Paris [France], July 20 (ANI): Slovenian sensation Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) became the youngest rider in history to win 21 stages of the Tour de France with a barnstorming performances in mountain time trial at Peyragudes.
Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) caught the Olympic and world time trial champion Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) on the steep final ramp on Friday- but still this was not enough to bring him a first win or even come close to derailing the peerless Pogacar’s pursuit of perfection.
The 26-year-old triple Tour champion completed the 10.9km race of truth in a time of 23 minutes on the nose – a whopping 36 seconds quicker than his nearest challenger, Vingegaard. It was Pogacar’s fourth stage victory of the race, as per a press release.
Pogacar now leads the Dane by over four minutes in the overall standings, with Evenepoel slumping 7’23” in arrears after another day to forget in the Pyrenees for the Belgian.
Riding without a radio and eschewing a time trial bike and other aerodynamic gismos for a regular climbing steed, Pogacar led at each of the check points to deliver a cruel blow to Vingegaard’s hopes of bouncing back into contention.
Pogacar was four seconds down on Evenepoel after 4km with the Belgian fast out of the traps on the flatter section of the ride. But once the road headed up the lower slopes of the Col de Peyresourde, Pogacar came into his element.
Twenty-three seconds quicker than Vingegaard at the second check point at 7.6km, Pogacar claimed he knocked things off a little for fear of blowing up on the double-digit finishing ramp at the altiport at Peyragudes.
It was on this infernal wall where an inspired Vingegaard shot past the fading Evenepoel, who had struggled with an earlier issue with his chain before completely blowing up on the savage home straight.
What would have usually been a stage-winning performance merely earned Vingegaard the shortest possible reign in the hotseat, however, with Pogacar making light work of the 16% gradient to knock the Dane off his perch and secure the latest win in this increasingly one-sided 112th edition of the Tour.
“I am super happy. I wanted to do start to finish all out – to try to smash it as much as possible. I almost blew up in the end, but I saw the timer on the top and it gave me an extra push because I saw that I was going to win,” Pogacar said.
“I decided to go without a radio today, so I was just relying on the time checks at the time points. I saw that I was ahead in green at the first check.
“The second one was a bit bigger, so I knew I was doing a good time trial. I did not want to blow up, so I reset for the final three kilometres because I wanted to come to the last steep part with good legs.”
Good legs is an understatement. Already before the start of the stage, the gaps separating the top 10 riders in the classification were the largest in 24 years at this same point in the race – and those gaps have only got bigger.
Pogacar now leads Vingegaard by 4:07 ahead of Saturday’s Stage 14 to Superbagneres, with tenth place Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) a massive 14:15 down.
Victory saw Pogacar move clear in the polka dot jersey standings while he is now just 28 points shy of the green jersey of Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek).
Evenepoel’s white jersey, meanwhile, is under serious threat from Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), after the young German posted the fourth best time at Peyragudes to move just six seconds behind the Belgian’s place on the virtual podium.
It was a promising day, too, for Lipowitz’s Red Bull team-mate Primoz Roglic, who showed some of the strong form of old to finish fourth and retain his seventh place on GC.
Roglic’s resurgence ended Luke Plapp’s long reign in the hotseat after the Australian TT champion from Jayco-AlUla set an early target time that remained the reference point for at least two hours.
No sooner had Roglic soared into the lead than Evenepoel started to wobble – the 25-year-old, a convincing winner of the flat time trial in Stage 5 to Caen, eventually finishing well over two-and-a-half minutes back in 12th place.
Evenepoel suffered the humiliation of being caught by Vingegaard just metres before the finish – only for the Dane’s time to be obliterated by Pogacar, who punched the air with his right fist on securing the 103rd win of his illustrious professional career.
Suddenly, Mark Cavendish’s Tour record of 35 stage wins does not look so secure – at this rate, Pogacar will have beaten it before he turns 30.
Besides Lipowitz closing in on Evenepoel and Pogacar stretching his lead over all and sundry, the only significant change in the top 10 saw Scotland’s Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL) move into the top five at the expense of France’s Kevin Vauquelin (Arkea-B&B Hotels).
Saturday’s 182.6km Stage 14 from Pau to Superbagneres sees the race go above 2,000m for the first time this July, with the riders tackling the mighty Col du Tourmalet ahead of ascents of the Aspin and Peyresourde before the final slog to Superbagneres, which makes its first appearance since 1989.
That was a year when just eight seconds separated the top two in Paris. At this rate, eight minutes could separate Pogacar and Vingegaard before we have even reached the second rest day.
Pogacar looks set fair for a fourth Tour de France triumph in Paris next weekend. (ANI)
Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed of ANI; only the image & headline may have been reworked by News Services Division of World News Network Inc Ltd and Palghar News and Pune News and World News
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