Tour reporter
Tadej Pogacar once again passed everyone on the last climb of the day and even set a new record for the climb of Alpe d’Huez. But he owes the victory not only to himself and his team.
Tadej Pogačar looked very composed as he entered the mixed zone behind the podium in Alpe d’Huez. Although his press secretary had already thanked the waiting media several times (which is usually a signal to stop asking questions), the Slovenian simply continued to answer. There’s also the question of the record time he set on the 13.8-kilometre climb through 21 famous corners.
“It’s time to break the record,” Pogačar said with a smile on his face. In 35 minutes and 27 seconds, the man in the yellow jersey completed the iconic climb. More than a minute faster than Marco Pantani in 1995, during the heyday of EPO doping. “Cycling has developed a lot in the last five years, it’s good that we’re faster now,” Pogačar said.
Victory for a weakened team
Those who are still suspicious of cycling because of its past may see it differently. But it is also undeniable that Pogačar is an exceptional talent who clearly falls short of the rest. Someone who can figure things out on their own in an emergency. And also the Alpe d’Huez stage win, which was still missing from his long list, which, as he later lied at a press conference, was no different from all the other numerous victories he had already achieved.
Pogacar’s team came into these final days of the Tour de France weakened. Illnesses have weakened three of his assistants, and one of them, American Brandon McNulty, is no longer around. Belgian Tim Wellens was no help in the 19th stage. Briton Adam Yates, weakened over the past few days, was at least part of the day’s larger escape group and at least for a time served as a relay station for his captain on the final climb, unable to do any significant speed work.
“This is a victory for the whole team,” Pogacar said later, praising his assistants for their excellent work. But winning the prestigious Alpe d’Huez stage would likely have been much more difficult or even impossible for him if he had not received outside help.
Lenny Martinez makes the others work
A large splinter group of the day was visible. In particular, the Visma-Lease-A-Bike team positioned itself with several riders at the front in order to somehow salvage the Tour after the failure of two-time Tour winner Jonas Wingegaard. American Sepp Kuss, who crossed the finish line in fourth place, was chosen to represent the Dutch team for the final stage. “We knew Tadej would probably start right at the bottom of the mountain,” Kuss said. “That’s why we probably would have needed a six-minute lead to have a chance.”
Tadej Pogacar among fans at Alpe d’Huez
It might even work. No matter how hard Pogacar’s most valuable assistants, Nils Politt from Cologne and Felix Grosschartner from Austria, fought, the lead slowly but surely grew to four and a half minutes. It was only when other teams took part in subsequent work that the distance became smaller.
The unexpected support for the man in the yellow jersey came from Frenchman Lenny Martinez, who was also among the leaders, finishing ninth overall. As a result, the drivers ahead of Martinez in the classification suddenly had to fear for their position. However, initially the Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe team, which was in the least danger, took part in the subsequent work.
In the end, only Pogacar benefits from this.
And after Mads Pedersen won his intermediate sprint and further extended his lead in the standings in the green jersey, the Lidl-Trek team also took the lead thanks to class riders Juan Ayuso and Mattias Skjelmos. All in vain: Martinez, who finished second in Alpe d’Huez, still made a huge leap in the rankings. He is now fifth overall.
The real beneficiary of the outside help was Pogačar, who was just three minutes behind at the foot of the final climb and gathered all the riders in front of him. Pogačar is now more than seven minutes ahead of Remko Evenepoel in the overall standings. “You would have expected Tadej to want to pull off another crazy stunt today,” he said later. “It was impossible to follow him.”
The Belgian secured second place in the classification in Alpe d’Huez, even though he was held up by crowds of fans because the bikes in front of him could no longer move forward amidst the entire raging crowd. “One could expect that in front of all the spectators something would go wrong. It’s just a shame that this happened to me,” he said.
Now the UAE team is completely focused on Del Toro.
For Evenepoel, the Paris podium is now within reach, but he still has to survive Saturday’s Royal Stage, which will finish Alpe d’Huez unscathed again. “It will be a completely different stage, less explosive. It will move at high speed for much longer,” Evenepoel suspected. “This should suit me a little better than it did today.”
Meanwhile, Pogacar is already looking for new tasks in the coming days. His teammate Isaac del Toro, who finished third overall, was able to extend his lead over Frenchman Paul Seixas by a few seconds and defend the white jersey of the best young professional, with which the Slovenian was clearly pleased. “Today was my day,” Pogacar said. “And tomorrow we will make sure Isaac fights for that beautiful jersey and podium.” With outside help if necessary.