to a third Tour.
Tadej Pogačar joined Mark Cavendish in doing what they said couldn’t be done, they said it for years, they said it before the race, they said it during the race but they both did it.
No one was going to beat Eddy Merckx’s record of 34 stage victories. No one can do the giro Tour double.
One race later.
Pogačar’s third Tour win, in a race that’ll leave many a memory, will for some come with an asterisk because as we were repeatedly told Vingegaard had a crash – he kept mentioning it, certainly more than others who were involved, crying about it. Don’t remember Pog repeatedly mention his injury last year.
And should Vingegaard’s two victories come with an asterisk, or maybe just be listed as a team win? Funny how without Sepp Kuss to wheelsuck on, without van Aert at his best to wheelsuck on, without even Roglic to wheelsuck on he didn’t win.
He still needed Laporte, Jorgenson and van Aert or that winning gap would have been much much larger than 6 minutes, much larger than Vingegaard’s victory last year. Remco said he was happy with third place, a victory and the White Jersey, with no regrets. But he tried to get Vingegaard on the penultimate stage, after seeing weakness the day before. But that day he let the Dutchman wheelsuck up the final climb, if he’d gone for the Visma rider than. Or indeed when Pog and Remco dropped from the breakaway on the gravel stage – Stage 9 – because Vingegaard was wheelsucking. They had nothing to gain from dropping back and nothing to lose from going on. And if Vingegaard didn’t have van Aert and Laporte to drag him back on Stage 17, when Pog had left him with another burst and then Remco left him. Not for them two bringing him back to Remco, then that time gap is huge, not the 2 seconds.
And that victory for Vingegaard which came after another Pog attack, which didn’t stick due to poor refuelling by the Slovenian. But god, how many times did Ned Boulting bring that up every time Pog just cycled away from his favourite little Dutchman? Kept talking him up as he crossed the line looking completely knackered while Pog stood smiling.
Pog having won the Giro was now back in Italy to start this Tour of firsts and lasts. The first Grand Depart in Italy saw some tough days, none more so than the first day for Mark Cavendish. He wasn’t going to beat Merckx’s record when he crashed out last year, he wasn’t going to beat it when he’d only a couple of minor victories this year, while most of the best sprinters were at the Tour, he wasn’t going to beat it when he was struggling the first climb of the first stage.
He beat it on stage 5, which was a mixture of Cav old and new. The new bit was the lack of a real lead out train but Cav wheel surfing and picking the right wheel, the old was when he went you knew that was it, he was gone and the victory was a done deal, well before the finish. Number 35. A number they said wouldn’t be beaten, especially not by a 39 year old. He wasn’t much in the sprints after that, he had one real goal from here and that was to make it to Nice and finish his final Tour. The tears as he crossed the line, inside the cutoff time, on the penultimate stage, showed what it meant. As he could follow it up with a lap of honour on the final Time Trial.
He wasn’t the only one, as Romain Bardet bid his farewell to a race, he podiumed twice in, finishing 6 times in the 11 race’s he took part in. And finishing after picking up his first Yellow Jersey after the magnificent victory on the first stage. There was also a first yellow for Richard Carapaz, a first for Ecuador. he followed it up with the Polka Dot after a last week of getting into breaks to hover up mountain points. Though denied one point by Visma’s Matteo Jorgenson in a dick move, that kinda sums up that team, a team that think they’re bigger than everyone else. Was so happy when Pog stormed past him to win Stage 19, the first of a hat-trick of stage wins to end the race for Pog.
Of all the talk about Vingegaard looking better on Stage 20 and maybe being favourite for the final TT stage, it seemed obvious that Pig wanted a bit of revenge, for that final TT defeat last year and the time difference between him and Vingegaard.
I’m not sure about Carapaz getting the most combative rider award at the end, he already had a reward for his effort. Yes he tried and got into many a break in that final week but Uno-X’s Jonas Abrahamsen was off the front so much in that race, yes he faded in the final week a bit. But he was going for sprints, mountain points, and acting doing lead out work for his team. Holding the Polka Dot jersey for the first 10 stages. Stage 8, when he was 170km in the breakaway, 140km of it solo, before he was caught 15km from teh finish.
The other jersey, Green points classification, went to the stand out sprinter, Biniam Girmay. Unfortunately the Eritrean rider brought out the very worst in patronising, head patting from the lefty Guardianistas in the commentary booth. Boulting at his very smarmy worst. Pretty sure he wasn’t calling that first stage victory for Girmay but someone else, before editors made their edits and dubs. But also Imlach and Rendell were at it. When they weren’t trying to make everything political, well up until they got the French politicians they wanted, or rather didn’t get the French politicians they didn’t want.
Ineos were a disappointment but was anyone expecting much? Pidcock’s second on the gravel stage, Kwiatkowski’s third, when Campenaerts took the victory that everyone was saying he was the big outsider of the three, all they really had to show. I mean fighting for 6th, finishing 7th. For all the talk of where it’s gone wrong for them, Froome and Bernal’s major crashes being one part but they haven’t been the same since Nicolas Portal’s death.
But Pog’s victory was stunning – especially coming after that stunning Giro victory, 12 Grand Tour victories in one year. And if anyone can break Cav’s record for stage wins… then.
As for the rivalry between Vingegaard and Pog. Well Pog has won as many Grand Tours this year as Vingegaard has in total. And if you take major race victories, Grand Tours, Monuments, Classic, Major Stage Race GCs. Then Pog has five in 2024, Vingegaard has five in total.