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reThe young Slovenian Tadej Pogacar took the yellow jersey from his compatriot Primoz Roglic, until then sovereign, in the mountain time trial of the penultimate day of the Tour de France and is about to win absolute victory. The 21-year-old won the time trial on Saturday after a furious 36.2-kilometer ride from Lure to La Planche des Belles Filles, leaving Roglic 1:56 minutes behind.
Pogacar is now 59 seconds ahead on the last stage to Paris, where the yellow jersey is traditionally not attacked. “I think I’m dreaming. I don’t know when I’ll get it,” said Pogacar, who was completely exhausted after his win, but full of joy.
Memories of Tour Finals 1989
This brought back memories of the thrilling end of the tour in 1989, when Greg Lemond caught Laurent Fignon in the final individual time trial and took the tour victory with an eight-second lead.
Who would have thought that? Roglic was the big favorite, having won four time trials on the major tours of his career. But the otherwise cool ex-ski jumper apparently lost his nerve. He lost time kilometer by kilometer, on the final ascent nothing worked. In the end, Roglic collapsed to the ground, his great dream was over.
First participation in the tour
Pogacar only needed 55:55 minutes for the 36.2 kilometers with the steep climb and was even 1:21 minutes faster than Roglic’s teammate Tom Dumoulin and Australian Richie Porte, who climbed to third place in the race. general. It was also the youngster’s third stage win in the 2021 Tour. It was his first time in the Tour de France.
Well deserved in the yellow jersey: Pogacar celebrates his victory.
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Image: Reuters
Last year, Pogacar surprised the Vuelta with three stage victories and a third place overall. At that time, Roglic was still triumphant. “I have to finish my job,” Roglic had said before the mountain time trial.
The best German in the fight against the clock was Maximilian Schachmann, who drove 3:59 minutes to a solid 17th place. “I drove feeling. In the end it didn’t turn out so bad, ”said Schachmann, who already wanted to save energy for the World Cup in a week.
It got really exciting
Within a few kilometers, Roglic had lost twelve seconds on his young rival. After 20 kilometers, the gap had increased to 28 seconds. And that in the flat part of the route, in which Roglic was clearly favored. On the final ascent, Pogacar couldn’t stop.
With this, Pogacar also wins the mountain jersey and of course the white jersey of the best young rider. The green jersey can hardly be taken away from Irishman Sam Bennett with 55 points ahead of former world champion Peter Sagan. This ends an era: the Bora-hansgrohe captain had worn the Vert Jersey seven times in the last eight years. The only interruption was his disqualification in 2017.
The 21st and last stage begins on Sunday in Mantes-la-Jolie and ends after 122 kilometers on the Champs-Élysées. There should be another massive sprint there. Due to the increasing number of corona infections, only 5000 spectators are allowed in the finish area.
