Pogacar no gives away anything else at the Tour

The AnglesThe Tour has said goodbye to Catalonia with the third and final stage between Granollers and Les Angles with apprehension due to the serious fire 60 km from the finish line in French territory and the fire in Les Gavarres that is not yet fully controlled. The fire in Northern Catalonia continues to burn with a new episode of extreme heat with temperatures of up to 40 degrees days after a historic heatwave. The serious situation has caused the Tour's advertising caravan not to hand out gifts to the public and restrictions for attendees in French territory. Despite the heatwave, the great favorite, Tadej Pogacar, has won and is already wearing yellow. The Slovenian is getting down to business.

Just as the Collada de Toses began, with 81 km to go, Raúl García Pierna, from the Movistar team, broke away from the day's escape to begin his Tour romance alone, with the peloton of favorites following just over a minute and a quarter behind. Vercher and Van Vechelen joined the adventure halfway up the climb to go at full speed. A huge crowd cheered on the 6 leading cyclists after the definitive merger in the final stretch of the Collada de Toses. The public went wild watching the riders pass. After Puigcerdà, as the cyclists entered France, the deafening sound stopped because the prefect of the Pyrénées-Orientales, Pierre Regnault de la Mothe, and the Tour director, Christian Prudhomme, had requested through an official statement that the public not gather along the stage in the French kilometers, and only significant groups of people were seen cheering in urban centers. On the last climb to Les Angles, there were quite a few spectators, but fewer than usual.

Pogacar, who on Monday in Montjuïc gifted the stage to his teammate Isaac del Toro, worked with his team to reduce the gap with the escapees. The two French cyclists in the breakaway, Alex Baudin and Nicolas Prodhomme, disconnected from the leading group to ride together with 33 km to go. But the Emirates "steamroller" shattered Baudin's aspirations, who ended up alone. 11 km from the finish, au revoir to the chances of winning. The work done by Emirates has paid off and Isaac del Toro has returned the favor to Pogacar. The Mexican shifted to his big chainring 800 meters out so the Slovenian could deliver a sharp blow 200 meters from the finish. Vingegaard could not follow him and the Slovenian achieved victory. Pogacar leads the Tour tied on time with the Dane, who wore the yellow jersey in the Catalan stages.

The Catalan voice within the Tour route

During the Catalan stages, speakers Jordi Vidal and Sergi Valdivieso spoke in Catalan at the starts in Barcelona, Tarragona, and Granollers, and at the arrivals in the Catalan capital on Saturday and Sunday with the French speakers of the Tour. During the race in the Catalan stages, ASO, the organizing company, needed a voice that from inside one of the official Tour cars, on the route in front of or behind the professional cyclists, would provide different types of information in Catalan for the various towns that Vingegaard, Pogacar, and company were passing through. Messages of encouragement and safety on the roads have been the job of the speaker Xavier Ensenyat, who has worked for 20 years in over 200 events and has been part of the 5,000 people in the organization who work at each stage of the Tour.

“The thing that gives you goosebumps the most in any of the towns we’ve passed through is when I thank them for their presence and as soon as I start speaking with the name of their city, they already cheer you on,” Ensenyat explains to ARA. “Being able to express myself in my language at the Tour de France is an important detail, and they have given me the freedom to do so.” "Following the stage from the inside, you enjoy every minute, and it has to be done because we will never experience a Grand Départ again.” On Monday's stage, once it entered French territory, Xavier Ensenyat continued his work to give safety messages in French and a little in Catalan.