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There’s a temptation to say that Tadej Pogačar’s dominance is boring. That his winning so much, and often by so much, takes the mystery and intrigue out of the races he’s part of. And yet, watching the Slovenian in full flight is a privilege; a generational talent laying down performances that will be remembered for many years to come.
This isn’t a rider eking out victory with three weeks of conservative, defensive racing. Pogačar is a rider seemingly always on the attack, even when he doesn’t need to be. And his current, multi-year battle with Jonas Vingegaard at the Tour de France – it’s become one of the greatest rivalries the sport has seen in a long time.
Currently, Pogačar is winning that battle. A week from now, he’ll likely be the first rider in more than a quarter century to complete the Giro-Tour double in one season. And if he does, a big part of his third Tour victory will be down to the past two days in the Pyrenees.
Coming into the weekend’s two mountainous stages, Pogačar led the Tour by just over a minute. Coming out of those stages, and into the final rest day, the 25-year-old’s margin is now more than three minutes, courtesy of a pair of compelling stage wins, both times cracking Vingegaard in the process.
And so, with the final chapter of this year’s Tour about to begin, let’s look back on Pogačar’s great weekend in the Pyrenees, as captured by photographers Kristof Ramon, Ashley & Jered Gruber, and Cor Vos.
With three big climbs on the menu, stage 14 was a day for the breakaway specialists to be ready to race.Jonas Abrahamsen was warming up at the start too. The 28-year-old has impressed at this year’s Tour and led the KOM classification from stage 1 through stage 10. He wore polka dots in lieu of overall leader Pogačar on stage 14.Krists Neilands takes a moment to chill before the stage start.As Escape’s Iain Treloar wrote, French police accidentally knocked down a young boy at the stage start but, in an uncharacteristic display of humanity, stuck around to help patch him up.Stage 14 took the riders up the legendary Col du Tourmalet, where many roadside fans had been camped out, waiting for the race’s arrival.We published a whole gallery last week celebrating the roadside fans of the Tour. We might even do another when the race is over.The Tourmalet wouldn’t be hugely decisive in stage 14 …… but there was some action at the top. Here’s former Tourmalet stage winner Andy Schleck unveiling a new plaque at the summit. Schleck beat Alberto Contador to the top of the Tourmalet in a memorable duel on stage 17 of the 2010 Tour. Contador won the Tour overall, but later had it stripped from his palmares, leaving Schleck with the overall win.The breakaway group over the Tourmalet …… and down the other side.Off they go, heading towards the next climb: the Hourquette d’Ancizan.The peloton followed soon after, on a day where the GC men would have their say.When you reach this tunnel on the Col du Tourmalet (climbing from the Sainte-Marie de Campan side), you’re almost there.The last of the breakaway riders were caught on the final climb, to Pla d’Adet. After an initial surge from teammate Adam Yates, Pogačar made his move around 4.5 km to go.His initial surge was so ferocious that no one could follow, and after bridging to Yates, Pogačar went it alone.Vingegaard originally had Remco Evenepoel for company …… but the defending champ was soon alone as well, trying to limit his losses.While not able to match Pogačar or Vingegaard, Evenepoel confirmed himself as the third-best rider in this year’s race.Things were a little more relaxed in the groups behind.But up front, Pogačar was winning the stage by 39 seconds over Vingegaard, extending his overall lead.Another great ride in the breakaway earned Ben Healy the most combative rider prize on stage 14. He was the last rider to survive from the break, caught only by Yates and Pogačar with around 4 km to go.With a category 1 climb right out of the start, stage 15 was another day for riders to warm up for.Five climbs awaited the riders, with more than 5,000 metres of climbing all told.There was plenty of descending too, as you’d expect.Jonas Vingegaard moved into the polka dot jersey after stage 14, wearing it for Pogačar on the final day in the Pyrenees.Wherever Pogačar went, Vingegaard followed.While UAE Team Emirates have been typically impressive throughout the race, it was Visma-Lease a Bike who took the race to Pogačar’s team on stage 15.They rode hard to set Vingegaard up on a day that, they felt, might have suited their man more than Pogačar.With so much climbing on the menu, including that climb straight out of the start, it was a tough day in the grupetto.Among the riders flirting with the time cut was Mark Cavendish who was dropped a few kilometres into the stage and finished more than 51 minutes behind the stage winner. Speaking of …After a big turn from his teammate Matteo Jorgensen on the lower slopes of the stage-ending Plateau de Beille climb, Vingegaard set sail with 10.5 km to go, committed to riding his own tempo and hoping that would be enough to crack Pogačar. Vingegaard rode the front without help from Pogačar, mopping up the remaining riders up front …… but 5.4 km from the finish, Pogačar sensed that Vingegaard was weakening. And so he attacked, and quickly got a big gap.As they had been a day earlier, the crowds near the summit were large and raucous.Vingegaard battled on …… as did Evenepoel, again the best of the rest.Former race leader Richard Carapaz had attacked earlier but was swamped by the GC contenders, eventually finishing in ninth.Stage win number three at this year’s Tour for Pogačar who now has 14 in his career.He’s now into equal-13th on the all-time stage winners leaderboard, alongside Marcel Kittel.The gruppetto took most of an hour after Pogačar to reach the finish …… but they had plenty of support along the way.As Escape’s Jonny Long wrote, masks are back in use at the Tour after a spate of COVID positives. Jonas Vinegaard, meanwhile, will have to be OK with being second best at this year’s Tour. That’s still a remarkable achievement after his huge crash at Itzulia Basque Country a few months back.After Monday’s rest day, six days remain in the 2024 Tour de France. Can Pogačar complete an historic Giro-Tour double? You wouldn’t want to bet against him at this point.
