2023-07-23 23:34:00
The 2023 Tour de France thrilled fans with thrilling duels and a quest for every second: whenever the opportunity arose, Pogacar and Vingegaard went on the offensive, making sure that every climb might become the stage for their duel.
The final weekend of the 110th Tour of France proved this once more, with the last exchange of blows in the climbs of the Vosges up to the finish line at Markstein and Pogacar’s attack on the Champs-Elysées. After 3406 kilometers from Bilbao to Paris, the anticipation of the revenge might not be greater.
Three things that stood out:
1.) New duel for yellow turns into a three-way battle
No tour over the first two weeks of racing has been as exciting as 2023 for decades – and Vingegaard and Pogacar also made history with the end result. The same two riders have never occupied the first two places three years in a row – it is now 2:1 for the Dane and the cycling fans can already look forward to the fourth duel. It might be on the razor’s edge for longer, because without his fall in April the Slovenian would have been an even more dangerous rival: Vingegaard will not have forgotten how the roles were distributed at Paris – Nice in March, where he was clearly inferior only third.
Vingegaard should not price his extreme superiority in the fight once morest the clock this time, says Eurosport expert Jens Voigt: “I don’t think he can show such a time trial once more – everything just came together perfectly for him,” he assesses his frighteningly strong performance on the 16th stage in retrospect. For Bernhard Eisel, another factor that comes into play is the material, where Pogacar was massively inferior in this discipline. “Jumbo had a huge advantage there, but a lot of work will be done at Colnago,” predicts the Austrian.
Worthy winner: “Vingegaard was always the master of the ring”
A completely new, even more exciting factor for July 2024 should be that an even stronger time trialist than the two current Tour dominators will intervene in the race for the yellow jersey and make it a three-way battle. “With Remco Evenepoel, another player comes into the ring – he can complement the podium, in whatever position,” said Voigt. Eisel agrees unreservedly: “He definitely has the chance to get involved for the podium,” he praises the young Belgian, who had to give up the Giro d’Italia in May with a corona disease while on course for victory. The stage for 2024 is already partly set and offers a magnificent start and the most difficult finale the tour has ever had. The opener in Florence offers two opening stages with seven and six climbs, which should ensure plenty of racing action – they are not inferior to the start in the Basque Country in 2023. The final, which will be in Nice instead of Paris because of the Summer Olympics, is extremely difficult. A mountain finish on the penultimate day and a difficult time trial over 35 kilometers at the end make it perhaps the toughest final weekend ever.
Eisel also believes that there might be more than just a duel for the maillot jaune in 2024 for other reasons: “All teams want to become even more professional every year in order to put these two under even more pressure with other tactics – like Bora on the 5th stage with Jai Hindley,” he emphasizes.
Hindley duped the competition – Vingegaard outperforms Pogacar
The Vuelta a Espana will give us a preview (live on Eurosport from 26 August) when Vingegaard and Evenepoel meet there, also taking on the Giro’s two top riders, Primoz Roglic and Geraint Thomas, as well as Pogacar’s UAE Crown Prince Juan Ayuso.
Voigt’s conclusion, following Vingegaard’s second tour victory with a lead of several minutes: “Further victories are not guaranteed for him either.”
2.) Sprint King gives hope to the competition
Four stage wins, massive dominance in the points classification and finally the stage he had already won in 2022 without (unlike this year) having had Mathieu van der Poel as a driver in Paris back then: everything seemed to be pointing towards another success for Jasper Philipsen on the Champs-Elysées. But in the end, Jordi Meeus, an outsider from the sprint squad, celebrated following the tightest final of this tour.
In addition, especially in the first sprints of this tour, the performance of Philipsen and his Alpecin guard would have been described as international toughness. the conclusion of this tour therefore gives hope to all other sprinters, including Phil Bauhaus (who came close several times in this tour) and Pascal Ackermann (who should finally make his debut on the tour in 2024 for a new team). And last but not least, Paris record winner Cavendish might reconsider his career plans following the impressions of this final stage: The only tour record still tempts and still no rival seems unbeatable: What Meeus can do, I can do too, the winner of the Giro final stage must have thought.
Is Cavendish coming back? It will depend
3.) Superstars in a slack period
Wout Van Aert, Julian Alaphilppe, Mathieu van der Poel – at the start of this tour in Bilbao, the only question seemed to be which of the superstars would win more stages or wear the yellow jersey longer. Because the start in the Basque Country seemed tailor-made for them – but following 21 stages, none of the trio was able to celebrate a day’s win or a special jersey.
It wasn’t the effort at all, the three of them spent more than half of this tour in escape groups, but never with the necessary fortune or the necessary form. For Alaphilippe, with his legs from the 2019 tour or his world titles in 2020 and 2021, this tour would have been a triumph, but he was often one of the first riders to fall back from top groups and for whom a 10th place was the highest of emotions.
Half of Philipsen’s victories also belong to van der Poel indirectly, which he prepared with full commitment – even on the edge of what was permitted. For the Dutchman himself, however, there was little that might be counted directly, not a single top ten place was ultimately recorded. However, he provided one of the most touching moments of this Tour when he moved the fans with his tears at the start of stage 9 in the home of his grandfather Raymond Poulidor.
Emotional start to the day: Tour and van der Poel honor grandpa Poulidor
Ecstasy following stage victory: Bora celebrates unleashed in Paris
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