Tadej Pogačar has been performing miracles so often as to make them seem mundane. By this point in his career, he has exhausted as many superlatives as he has rivals. But amid his astonishing repertoire, his display at Plateau de Beille on stage 15 will ultimately stand out as a defining work.
For most of his career, Pogačar has been compelled to participate in two races at once, one on the road against his current rivals and the other in the imagination against the giants of eras past. Such is the burden of the man who has been touted as the new Eddy Merckx for the bones of the past four years.
