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Most believed that the overall winner of the Tour de France decided ahead of today’s mountain pace in favor of Primoz Roglic.
Roglic started the pace stage with a 57-second lead over Pogacar. Roglic is normally the best driver of all at such a downhill pace. Thus, this stage appeared as a tough march towards the general triumph of the former ski jumper.
That did not happen.
Instead, the bicycle bomb exploded at the Tour de France.
Tadej Pogacar, 21, wanted it differently than the majority’s conclusion and surprised his compatriot Roglic and the rest of the cycling world with a monstrous stage, which secured the young man a sensational overall victory in the Tour de France, 59 seconds ahead of Roglic.
– Is incredible. That’s the wildest thing I’ve ever been involved with, exclaimed TV 2 commentator Christian Paasche.
– It’s absolutely incredible, added Johan Kaggestad from the commentary chair.
Pogacar, 21, is this year’s winner of the world’s largest bicycle race with Norwegians Alexander Kristoff and Vegard Stake Laengen in the team.
Edvald Boasson Hagen, Kurt Asle Arvesen and Atle Kvålsvoll have previously been on the same team as the outright Tour de France winner.
Pogacar rushes out with three of the jerseys: the leader’s yellow jersey, the climbing jersey and the white youth jersey, plus three stage wins.
The 21-year-old will also be the second youngest Tour de France winner of all time on the Champs-Elysees tomorrow. This stage is protected with the outright winner in mind.
Roglics fall ski sweater
The cycling world is shaken by Pogacar’s performance and Roglic’s collapse.
– I thought it was a dream. It was just amazing. This is a victory not only for me, but for the whole team. We were together and surveyed the entire field, and I always knew where to put my efforts, says Pocagar himself.
Primoz Roglic, who sensationally lost the overall win today, has previously impressed as a ski jumper. In a continental race at Villach in 2009, he beat out several big jumping names, including Severin Freund, Michael Hayböck and Johan Remen Evensen.
– Roglic was a high level ski jumper. His cycling career puts ski jumping in a good light and shows that jumpers are well trained. At the same time, these are as different sports as one can get. Going from the ski jump to the top of the world by bike is very impressive, Johan Remen Evensen told Dagbladet.
Roglic regularly beat solid show jumping names in continental races, FIS races and junior races and became, among other things, a junior world champion in team jumping before retiring as a ski jumper in 2011.
– Ski jumping is about being explosive and tough. Train in a jump and spring movement that should last 0.3 seconds. The transition to cycling for 5-6 hours is huge, he noted.
Now Roglic is one of the best cyclists in the world, but 21-year-old compatriot Pogacar became too strong today and in this year’s Tour de France.
- Pogacar won the stage by 1.21 seconds ahead of the Dutch Tom Dumolin and Richie Porte. Porte finishes in third place in the summary, 3.30 minutes from Pogacar.
