The meaning of this day at Tour is probably in the Tadej Pogacar's last words, while on the rollers he was trying to get the fatigue out of his head and legs. A sweat-beaded forehead and an all-too-rich haul at the top of the first Pyrenean finish. Hautacam never goes unnoticed and so it was this time too.
«I think this stage is for Samuel and his entire family – said the world champion – because it was really sad. It was the first news I read this morning and I found myself thinking about him in the last mile.How tough this sport can be and how much pain it can cause."
A minute of applause
It may be the emotion of the moment or the memory of all the friends we have said goodbye to over the years, Pogacar's words gave the scene a human flavour, on the sidelines of a show of power and strength that once again annihilated his rivals. The Tour was also shaken by the news of the death of Samuele Privitera at the Tour of the Aosta Valley. The group is starting, with the Team Jayco-AlUla in the lead, he observed a minute of silence that ended with the applause of thousands of people rushed to Auch to greet the start of the Tour.
"Was Devastating news for the entire Jayco-GreenEdge family – declared the sporting director Mathew Hayman – and it was It was moving to see the Tour de France stop for a minute to honor his memory.Our thoughts are with his family."
Bad day for Visma
Now that we're counting the gaps on the first uphill finish, we realize that the ranking already discourages any flight of fancy. First Evenepoel sank. Then we witnessed the interrupted push of the Visma-Lease a Bike, who had to stop so as not to lose Jorgenson. And when it came to the final climb, those of UAE Team Emirates they got in front and crushed Vingegaard and his companionsIf the Dutch really had a plan, perhaps they hadn't counted on the world champion, who gave the Dane 2'10" and the 2'23" to the finish line. Lipowitz.
«I think Jonas felt good today – commented sports director Grischa Niermann – but on the last climb, Pogacar was clearly the bestJonas suffered a lot, it was a tough day. Matteo (Jorgenson, ed.) wasn't well, but we can't blame the riders. We had a strategy, but he didn't make it.It didn't happen what we hoped for, but still Jonas proved to be the best of all the others. Congratulations to Tadej and the UAE Emirates, they showed who is the strongest."
The Ghosts of Hautacam
We don't live in the past, and perhaps Visma understood this all at once. If anyone believed they could repeat the scene of 2022, when Hautacam definitively extinguished Pogacar's ambitions, today he must have had a rude awakening. A sense of positive amazement that also involved the world champion, who took back the yellow jersey with 3'31” on Vingegaard and 4'45” on Evenepoel.
"The last time we came to Hautacam," Pogacar said, "it was a very different story. The first time I reconnoitered this climb, I thought it was fantastic and couldn't wait to race it.The only thing is that in 2022 I practically hit a wall. I was trying to regain the yellow jersey, but at that time Jumbo was too strong. So I tried to forget and couldn't wait for today to comeMany came to me to tell me that it would be my revenge and as we approached the start of the climb, the story immediately seemed different than it had been then. There was again a Belgian rider in the lead, but it was Wellens and not Van Aert, and our team was pulling.I'm super happy to have gained time and to have won on this climb."
The unbeatable Riis
Pogacar and his entire team raced using la Colnago Y1Rs, the aerodynamic one and slightly heavier than the V5RsThe feeling with the bike has grown from race to race and probably the need is increasingly for speed, on slopes never as severe as in the Giro d'Italia.
Yet, despite his overwhelming power, Pogacar did not set the Hautacam record, which still belongs to Bjarne Riis, who by his own admission was doped when setting it.Tadej completed the 13,5 kilometer climb (7,8 percent average gradient) in 35'21" at 41" from the record of the Dane who in 1996 climbed it in 34'40". Starting with about 12 kilometers to go, the Slovenian was clearly ahead of the Dane on the intermediate times, but as the kilometers passed he began to slow down his paceIt is not known whether he was tired or felt it was unnecessary to persist given that he still had the entire Tour to compete in.
His time was still top notch. In 2022 he took 37'39” behind the unleashed Vingegaard: two minutes worse than today.
The most beautiful victory
In this stage of the Tour which ended with the sign of something we have already seen, perhaps the best thing to do is curl up again in a silent cocoon and dedicate your last thoughts to Samuele Privitera and his shattered dream of one day riding these roads. We disagree with the rhetoric that cycling has become a very dangerous sport, digging mass graves where no distinction is made.
Certainly, in this inexorable metaphor of life that is the road, it can happen that you have to stop and mourn a brother who is no longer there. For this reason, in our opinion, Pogacar's greatest victory today was having uttered the words with which we began this article.
