Enduring the ire of French cycling fans is a rite of passage for a majority of the select group of prolific Tour de France winners, as Tadej Pogacar seems be finding out. The first catcalls came on Tuesday’s stage to Le Lioran in the Cantal, and unfortunately, although we can hope for a little courtesy, there is no reason to assume we won’t see more of the same in the Alps next week, because there are zero grounds for assuming the Slovene and his UAE team’s dominance of the race will slip. In fact, given the mountains that await, Pogi and co will probably up the ante.
Chris Froome has been there and Eddy Merckx went there. The American We Do Not Name spent two Julys hoping no one would bung urine at him, while Bernard Hinault and Jacques Anquetil had their moments too. To understand why the big winners don’t always get red carpet treatment, let’s fly back to the 60s, to the rivalry between Anquetil and Raymond Poulidor. Master Jacques and PouPou, a simple – simplistically pantomimic – duality: cold, clinical Jacques, who based his Tours on the time-trial stages, and warm-hearted PouPou, the noble peasant who tried his utmost but couldn’t quite land the big one, although he became the most popular athlete in France and the hallmark for valiant failure in every walk of French life. Let’s call it the MJPP principle.
