In the end, it was the Col de Granon which decided the 2022 Tour de France. The Alpine climb overlooking Briançon brought the momentous sight of the uncrackable Tadej Pogačar put to the sword by his main rival for the maillot jaune, Jonas Vingegaard.
It has been eight days since the Slovenian collapsed in the Alps, shedding almost three minutes to his Danish adversary. The Tour title, of course, wasn’t wrapped up for good then, just past the halfway point of the race.
However, as the stages passed and with them the numerous Pogačar attacks, it only looked more and more likely that the only-recently crowned king of the Tour would be dethroned two years into what some had predicted would be a dynasty to match – or exceed – those of Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault, Indurain, and Froome.
That could still happen, of course, though his domination of the race seems no longer assured, given the equally-rapid rise of Vingegaard at the past two editions.
Before Granon, Vingegaard looked like possibly the only man to challenge UAE Team Emirates’ Pogačar this summer. Since that fateful summit finish, Vingegaard himself has raced like a man with no equals.
Over the past week, Pogačar has tried countless times to reassert his status, jumping on the L’Alpe d’Huez and then trying a surprise move 10km into the stage to Mende before going at Vingegaard again on the steep finish above the town.
On the road to Foix, as his UAE Team Emirates squad seemed to disintegrate around him, he attacked on the Port de Lers, and then on Peyragudes he landed his only blow against Vingegaard, taking a four-second bonus after outsprinting his rival to the line at the Pyrenean ski resort.
A gap of what was still a mammoth 2:18 would need to be surmounted on stage 18 to Hautacam and in the 40.7km time trial still to come, a feat beyond the bewildering turnaround staged at La Planche des Belles Filles two years ago.
The western Pyrenean peak of Hautacam is a climb which has, more often than not, confirmed the winner of the Tour in which it has featured, rather than play host to a race-changing turnaround. Since its introduction almost three decades ago, for the 1994 Tour, the mountain has seen Miguel Indurain (gained 2:19), Bjarne Riis (1:46), and Vincenzo Nibali (1:44) confirm their already-assumed status as Tour champions.
Despite the best efforts of Pogačar, that was the case once more on Thursday, with Vingegaard playing the role of consolidator.
His Slovenian rival did try, though, over…
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