.
“[Mathieu] van der Poel seems to be actually good on this planet champion’s jersey however this 12 months I wish to take it from him,” stated Pogačar. “We will see, however I need one time the rainbow jersey on my again. But I nonetheless have time for that.”
Doubts
The Tour winner’s speech is a convention that was inaugurated virtually twenty years in the past for Lance Armstrong. His 2005 victory, just like the six that preceded it, was rescinded, however his speech admonishing the “cynics and the sceptics” has endured in infamy.
The males who’ve succeeded him have all opted for reasonably humbler and conciliatory orations, some choosing humour, others displaying uncooked emotion. Pogačar is so accustomed to profitable that he was by no means probably to reply to one other Tour victory with tears. Instead, he had smiling phrases of reward for his rivals and the race they produced when he was handed the microphone on the rostrum, with Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel by his facet.
“I have to say how blissful I’m to win this Tour, how loopy the journey was, how loopy the battles have been with Jonas and Remco and Primož [Roglič],” Pogačar stated. “It was one of many craziest Tours in historical past. We have been witnessing an entire lot of issues on this Tour de France.”
After thanking the organisation, Pogačar turned his consideration to the followers, and specifically in direction of the ocean of Slovenian flags fluttering on Place Masséna.
“You’re the most effective, thanks, eh,” Pogačar smiled, they usually responded in type: “Pogi, Pogi, Pogi.”
Shortly afterwards, Pogačar was swept off in direction of the makeshift studio of France TV, the place he once more downplayed the concept he had began this Tour intent of proving some extent towards Vingegaard.
“I wouldn’t say it was revenge,” stated Pogačar, who proceeded to point that he would goal the Tour and the Vuelta a España in 2025.
His closing formal dedication of the 2024 Tour was the winner’s press convention, held within the media centre on the close by Palais des Expositions. The floor coated largely echoed what had been coated by tv stations within the blended zone – the double, the rivalry with Vingegaard, his future plans – and Pogačar’s manner relaxed all through. “I’m tremendous drained,” he smiled at one level.
One of Pogačar’s longest responses got here when he was requested in regards to the suspicion engendered by his remarkably excessive stage of efficiency on this Tour, the place he set various climbing data. Like Vingegaard earlier than him, the Slovenian acknowledged {that a} Tour winner may by no means be totally freed from suspicion.
“There will at all times be doubts, for positive, as a result of biking was a lot broken up to now, earlier than my time,” Pogačar stated. “In any sport, in any state of affairs of life, if any person is profitable there’s at all times jealousy, there’s at all times haters. If you don’t have haters, then you definitely’re not succeeding. There will at all times be somebody who talks dangerous about somebody.
“In biking, WADA and the UCI invested some huge cash and time to make this sport clear. I feel this is among the cleanest sports activities in the entire world due to what occurred so a few years in the past. I let you know now, it’s not price it. I feel taking something that may danger your well being or your coronary heart is tremendous silly. You can cycle till you’re 35, however there’s a protracted method to get pleasure from life afterwards. It can be silly to do that and danger your life for silly racing.”
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