POGAČAR HAS NO PLACE TO HIDE
Tadej Pogacar could not have asked for better team support through the 2020 Tour de France, while he bided his time in anticipation of the Planche des Belles Filles time trial. The only twist was that the team support in question came not from his own team but from JumboVisma, who kept things uncomfortably fast through the mountain stages and laid the perfect foundation for the young Slovenian to win the race.
It’s fair to say that they won’t make that mistake again. And equally fair to say that everybody will be watching Pogacar a lot more closely from now on.
Pogacar won the 2020 Tour by being the strongest rider in the race, even if we only realised by how much on the penultimate day. The 2021 route suits him just fine, and there’s nothing to frighten him - he’s fine with high altitude summit finishes like the Col de Portet, as he showed by finishing third on the Col de la Loze in 2020, and he’s fine with steep, long climbs like Mont Ventoux, as he equally showed on the Loze. The time trials are flat this time, and it’s crucial to note that he did all the damage to his rivals on La Planche des Belles Filles, and not the rolling roads to the foot of the climb. The territory is good for him, but perhaps not perfect.
As noted above, his UAE Emirates team has a strong climbing backbone, so plan A this time around will probably be to ride a defensive race and allow Pogacar’s strength (and, no doubt, increased confidence and assertiveness) to make the difference. Their challenge this time round will be that both Ineos Grenadiers and Jumbo-Visma have the strength in depth to do something about it.