PARIS, July 22: Tadej Pogacar had no need to attack on the final stage of the Tour de France.
Defending a lead of more than five minutes in Sunday’s time trial, he was set to comfortably win the race for the third time and first time in three years, anyway.
But defense has not been in his vocabulary during this race and he simply could not resist another attack.
With his main rival Jonas Vingegaard unable to challenge him, Pogacar celebrated his Tour victory in style with a dominant win in the time trial ending in Nice for the 17th stage win of his already illustrious Tour career.
The 25-year-old Slovenian rider also became the first cyclist to secure the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France in the same year since the late Marco Pantani in 1998.
“To win both together is another level above,” said Pogacar, who rides for UAE Team Emirates.
“I think this is the first Grand Tour where I was totally confident every day. Even at the Giro I remember I had one bad day. This year, the Tour was just amazing. I was enjoying it from day one.” The two-time defending champion Vingegaard of Denmark was second overall. He also finished the 21st and final stage in second place.
Pogacar won the 34-kilometer (21-mile) time trial on the French Riviera’s roads from Monaco to Nice in 45 minutes, 24 seconds. Vingegaard was 1 minute, 3 seconds behind him and Belgian rider Remco Evenepoel 1:14 back in third spot.
In the overall standings, Vingegaard finished 6:17 behind Pogacar and Evenepoel was third overall, 9:18 behind Pogacar – whose other Tour wins came in 2020 and 2021.
“I’m super happy. I cannot describe how happy I am after two hard years in the Tour de France,” Pogacar said. “This year everything (was) perfection.”
The race did not finish in Paris as it usually does because of the Olympic Games. Nice mayor Christian Estrosi called the region between the Mediterranean Sea and the southern French Alps “perfect cycling territory.” From early Sunday morning, fans camped along the popular Promenade des Anglais in Nice to guard a spot that would offer the best glimpse of cyclists.
Some fans chanted “Remco, Remco” as the race-against-the-clock specialist zoomed past them.
They may have been surprised to see Pogacar going flat out.
After his explosive attack on Friday, Pogacar said he would not try to win Saturday’s stage. Yet he still won it to become the second man to clinch five mountain stages in one Tour after Italian rider Gino Bartali in 1948.
Pogacar led Vingegaard overnight by 5 minutes, 14 seconds. But the lure of another stage win proved too strong and he flew down the winding roads past picturesque Èze and Villefranche-sur-Mer on the approach to Nice, where the route flattened out again.
Pogacar held out three fingers as the finish line and a sixth stage win approached on this year’s Tour – the same number of stages he won when dominating the Giro d’Italia.
It was Pogacar’s biggest winning margin of his three Tour wins – beating the 5:20 gap on Vingegaard three years ago, but below the 7:29 victory margin Vingegaard enjoyed over Pogacar last year.
The battle with Vingegaard was not as close as it might have been in different circumstances.
The 27-year-old Vingegaard was hospitalized for nearly two weeks in April following a high-speed crash in the Tour of the Basque Country. He resumed competitive racing only on this Tour.
“Under normal circumstances, I would be disappointed with my Tour de France. But, after everything I’ve gone through, I can’t be disappointed,” Vingegaard said.
“I would have loved to go a bit further, but it is what it is. I would like to come back to the Tour de France and win it again … I believe the yellow jersey is the most beautiful jersey in road cycling.” Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz won the best climber’s polka dot jersey while Eritrea’s Biniam Girmay won the top sprinter’s green jersey and the 24-year-old Evenepoel capped a fine debut Tour with the white jersey for best young rider.
“I feel like I’m floating through the sky. It’s super nice,” Girmay said.
“I just want to say for the young kids, keep working hard and everything is possible.” (PTI)
