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rehe 15th stage of the Tour de France produced two big winners and one big loser on Sunday. The stage was won by the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar (Team UAE) ahead of his compatriot Primoz Roglic of the Dutch team Jumbo-Visma. Roglic, a former world-class ski jumper who has long found his sporting home on the race bike, defended the overall leader’s yellow jersey with the help of his strong team. Now he is 40 seconds ahead of Pogacar, behind him there is already a bigger hole, the Colombian Rigoberto Uran is already 1:34 minutes behind. The decision on the overall victory of this tour will be made between Roglic and Pogacar following Sunday’s impressions.
The big loser in this 15th stage was Egan Bernal, who won the tour last year. The Colombian had to knock down early on the last climb to the Grand Colombier, a top-class mountain, and suffered a severe downturn. He not only lost more than seven minutes to the top, but also the chance to win the Tour de France again this year.
For a long time this year, a duel between Roglic and Bernal was expected for the cycling crown, which is traditionally awarded at the end of the route in Paris. However, this forecast was made prematurely on Sunday. The new duel now takes place between two Slovenians, with Roglic being the favorite. He has a 40-second lead and, almost more important, he knows the strongest team behind him, as he impressively demonstrated on Sunday.
The stage led through two mountains of the first category to the showdown at the Grand Colombier. Jumbo-Visma controlled everything from the beginning. The first two hours of the race, the approach to Montée de la Selle de Fromentel, a mountain in the first category, completed the field at 50 km / h, led by the German jumbo pilot Tony Martin, who acted as cruise control in the chasing some outliers. among them Simon Geschke from Freiburg. Martin kept them on a long leash, not allowing them to be more than four minutes ahead. Even when he went to the mountains, Jumbo-Visma was constantly on top of the team.
The times when the Ineos de Bernal (formerly Sky) team was considered the last in international cycling are just stories from the past. The Ineos team experienced a bitter black day on Sunday as their best driver. There was nothing left of the old glory. The team fell apart. If you used to be in awe of the British flagship team, now it was just a shame.
Winner of the day, second in the standings: Tadej Pogacar
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Image: AFP
The early elimination race of the favorites at the Grand Colombier didn’t actually take place at all. It was clear that the favorites had to put their cards on the table for the first time when they reached a mountain with a 17 kilometer climb. But there were no attacks there either, because Jumbo-Visma at the top was still setting a hellish pace with five, later with four pilots, from whom no one could escape, not even Pogacar. Bernal was not left behind in a duel, which could have been tolerated, no, it was a progressive death of all the hopes that gripped him, it was simply too slow, and it was still slowing down. In the end, it took more than seven minutes for Roglic and Pogacar to climb the mountain. That is an accumulation that cannot be recovered anywhere. The rest of the route, this third week with its difficult alpine stages, will be a bitter moment for Bernal, so you will not have to worry about a cycling oracle. More than a stage victory it may no longer be his goal, but how he should achieve it has seemed an insoluble enigma since Sunday.
Pogacar as a new star in the sky
23-year-old winner of last year’s race badly beaten. And a new star, even younger, 21 years old, has already appeared in the sky: Tadej Pogacar. He beat Roglic in a sprint at the Grand Colombier, which is a huge achievement. But when you look at how it came about, it’s even more surprising.
Pogacar drives, more or less, alone. He never had more than one helper by his side in important situations. Obviously there is no problem for him. It holds up like a burdock in every higher group, and you should always be on your guard against it. In his private life he is a calm boy, he exudes a permanent aggressiveness on the bike, in the mountains he rides explosively like only Roglic, he is a constant danger.
Can you even win this tour? Against Roglic, against Jumbo Visma? Many would freeze in amazement, from Roglic, from the Tour de France. No Pogacar. Of course, he said at the end of Sunday, that he would try to win the tour. “Right now it seems that Primoz cannot be stopped, that he cannot be attacked, but a lot can happen on the tour, maybe he will have a bad day, maybe there will be this day.” If there was this day indeed, Pogacar would be on the spot immediately, you can assume that from what has been seen so far. Roglic is the favorite for the overall victory in the difficult third week of the circuit. He left Bernal behind, but that doesn’t make him feel safe. After all, there is this Pogacar lurking around your neck.
