HAUTACAM, France (Velo) — Tadej Pogačar went from crasher to crusher within 24 hours and smashed the Tour de France to bits.
Barely a day after wiping out and seeing his Tour hopes torn up like the cuts on his jersey, the Slovenian superstar blazed up the sun-baked steeps at Hautacam to leave a dazed Jonas Vingegaard more than two minutes in the rear view.
With Pogačar shaking hands with the French president high on Hautacam, rider after rider trickled down to the UAE Emirates-XRG team bus parked 14km at the base of the notorious HC climb that Pogačar just left in shreds.
“Crashing is never nice and everybody knows it takes a lot of energy to heal,” UAE teammate Tim Wellens said as he sat on a step on the team bus. “I imagine if he didn’t crash, he would have won with four minutes.
“Today was an important day for the GC and Tadej had a big cross on this stage,” Wellens told Velo. “And he delivered.”
Was there ever any doubt that cycling’s version of a superhero was going to bounce back from a few mere cuts and scrapes?
‘Tadej was super confident today’
UAE staffers were laughing when asked about media reports that Pogačar did not sleep well overnight.
Of course, after a high-speed crash, there’s going to be some aches and pains, but it’s going to take more than that to stop the Pogačar wave.
“Yesterday evening Tadej was a good mood already. We saw that he was OK,” UAE’s Nils Politt told Velo. “The crash, for sure, always has an impact, but he was super confident about today.”
Speaking to Velo at the start of the stage, Joxean Fernández Matxin admitted that Pogačar got lucky by escaping Wednesday’s spill without a broken bone or a concussion.
Also read: Pogačar obliterates Vingegaard
“There’s always an element of luck. We were relieved about the crash that there were no serious injuries, but we won’t really know until he’s back on the bike,” Matxin said. “This is a very important stage, but our plan will not change. We have a very specific tactic.”
An hour later, the race was underway and Pogačar was chirping over the team race radio that he was feeling good and that the team should stick to its plan.
That plan was to blow up the Tour.
‘Tadej was always looking at this stage’
The Hautacam climb is not truly a summit or a pass but rather a winding road to a never-ending ridge.
“[Pogačar] was always looking to this stage, looking forward to it. He already said it in the bus that he wanted to win today,” Politt said. “I controlled the first 100 kilometers until the first climb, and then the team takes over. . Everybody goes 100, 110% for the moment.”
Up the road, UAE slotted Wellens into a huge 52-rider breakaway that also featured Visma’s Tiesj Benoot. Wellens was surprised how the race unfolded.
“We expected more from Visma and we expected to put a lot of riders into the breakaway, and they had different tactics than what people believed,” Wellens said.
No one’s celebrating yet, but the champagne is on ice.
“We have a good gap now, but still we have to work,” Politt said. “Visma will try something else. We have to be focused for the next week, for the next days, and then hopefully we can keep them smooth.”
‘Pogačar goes when he says he will’
Matxin celebrated the winning gap, always quick to add respect for the rivals, but the enormity of the gains is indisputable.
“We know the last four Tours de France, Jonas is the winner twice, two seconds place. He is the main rival,” Matxin said on the line. “To take more than two minutes is one thing that was never in the best plans.”
Wellens admits he’s in awe of Pogačar’s ability to shake off setbacks and turn them into gains.
“For me it’s always mental fortitude,” Wellens said of his captain. “Nothing in life is easy, not even for Tadej, but he is always relaxed.
“This morning at the meeting, it was like in school and the teacher has to say, ‘hey guys, focus a little bit’ because we were laughing at other things.
“We were not really doing the meeting,” Wellens said. “The atmosphere is pretty relaxed.”
Wellens rolled out a few more mid-Tour clichés to dance around the obvious that, with the time gaps as they stand now, only a major collapse can stop Pogačar from winning a fourth yellow jersey.
“The Tour is not finished. We are in a good position and Tadej is at a high level, but it’s always a long way to Paris,” Wellens said. “The most important is yellow in Paris.”
UAE has nothing left to prove. Pogačar shattered everyone again.
“It’s no surprise anymore,” Politt said of Pogačar. “When he says he wants to go, then most of the time he goes.”
Not even a crash can stop that.
Tadej lays a ghost to rest
Three years after suffering a big defeat on Hautacam at the Tour de France, Tadej Pogačar returned to the Pyrenean climb and gained 2:14 on his closest rival for overall victory with a commanding solo win.
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