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Cycling greats are raving about Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar. For Eddy Merckx, the Slovenian is “a great man” Greg Lemond remembers his 1989 coup.
Tadej Pogacar only knows the final beat of 1989 from YouTube videos and old stories. He wasn’t even born when Greg Lemond claimed victory in the Tour de France in a memorable time trial on the Champs Elysees in Paris.
But little by little, the cycling star, who was only 22 years old on Monday, began to suspect that he had achieved something similar in history. “It’s too big for me,” Pogacar said when he stood excitedly in front of the world press on Saturday. “I am just a child from Slovenia, I have two sisters and a brother. What can I say?”
The son of a university professor, appropriately in French, was overwhelmed by what happened. He had really only dreamed of starting the tour. “And now I’m wearing the yellow shirt,” said the young man from Komenda and sighed.
At just 21 years and 365 days old, Pogacar drove to Paris on Sunday in the yellow jersey. Only one tour winner was younger: in 1904, Henri Cornet turned 20 in the second edition of the race, and victory was only awarded months later after the top four drivers had been disqualified.
Lemonds yells in front of the TV
In a famous mountain time trial against La Planche des Belles Filles, Pogacar had overtaken his compatriot Primoz Roglic, previously sovereign, in the general classification.
Like Lemond in 1989, but then on the last day in Paris. The American was very excited about the Slovenian’s triumphant journey. “I screamed in front of the television, as I screamed on the Champs Elysees when I won in 1989. This is the birth of a great, great champion,” Lemond said of the French newspaper “L’Equipe.
The greatest in cycling bowed to Pogacar. «I already knew after the last Lap that it was great. You don’t do a number like that if you don’t have talent, “said five-time winner Eddy Merckx.
And former patron Lance Armstrong, now outlawed in cycling circles and banned for life due to his doping past, spoke of an “achievement for eternity.” Perhaps it was the best of all.
Teddy instead of champagne
Who is this Tadej Pogacar? He started riding a bike when he was nine years old. The racing bike was still too big for him back then and yet he beat the older boys. Pogacar has always been ahead of its time. When he triumphed in the 2019 Tour of California, the protocol of the awards ceremony had to be changed. At 20 he was still too young for the bottle of champagne, instead there was a teddy bear.
And in the 2019 Vuelta a España he also won three stages with 20, something that no cyclist so young has managed to do on a great tour. Pogacar said he had good genetics: “I have my parents to thank for that.”
He shares the same passion with his girlfriend Urska Zigart, she is also a cyclist and has just competed in the women’s Giro d’Italia. They live together in Monaco, so far without attracting attention among all the rich and beautiful. “Things will change, but I want to remain who I am. I want to have fun, enjoy life, ”Pogacar said.
Only the environment is burdened
In 2009 he began watching the tour on television. At that moment he cheered on Alberto Contador. Hopefully, he will be saved from a similar fate. Contador was sanctioned for two years for doping.
In Pogacar, so far there have been no suspicions, even if the environment is not completely clean. Its discoverer and sports director Andrej Hauptman was not admitted to the tour in 2000 due to a hematocrit value of more than 50 percent, his boss in the United Arab Emirates, Mauro Gianetti of Ticino, was also associated with doping during his time. active. And in the “Operation Aderlass” doping affair many traces lead to Slovenia, but so far none to Pogacar.
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