Was there ever any doubt? The Tour de France was already won, but that didn’t mean Tadej Pogačar was done winning at the Tour de France.
When Pogačar approached the summit of the Col de la Couillole in the company of Jonas Vingegaard, it was tempting to wonder if the yellow jersey would quietly cede victory on stage 20 to his closest rival, to a man who had made such a speedy return from horrific injury to contest this Tour.
Vingegaard even wondered it himself, though the Visma-Lease a Bike rider must have known in his bones that Pogačar was never likely to pass up on the chance to hammer home his supremacy at this race, not after the stinging defeats suffered at the Dane’s hand these past two Julys.
When Vingegaard attacked with 5km or so remaining, Pogačar had been content to follow, save for one, cursory turn on the front. He carefully tracked Vingegaard all the way to the final 450 metres, before he eased in front of him once again. Even then, it briefly looked as though Pogačar was merely putting a bow on a gift for his rival.
Not a chance. A beat or two later, Pogačar accelerated forcefully, immediately opened a winning gap over Vingegaard, who could scarcely raise a gallop in response. The UAE Team Emirates rider crossed the line with arms stretched wide to celebrate his fifth stage victory at this Tour. No gifts.
Pogačar is nothing if not consistent. He helped himself to six stage victories and a winning margin of almost 10 minutes at the Giro d'Italia in May, so he was hardly liable to ease up at any point here.
The unwritten etiquette of leading a Grand Tour is just that, a nebulous concept. Pogačar, by contrast, has always subscribed to a Merckx-ian view of the world, advertising his personal terms and conditions in bold print. Every race is a race to be won, and this was his 19th of a stratospheric season, a year that defies all logic.
“You don’t give away stages just to your closest competition, for sure not,” Pogačar said in his post-stage press conference. “We maybe gave the breakaway enough time today, they had a big chance, and they had big chance a lot of times.
“But sprinters also don’t say ‘OK, today another sprint can win, I will back off a little bit'. It’s a sport where you want to win, where you need to win. You’re also paid to win. It’s a pressure and you need to deliver. Otherwise, it’s not good for you if you don’t deliver. You always need to go for the victory if you can.”
After his crushing victory at Isola 2000 on Friday, Pogačar had shrugged off the already jaded idea of being the new cannibal, insisting that he had little interest in chasing stage victory the following day. That may or may not have been his intention when stage 20 began, but when circumstances put victory within his reach, he was never going to pass up the opportunity.
The forcing of Soudal-QuickStep, who were trying to tee up Evenepoel, kept the break within Pogačar’s orbit. When Vingegaard responded to Evenepoel’s attacks, Pogačar figured he might as well follow. And, once Vingegaard reeled in the last of the day’s escapees, Pogačar figured he might as well win.
“Soudal decided to try to take some time on Jonas or maybe win the stage, which was really playing into my hands,” Pogačar said.
“Remco did everything to drop Jonas and it was super hard to follow. When Remco attacked and Jonas countered, it was at the limit. I didn’t want to work with Jonas. I was happy to sit on his wheel and let Richard Carapaz and Enric Mas go for victory.”
Comparisons
Pogačar had already long since sealed overall victory at this Tour. In hindsight, the knock-out blows were dealt in the Pyrenees last weekend, though Vingegaard’s concession only arrived on the upper reaches of the Bonette on Friday.
By ripping clear to win on the Col de la Couillole, Pogačar has now extended his lead over Vingegaard to 5:14. Third-placed Evenepoel now trails by 8:04. Nobody else is within sixteen minutes of him. It has been a rout, and Pogačar may well pad his lead further in Sunday’s final time trial to Nice, which this year replaces the traditional lap of honour around the Champs-Élysées due to the Paris Olympics.
“I mean, it’s definitely going to be different,” said Pogačar. “But I don’t like it, because I start so late, at 17.45 in the afternoon. It’s a long day just for a time trial, and it’s a hard one as well. I think I would prefer a Champs-Élysées sprint.”
Perhaps, but the 33.7km time trial from Monaco presents him with a clear chance to add a sixth stage victory on this Tour. In any case, Pogačar will claim his third overall victory on Sunday evening, sealing the first Giro-Tour double since 1998 in the process.
This latest Tour victory, Pogačar acknowledged, was different to the previous two. On his debut in 2020, when he snatched the prize from his compatriot Primož Roglič at the death, the yellow jersey came almost as a bonus. A year later, he had the race effectively wrapped up by the end of week one. This triumph, after two Julys being outshone by Vingegaard, has a different flavour.
“I can talk here for a long time about all the three Tours,” Pogačar said. “In 2020, it was a surprise for everybody that I won, also for me. Back then, I would already have been happy with second. I was aiming for a stage win in last TT, but in the end, I won the whole thing.
“In 2021 I had this one really good day in the Alps, one of my best days on the bike, when it was raining and full gas from start to finish. I gained a lot of time, so it was quite a tranquillo Tour de France to finish.”
And the latest?
“2021 could be close to compare to now, but I think this year’s is one level higher,” he said. “Plus I had much more pressure, and much more focus for the Tour after the two years when I couldn’t win. It’s different. We could compare and talk about it almost forever.”
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