Was it the most beautiful stage of the Tour for five, ten or twenty years? Each cycling lover will have his own idea but all come together to say that they had not vibrated so much for a long time. It remains to be hoped that this fireworks display on the roads of the Granon will turn into case law for the years to come: no, attacking from afar in the Tour does not always resemble suicide. And yes, Tadej Pogacar is beatable. Especially if you add the high altitude and/or the heat to an unfailing audacity.
Of course, we will wait for Alpe d’Huez, the Pyrenees and the Rocamadour time trial to learn all the lessons, but there are already many reasons to rejoice since the suspense has returned through the front door while many world had buried him even before the halfway mark.
In recent days, we even had all the symptoms of the first tensions among those who were already tired of seeing Tadej Pogacar turn into a “little cannibal”. The tactical lessons rained down, from the traditional social networks to our television, passing by the specialized media. Whether they are anonymous, former grand tour winners or TV consultants, many have managed to get annoyed with the tactics of Tadej Pogacar’s opponents, that of the Jumbo-Visma in the lead, even before arriving in the real mountain.
The day following the tour de force of Jonas Vingegaard’s team, they are much less numerous to note that the podium of the Tour would already be definitely folded if Wout van Aert had not arrived in advance for his appointment with Jonas Vingegaard at the summit of the Col du Galibier, since it’s a safe bet that the Dane, Pogacar and Bardet would then have flown away in the descent, then in the plain, taking advantage of a green locomotive. “Sometimes I would like my tactics to be criticized following a victory and applauded following a defeat”, said a certain Roberto Martinez in particular last month …
So much the better, finally: the suspense remains at all levels. And it is rid of the yellow tunic that Tadej Pogacar will be able to restore his image: the Slovenian, who has nevertheless done everything to be appreciated behind his image of ideal son-in-law (videos on social networks, winks at the camera during the races, availability for the media), had already started to annoy several months ago. This is not new, the general public does not like athletes who outrageously dominate their discipline.
Fortunately, the double winner of the Tour will find his white jersey this Thursday and might become the one who will dynamite the second half of the Tour to try, day following day, to make up for his 2’22” delay in the general classification. While he will be alone, or almost, once morest the terrible Jumbo-Visma armada which should now go into steamroller mode. episode: that of the time trial of the Planche des Belles Filles.
This time, the show might last several days.
