2023-07-18 18:55:51
Never, never, never had anything like it been seen in the entire history of the Tour. If Bernard Hinault, five victories in Paris behold him, has a plaque on the Cota de Domancy, which recalls his feat in the 1980 World Cup, Jonas Vingegaard deserves someone to immediately place his next to that of the Breton champion. Not even Miguel Induráin would have been able to take almost three minutes out of third place in a time trial in just 22 kilometers. He had these times, but in a 65-kilometre run, as he did in Luxembourg, in 1992, when he was baptized as ‘The alien’.
Vingegaard would have doubled all the runners who performed, most of them fill-in, in his fantastic display. To everyone, except Tadej Pogacar, who got away by just 22 seconds, knowing that he had not only given everything, but that he had not done badly, far from it, but far from the spectacle that the yellow jersey offered at the Alpes to leave his Slovenian rival as touched as the general of the Tour.
If the race was not sentenced, it was simply because Pogacar is unpredictable, because he does not give himself up, because there are two mountain stages left, this Wednesday the queen in Courchevel, and because he will die with his boots on. But, certainly, he has it very difficult because now he will find a grown Vingegaard, physically and mentally, and with 1.48 minutes to manage forces and minimize any fragility.
What if Jonas was tricking Tadej to crush him in the time trial?
He tried and proved it with all his arguments. Pogacar started like a shell, but he couldn’t do anything with Vingegaard’s legs turned into a weapon of mass destruction. He was only able to approach him at the finish line, behind the podium, in the area reserved for the heroes of the Tour, and there he congratulated him. Hat! Nothing, nothing could be objected to the Danish cyclist. His teammate Wout van Aert, winner of the last two long Tour time trials, set the third fastest time. He would have also been doubled (they started two minutes apart) since he was aa 2.51 minutes of their leader and yellow jersey. He took off his cap, smiled for the cameras and paid homage to his frontman display.
Domancy’s level was a trap with percentages that reached 11%. All the teams had gone there to train, last month, when the Dauphiné Critérium ended. Shall we change bikes? Shall we park the aerodynamics, but at the same time heavy ‘goat’, the time trial bike? Shall we get on the light mountain bike, which weighs two kilos less? It was a debate with a difficult decision to make. In the UAE, Pogacar’s team had it clear. But Vingegaard was rolling with supersonic, explosive force, like a Martian, if they existed, and not like a human. ‘Pogi’, there was nothing, absolutely nothing to do. Vingegaard was running at a level that was absolutely unattainable for him.
“Changing the bike was the right choice.” Pogacar lost 14 seconds with the change. He gained nothing from the decision, but surely the Slovenian phenom would have been subdued, pummeled and shredded by Vingegaard if he had done anything because, as the yellow jersey put it, “it was the best day of my life”. “I’m very proud of what I’ve done, I’ve even been surprised myself, but the Tour isn’t over.”
This is how we have told you about today’s stage of the Tour
Vingegaard took risks on the descents and pushed on the climbs. Pogacar he did what he could. “You are conquering the world! You’re the best!”. They were yelling at the yellow jersey from the Jumbo car. He didn’t even raise his head because they were showing him where the curves were and where to take them; a delirium, a work of art about a time trial. No one had done anything iugal, not Lance Armstrong, doping aside, not Brad Wiggins, not Chris Froome. Possibly, because of that display that is unattainable for any human being, Wingegaard deserves to win in Paris.
“I couldn’t do anything else. It has not been my best day, but this Tour has not finished, although I have it harder than last year”, Pogacar said without losing his smile, although this time it was more forced than on other occasions. Harder than 2022 and then she lost to her Danish rival.
It is no longer enough for him to try to attack in the fence zone, as he did in the Puy de Dôme, because with two mountain stages remaining, Vingegaard can even afford not to play the game and it will take what, 10 seconds? Nor is it useful to demarcate two or three kilometers because the yellow jersey can control it in the distance to end up losing those 10 seconds, absolutely insignificant, just like a sprint in the finish area.
If Pogacar wants to win what he has lost, the most difficult yet, he must burst the Tour, as if he had a pin and the race was a balloon. And it sounds almost like science fiction. But he is ‘Pogi’, the only one who coughs up Vingegaard, and this Wednesday he has an impressive rise to the Vineswhere it should be twisted into percentages of 24%. And, surely, sacrificing his best man, Adam Yates, who took third place overall from Carlos Rodríguez by just five seconds. And it is that the day seemed very long to the young man from Granada, subjected like everyone else to a Danish crusher called Vingegaard.
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