2023-07-22 18:20:19
BarcelonaCycling is a sport of survival. And during a big race like the Tour de France it shows when the third and final week arrives. The fight for the final victory in the French round lasted 17 rounds, until the KO of Tadej Pogacar in the seventeenth stage. “I’m gone. I’m dead [No puc més. Estic mort]” he could be heard speaking Slovenian on the bike thanks to the fact that, as in Formula 1, you can hear the conversations between the cyclists and the team cars. Until the sixteenth day, before the start of the Tour’s only time trial, only 10 seconds separated the leader, Jonas Vingegaard – the methodical ice man of the Jumbo Visma -, from Tadej Pogacar – the rough and tumble showtime of the UAE Team Emirates–. And the chrono changed everything: the show was given by Vingegaard, who smoothed the bends on the descents and pushed himself to the maximum on the climbs, in the best time trial of his life, which he had prepared to the millimeter with his team. He was doing such good numbers that the Dane thought his cycle computer was malfunctioning. But so much was going well: victory in the 22 km time trial with a margin of 1 minute and 38 seconds with Pogacar in the saddle. The Slovenian already showed a symptom of low defenses and exhaustion with a herpes on the left side of the lip on the day of the chrono.
The Tour has had three parts: the beginning in the French Pyrenees, with the first time difference between Vingegaard and Pogacar, the knot in the time trial and the denouement in the last stage in the Alps, where Pogacar was left empty, exhausted, without strength in his legs on the 28 km climb of the Col de la Loze. The Slovene had never lost a stroke just at the pace of the best when the road bumped uphill, without the hard attacks that make the pulses rise suddenly. Did not have feeling in the legs on a day in which the Catalan cyclist Marc Soler, team mate, accompanied him until the arrival in Courchevel. The cyclist from Vilanova i la Geltrú was the Wilson of the film Shipwrecked for Pogacar on his worst day as a cyclist. At the aerodrome, he lost all options to fight for the yellow jersey that Vingegaard has worn from the sixth stage in the Pyrenees until the last day. Pogacar will finish second on the podium in Paris after a penultimate day in the Vosges mountain range in which he won with a final sprint between himself and Vingegaard. An attack that the yellow jersey has not been able to follow after the Slovenian has uncovered the box of thrones to show off on the penultimate day. British cyclist Adam Yates will take third place overall. Carlos Rodríguez, aged 22 and in his first Tour de France, won a stage in Morzine and will finish fifth in Paris despite an ugly fall.
Vingegaard’s teamwork
At 26, Jonas Vingegaard – who started late in the world of competitive cycling – has worked with his team all season to win the Tour. Objective achieved. The Danish cyclist is a simple guy who transforms with a bib. And more if it is about winning Tadej Pogacar, with whom he is united by the sporting rivalry on the road and a relative cordiality when crossing the finish line when they stop competing. One makes the other better. But a sentence from the Dane after the explosion of Pogacar in the Col de la Loze contextualizes how they got here. “Pogacar has attacked me for 15 days. From his aggressiveness I understood that at some point he would explode. Those who shoot too much are unsafe and in the end they pay for it”, said Vingegaard in the heart of the Alps.
Tadej Pogacar fell in Liège-Bastogne-Liège on 23 April and fractured his wrist. He was unable to train on the bike for a month and showed up at the Bilbao start of the Tour after just one training block of the two planned by his team for the French race. He started with attacks to close the distance with Vingegaard but without giving away efforts like in the 2022 Tour. Last year in Paris he also finished second behind Vingegaard and this year he and his team were crossing their fingers that the forces would hold until the end. The Tour de France is an endurance competition, and for 3 weeks the Danish cyclist Jonas Vingegaard has shown that he is the best to the point of achieving differences on the podium of 7 minutes and 29 seconds with Pogacar and 10 minutes and 56 seconds with Yates. Differences that had not been seen in the Tour for decades. The cyclist’s physiology always has the last pedal stroke. And Jonas Vingegaard’s is exquisite.
Home Last minute Discover Sections Profile
#Jonas #Vingegaard #quiet #man #destroys #rivals