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Christophe Petit-Tesson / AP
Primoz Roglic is comforted by his Jumbo-Visma teammate Tom Dumoulin after losing the lead on the penultimate stage.
Huddled around an iPad with his Jumbo-Visma teammates, Kiwi cyclist George Bennett watched in disbelief as Tadej Pogacar produced “the ride of the century” to snatch the yellow jersey from Tour de France leader Primoz Roglic in a penultimate spectacular. stage.
Roglic had hoped to score Jumbo-Visma’s maiden Tour de France win after leading for 11 days, only for fellow Slovenian Pogacar to devour his 57-second lead with a spectacular effort during Sunday’s decisive time trial (NZT) to become the youngest winner of the famous race since 1904.
The 22-year-old UAE Team Emirates driver was nearly two minutes faster than Roglic on the 36.2-kilometer course and earned the right to celebrate in the final stage procession to Paris on Monday.
“This is just the top of the top,” Pogacar said. “It has been an incredible three-week adventure.”
SPORT OF HEAVEN
Tadej Pogacar surprises fellow Slovenian Primoz Roglic by taking the yellow jersey on the penultimate stage of the Tour de France.
Knowing how much Jumbo-Visma had invested in this year’s Tour de France and how close they came to winning, Bennett said it was heartbreaking to see the hopes of Roglic’s yellow jersey evaporate before his eyes. He was devastated for his teammate.
READ MORE:
* Tadej Pogacar produces the trip of all ages to win the Tour de France that defies Covid
* Tadej Pogacar crushes fellow Slovenian Primoz Roglic to seal the Tour de France title
* George Bennett raced the first nine stages of the Tour de France with a suspected broken rib
“We were all at the top watching it on TV and obviously it’s quite emotional,” said Bennett, who ran most of the race with a broken rib after crashing on stage one.
“Everybody is tired and had invested everything, the whole year had been built around that, and obviously it was a really tough watch.
Christophe Ena / AP
It was a 1-2 Slovenian when Tadej Pogacar, right, finished ahead of compatriot Primoz Roglic to win the Tour de France.
“What can you say at a time like that? You can only look and feel for Rogla. “
Bennett said he went for a walk to compose himself.
“Everybody was so interested in it. We have invested so much energy, time and suffering in it, so of course we were upset. We were upset about ourselves and upset about Primoz.
“But when we got to dinner, we had a couple of beers and laughed a little, we started to accept that we actually did the perfect race and this guy just did the ride of the century.”
Tim de Waele / Getty Images
George Bennett, left, in action during stage 17 of the Tour de France.
Although they ultimately did not reach their main goal, Bennett believed it was still a successful Tour de France for Jumbo-Visma.
They won three individual stages and improved to third place from last year with Roglic completing a historic 1-2 for Slovenia to finish 59 seconds behind Pogacar in second place. Richie Porte was third.
“No one is disappointed in him [Roglic] absolutely. Everyone knows that he still had a good trip, he didn’t collapse, it might not be the strongest day of his life, but it was still a good trip, ”Bennett said.
Christophe Petit-Tesson / AP
George Bennett raced all 21 stages of the Tour de France with broken ribs after crashing on opening day.
“Once we accepted that Pogacar was on another level, he made it easier. We didn’t make mistakes, we didn’t make tactical mistakes or we had bad luck, this guy was much stronger.
“I think in the end we still have the strongest team, that was very evident throughout the race. We were by far the strongest and we still finished second on the Tour ”.
After completing three weeks’ hard work with broken ribs, Bennett is now in a race against time to recover for Monday’s UCI Road World Championships in Imola, Italy.
With 5000m of climbing, the course is well suited to Bennett’s strengths, however it will be a difficult task to back up a week after a Grand Tour. He is also expected to line up in the Vuelta a España next month.
“I’ve been taking care of myself here with some injuries and things like that and I’m on my butt in terms of form, but I have a week to stop so I can go either way,” he said.
“I’ll give him a push, but it’s not that he comes full of confidence like he was a month ago, before I had to crawl around France for three weeks with him. [rib] problem.
“It’s kind of out of my hands now, I just have to recover and if I recover enough, I’ll probably be pretty good and if I don’t, it will be a big learning curve heading into Tokyo. [2021, where Bennett back up from the Giro d’Italia]. “
The last stage of the Tour de France was won by the Deceuninck – Quick-Step rider and winner of the green jersey sprint classification Sam Bennett. George Bennett finished 34th overall.
