TADEJ POGACAR ALL but clinched the Tour de France on Saturday after his Slovenian compatriot Primoz Roglic let a 57 seconds lead slip in a tricky individual time-trial, the last day of real racing.
The 21-year-old Pogacar will lead the peloton into Paris on Sunday wearing the overall leader’s yellow jersey and, barring disaster, will climb onto the top step of the podium.
There he will be joined by Ireland’s Sam Bennett who has an unassailable lead in the green jersey contest – and is set to become the first Irish cyclist to win the prestigious prize since Sean Kelly, Bennett’s fellow Carrick-on-Suir cyclist and mentor, collected it 31 years ago.
With just one day remaining, Bennett has 319 points, Peter Segan, his nearest pursuer, has just 264. In other words, barring a disaster, Bennett has it in the bag.
Today he finished 131st in the stage 20 time trial. But while he had a quiet day, Pogacar didn’t. He pulverised the field with his stage-winning performance, and his team hugged and kissed him as they realised the 20202 Tour was theirs.
“My dream was just to take part,” said Pogacar on his first Tour de France.
“I could hear nothing on the final climb and I went for it with everything,” he said.
Roglic had led the Tour since stage nine and his dramatic meltdown on the final climb means Pogacar become the youngest postwar champion.
The UAE rider Pogacar changed bikes, which took 12 seconds, after the 30km rolling section to tackle the 6km eight percent climb at top speed.
The 30-year-old Roglic, known to panic, only decided to change bikes once he began to crumble fast, but it became painfully clear he was in for a horrible finale.
In the general classification, Ireland’s Dan Martin is in 40th position after finishing 31st today – five minutes and 31 seconds behind Pogacar, while Nicolas Roche is 97th after crossing the line in 62nd position today. Bennett is 138th in general classification but first in the race for green, the only race that matters to him.
No mention of the fact that Pogacar will also claim the polka dot and white jerseys as well? Truly remarkable. Hasn’t been seem for a long time!
@Karlos McGrath: finish wise its reminiscent of 1989.
@Karlos McGrath: he won the yellow, the white and the polka dot. Last one to win 3 jerseys was Eddy Merckx in 1972.
@Lucious Sweet: 1989 was even more nail biting with LeMond finishing only 8 seconds ahead of Fignon.
Wow that was unbelievable by Pogacar. He blew everyone away. Very confident young rider with flawless bike change. Won KOM as well.
Bennett did what he had to do. Allez Allez!
@Ardmore02: Pogacar’s performance was unbelievable, in the literal sense of the word.
@Ardmore02: roglic’s changeover bike wise was his undoing a he seemed to struggle to find rhythm on the roadbike. Or maybe he just ran out of gas. Its a real shame for him. Reminiscent of the finish in 1989 in a way.
I’m just a sceptic – winning it all at such a young age – he’s either a phenom or is up to his eyeballs..?
@RhinoDino: He’s up to his eyeballs. A number of Slovenian athletes were implicated in Operation Aderlass last year. Also, the UAE team principle and one of their DS’s are respectively Mauro Gianetti and Matxin Fernandez who were involved with the former team Saunier Duval, one of the dirtiest teams of the noughties. He annhilated the record time of the final climb in the TT today, that should be impossible for any rider, let alone a 21 year old at the very end of one of the toughtest Grand Tours in recent years. Special mention for Van Aert.
@The Sports Derd: Agreed.
Difference between 1st and 2nd on the stage is 1:21
Difference between 2nd and 10th is 1:35
This is not credible.
You need to be up to your eyeballs to compete on the Tour, let alone win it with such power…You also need to be well juiced up to win the green jersey. We know Sean was too. It’s the game, it is what it is
People saying this years Tour is reminiscent of the ‘89 tour due to the time trial are forgetting the most important thing about the ‘89 tour. The green that year was also won by an an Irishman.
@Jonathan Nolan: I was referring to the time trial element coming so close to the end. Of course in 89 it was the final stage if I recall correctly
@Jonathan Nolan: by a Tipp man as well.
Anyone see the faces of Dumoulin and van Aert yesterday as Pogacr entered final 1km. Absolute in shock.