You could argue that it was inevitable Tadej Pogačar would win the penultimate stage of the Tour de France in the mountains.
History, and the people around him, suggest that when Pogačar loses something he wants to win, he comes back the next time like a dog with a bone, adamant about evening the score.
And that’s exactly what the 24-year-old did on stage 20 in Le Markstein Fellering on Saturday, outsprinting an elite five-man group including Felix Gall (AG2R Citroen), arch-rival Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), Simon Yates (Jayco-Alula), and UAE Team Emirates teammate Adam Yates, to take his second stage win of the 110th edition.
The victory came a couple of transition stages after the Slovenian conceded his yellow jersey fight with Vingegaard was over, having cracked in the Col de la Loze where the effort of his labours in this mountainous Tour became evident, sunken eyes bordered by dark circles that starkly contrasted a pale complexion.
As he walked into the press room as the Tour’s runner-up, stage winner and champion of the best young rider classification, which he won’t be eligible for next season, Pogačar smiled at people he knew in the waiting press pack who sat before him.
The colour was back on his face.
“Today I felt like myself again,” Pogačar said.
“Sometimes this is just bike racing and all you want to do is feel good. It’s pretty shit when you don’t feel good. Today I was feeling like myself again, this was the most important thing today. That’s why I have my smile back.”
Pogačar in just four seasons has become synonymous with the Tour. Since 2020 he has won two yellow jerseys and twice now finished second to Vingegaard.
Their rivalry had the race enthralled before the Alps, with mere seconds separating the pair on general classification.
Vingegaard maintained throughout that the Tour would not be decided by seconds, but rather minutes, and in the Alps we all learned why. The now two-time champion shocked UAE Team Emirates with his blistering time trial to Combloux and was clinical on the queen stage the following day, where Pogačar, in a rare display of fallibility, told the world he was “f—ked”.
It was not the first time he faltered at the Tour, which he entered on the back of limited preparation having fractured his wrist at Liège-Bastogne-Liège in April after a wildly successful spring classics campaign.
Vingegaard on stage 5 had his measure, and zealous pundits then feared the fight for the coveted yellow jersey was over, before…
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