Slovenia celebrates Pogacar's surprise Tour victory

and cycling fans gathered on Sunday in the tiny Slovenian town of Komenda, north of capital Ljubljana, to celebrate the surprise victory of compatriot Tadej Pogacar on the Tour de France.

A crowd of several hundreds gathered at Komenda's local sports hall, many of them on their bikes and wearing yellow jerseys, to watch the race on a television placed in a car park while a local brass band played from time to time.

The gathering had been organised overnight since most inhabitants, including mayor Stanislav Poglajen, had expected the victory would go to Primoz Roglic with their local hero in second.

Poglajen, proudly wearing a yellow t-shirt, told AFP the municipality had painted the main roundabout in yellow, white and white with polka dots overnight to honour the three jerseys Pogacar wore during the 21-stage race.

With some discomfort he admitted he and most of the community had been expecting Roglic to be the ultimate winner.

"From my heart, I must say I would be very happy for Roglic if he had won and Tadej ended second, but Pogacar surprised us, he surprised us pleasantly," Poglajen said.

Within the crowd there were also bitter smiles of Roglic's supporters, who cancelled the party they had planned and came to Komenda after their idol and main favourite at the Tour lost 57 seconds on the penultimate stage.

"We would have preferred if Primoz had won, but the stronger win. We came to greet Pogacar's fans here," Jure, a man in his early 20s, told AFP adding Roglic was under much bigger pressure than his younger rival.

Just near them Marko Grilc, a pensioner in his early 70s wearing a yellow jersey, sounded his old firefighters' horn.

"On one hand, I'm disappointed I would have liked if Roglic had won, but, on the other hand, Tadej is ours... and we are ecstatic," Grilc told AFP.