Oh, no!
“It’s all over now”
(Apologies
to the Rolling Stones)
It’s all over and our days will seem empty for a
while.
On Sunday in Paris Slovenia’s World Champion Tadej
Pogacar joined that exclusive club of GREATS, by taking a record equalling
fifth victory of the Tour de France on the Champs Elysees. (2020, 21; 2024, 25;
2026).
His name now stands beside the other immortals;
Jacques Anquetil (1957, 1961-64); Eddy Merckx (1969 – 72, 74); Bernard Hinault
(1978-79, 1981-82, 1985), and Miguel Indurain (1991 – 95); the latter winning five
in a row.
Ssh,
don’t mention the now invisible man, Lance something or other, who at the
beginning of the Millennium apparently “won” seven (1999 – 2005.
However,
his results were declared null and void following his admittance that he had
taken the banned drug EPO for all of them!
That
was a huge and entertaining conspiracy, the world’s greatest sporting fraud which
Le Tour felt compelled to airbrush out of history, or try to.
If
you go to his house this man might show you the seven yellow jerseys all framed
and hanging like trophies on the wall. Unless he has taken them down. Doubt it.
A
famously dark chapter in sporting history.
We move on.
And so to the 2026 edition of the Tour which reached
a fitting and most stunning climax after three weeks of intense action
dominated by Pogacar, the most remarkable athlete the sport has seen.
His penchant for long breakaways is unequalled, a
man who this year won five stages and smashed records for fastest ever ascents
of the Tourmalet in the Pyrenees and L’Alpe D’Huez in the Alps.
At one point on this final burst around Paris, Pogacar
and Van der Poel were joined by points winner Mads Pedersen and second overall
Remco Evenpoele, but they were reeled in.
In a thrilling finale the stage was won by Holland’s
Van Der Poel after he and Pogacar had electrified the tens of thousands of
spectators with another breakaway over the narrow climb of Montmartre.
Pogacar was dropped in the final kilometres as the
field closed and the amazing Van Der Poel buried himself to hold off the charge
by inches. Clearly, Pog couldn’t be seen to be outsprinted on the line! Didn’t need
to spoil his day.
This was after all, a shortened stage, and everybody
still had legs which made lone escapes nigh on impossible, especially as the
early kilometres in Paris were neutralised because light rain had made the
roads slippery. Also, the total length was
cut to about 80-odd kilometres, to release police officers for far more urgent
tasks, to assist at wild fires near Paris. So for the first time the final
stage started on the Champs Elysees as well as finishing there. The finale had all the excitement of a high
speed criterium.
Pogacar won the Tour in the overall time of 73 hours
56 minutes and 26 seconds. Belgian Evenpoele was second at 6-26, and Mexican Isaac
Del Torro (Pogocar’s UAE teammate),
third at 9-42, winner of the best young rider competition.
Finally, no mention in the written press today of
that story (all over news feeds on the
internet last week) concerning a new energy drink boasting huge
recuperative powers and used exclusively
by Pog and UAE. It was stressed it was not considered to be doping. But had it
given them an edge, do you think?
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