'I'm gone. I'm dead.' With these words, Tadej Pogačar effectively recognised his definitive defeat in the 2023 Tour de France on the Col de la Loze, and two years later, as the peloton toils its way up the same mammoth, 26.5-kilometre Alpine climb, they will be floating in the air once again.
Will the UAE Team Emirates-XRG leader be able to gain revenge on his own legs, as he so graphically put it in his yellow jersey press conference of the evening before and remain in the lead all the way to the top?
