Thrilling race defies virus
Pogacar’s victory makes him the youngest champ in 116 years
PARIS — In a first, the Tour de France winner wore a face mask on the podium Sunday, bright yellow to match the color of the iconic jersey so snug on his young shoulders.
But at least there was a winner.
Three weeks ago, when 21-year-old Tadej Pogacar set off with 175 other competitors that he ended up beating, not even race organizers were sure they would make it through the storm of France’s worsening coronavirus epidemic and reach Paris.
“Really, I was scared we wouldn’t get to the end,” race director Christian Prudhomme conceded at the finish.
And so it was that Pogacar, up there on that podium, backlit by the pink hues of a Paris dusk, not only became the Tour’s youngest champion in 116 years but also a symbol of resilience, of cando, of learning to live with — but not surrendering to — the virus still causing so much pain.
Sure, it all felt weird, as so many things do these days. Example: Pogacar’s mask puffed in and out, like an octopus glued to his face, as he sang the anthem of his native Slovenia, played in his honor.
But so liberating and invigorating, too, in this most horrid of years.
The rumble of the riders’ wheels hammering over the cobblestones of Paris’ Champs-Elysees. Alive, like heartbeats, on the famous boulevard that during lockdown just months ago was deserted.
The applause from the roadside crowds that, when they were all confined indoors, cheered only for doctors and nurses, coming out on their balconies each night to yell “Bravo!”
In towns and villages across France, that word has been heard again, over and over, these past weeks — this time for the Tour’s riders as they zoomed past in a kaleidoscope of colored jerseys, the yellow one most prized of all.
And against the virus that doesn’t care how old or young its victims are, how hopeful it seemed that the Tour’s winner should come from the same generation asking itself: What is life going to be like for us?
“It’s super. I adore that,” said Lea Tilhac, a 23-yearold student who got to the Champs-Elysees hours early to be sure of being among the 5,000 people allowed to line its length, the sociallydistanced limit this year. “It shows there’s a future.”
For Pogacar, the future now looks brighter than ever. The victory on the eve of his 22nd birthday and the way he went about it during 3,482 kilometers (2,164 miles) of racing — with an intoxicating mix of youthful insouciance and steely grit — transformed him from prodigy into cycling superstar, a Tour rookie so talented he KO’d the race on his first attempt.
He is Slovenia’s first winner and the Tour’s secondyoungest behind Henri Cornet, who was just shy of 20 when he was crowned in 1904.