Slovenia’s Pogacar wins COVID-defying Tour de France
In a stunning performance PARIS — for the ages, Tour de France rookie Tadej Pogacarwoncycling’s showpiece race Sunday on the eve of his 22nd birthday, becoming the second-youngest winner of the 117-year-old event that this year braved and
— overcame France’s worsening
— coronavirus epidemic.
Turning him from promising prodigy into cycling superstar, Pogacar became the youngest winner since World War II and the first from Slovenia.
Hisvictorywasremarkable, too, for theway inwhich he sealed it: at the last possible moment, on the penultimate stage before Sunday’s finish on Paris’ Champs-Elysees. During the three-week cyclingmarathonover allfive of France’smountain ranges and 3,482 punishing kilometers (2,164 miles), Pogacar held the race lead and its iconic yellow jersey for just one stage— the last andmost important one into Paris, with a yellowbike tomatch.
PogacarKO’d the race and Slovenian countryman PrimozRoglicbysnatchingaway the yellow jersey that he’d worn for 11 days, in a highdrama time trial Saturday.
Their 1-2 is the first for one country since British riders Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome also took the top spots at the 2012 Tour.
Whenthe race left the start town of Nice three weeks ago, itwas unsure that riders would be able to stay virusfree to the finish.
But none of the 176 riders whostarted, or the 146finishers, tested positive inmultiple batteries of tests, validating the bubble measures put in place by Tour organizers.
Roadside fans still cheered them on, mostly respecting riders’ pleas that they wear face masks, but were kept well away at stage starts and finishes.