Pogacar does what he wants in the Tour de France

BarcelonaIf Barcelona, where this year's Tour de France began, were Troy, and Paris, where the race ended, were Ithaca, Slovenian Tadej Pogacar's journey to reach the end of his route has been much less tortuous than Odysseus'. The Slovenian arrived in the French capital with five stage victories and achieved the objective of winning the stage on Tourmalet in the Pyrenees, Alpe d'Huez in the Alps, and is approaching Mark Cavendish's record of 35 victories.

Pogacar won the Tour long before the second-placed rider in the general classification had to go home early on the fifteenth stage after fracturing his right collarbone in a fall. This year, the Dane Jonas Vingegaard (two-time Tour winner) could not respond to any of Pogacar's attacks, neither in Catalonia nor in France, and was unable to keep up with him at any point.

The Slovenian has won five Tours at just 27 years old and becomes the youngest cyclist in history to achieve it. In the club of five, the cannibal Eddy Merckx joined at 29 years old (1974); Jacques Anquetil (1964) and Bernard Hinault (1985) at 30, and the man from Navarre, Miguel Induráin, the only cyclist to have won all five Tours consecutively, ended his love affair with the race at 31 years old.

Former cyclist Chris Froome, a four-time Tour winner, announced a rather revealing message to ARA in Carcassonne (France) before Vingegaard's fall. The Briton had no doubt that Pogacar would win his fifth Tour because he didn't see anyone capable of beating him (Vingegaard included). “The Slovenian is 27 years old and when I won my first Tour I was 27 or 28. It's incredible what he has achieved in such a short period of time,” Froome commented.

The best cyclist in history

Tadej Pogacar has done whatever he wanted in the Tour because he is one or even two levels above physically when compared to his main rivals. In Barcelona, he let his teammate Isaac del Toro win ahead of the rest of the favorites, controlling the situation without breaking a sweat. The Slovenian and his team have also managed for the Mexican to be able to climb onto the final podium in Paris (third place in his first Tour at 22 years old).

On Saturday's stage, the Slovenian could have fought for the stage victory, but Pogacar put in the effort to secure the podium for the Mexican, who suffered and felt pressure like never before in his cycling career. “I realized how hard it is to put yourself at the service of another rider,” explained the Slovenian.

Pogacar has won five stages in this year's Tour and has put his name on a summit that had eluded him with 21 mythical bends. L'Alpe d'Huez will bear his name as the winner on the same bend as Bernard Hinault, the last French winner of the Tour de France in 1985.

This year, French fans breathed easier seeing that the youngster Paul Seixas, only 19 years old, finished fourth overall. It had been 122 years since a cyclist under twenty made the Top 10 in the Tour. And he has done it in the year the French race recorded the fastest speed during the 21 stages, exceeding 43 km/h for the first time. The fastest stage was also recorded at 50.9 km/h between Vichy and Nevers. Belgian Remco Evenepoel, second overall, was the first of the mortals and repeats his podium in Paris. 

Final spectacle in Paris

Since last year, the Tour has kept the route of the Olympic Games in Paris on the last day of competition with the climb to Montmartre and the passage through the traditional architectural icons in the capital of light. And the change leaves a dizzying final few kilometers with bated breath.

On the last of the three climbs, packed with spectators, which served to close the fastest Tour in history, Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogacar set off together, in the purest style of an April classic, until the finish on the Champs-Élysées and battled for the final victory with the sprinters on their heels.

Van der Poel was able to break away solo, leaving Pogacar behind in the last 450 meters and after a colossal effort with an apotheotic change of pace when the sprinters were already smelling victory, Van der Poel achieved victory in Paris. “I have been thinking about this stage for a year and, the way it went, it's a dream,” said the Dutchman.