Young Slovenian Pogacar set to make Tour de France history
PARIS: Tadej Pogacar all but clinched the Tour de France on Saturday after his Slovenian compatriot Primoz Roglic let a 57-second lead slip on a French mountainside during a tricky individual time-trial on the last day of real racing.
It was a staggering end to a bizarre Tour and the penultimate stage duel between two compatriots of different generations will go down as one of 2020’s great sporting moments.
The 21-year-old Pogacar was to lead the peloton into Paris on the last day of the tour wearing the overall leader’s yellow jersey and, barring disaster, climb onto the top step of the podium.
Staggeringly, the youngster would also pull on the polka dot jersey as best climber on the Tour, and also the white one as best under-25s rider.
“My dream was just to take part,” said Pogacar on his first Tour. “I could hear nothing on the final climb and I went for it with everything.”
Often unlucky Australia’s veteran Richie Porte climbed to third overall here to make the Tour podium for the first time, while Spain’s Mikel Landa and Enric Mas rounded out the top five with strong finishes too.
“It was such a sweet moment,” Porte, 35, said.
“Everyone knows the journey I’ve been on to finally end up on the Tour podium after growing up in far away Australia.”
Ireland’s Sam Bennett was likely to win the sprinter’s green jersey, but only after negotiating the eight lap dash along Paris’ Champs Elysees.
Here in the time-trial Pogacar pulverised the field with his stage-winning performance, and his team hugged and kissed him as they realised the 2020
Tour was theirs.
ROGLIC MELTDOWN
Roglic, 30, had led the Tour since stage nine and his dramatic meltdown on the final climb means even as loser he would remain the big story.
Pogacar also was set to become the youngest postwar champion as a generational shift takes hold of cycling with a string of young stage winners.
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.
Vuelta d’Italia champion Roglic only decided to change bikes once he began to crumble fast, but it became painfully clear he was in for a horrible finale.
Dressed in yellow for the first time after covering the 36km in 55mins 55sec Pogacar said he could hardly think let alone answer questions.