Author of a record climb in the Galibier, Tadej Pogacar is once again the target of heavy accusations. However, the Slovenian benefited from (very) favorable circumstances.
The second attempt was the right one for Tadej Pogacar. Unable to break away from Jonas Vingegaard on the climb of San Luca, the leader of UAE Team Emirates this time succeeded in his goal on the last ramps of the Galibier. After sounding the charge thanks to Adam Yates, Joaola Almeida and Juan Ayuso, the Slovenian went on the attack at the start of the last kilometer of the climb.
And if the Visma-Lease a Bike rider then managed to follow his rival, the second blade 500 meters from the summit was fatal for him and joined by Remco Evenepoel or Carlos Rodriguez, he finally suffered a loss of 37” on the line. Tadej Pogacar could have smiled at the finish: the plan of the UAE Team Emirates went off without a hitch and the last winner of the Giro took his revenge on the Galibier.
« Abominable »
Tadej Pogacar has also smashed the record for the ascent of the Savoyard pass. In 20 minutes and 50 seconds, he did better than Nairo Quintana’s 22 minutes and 23 seconds, with only the last 8.5 kilometres of the climb being taken into account by the statistician. professional pyroriding. Enough to revolt Antoine Vayer, former coach at Festina and anti-doping critic for more than two decades.
“Abominable, never seen before. Pogacar blew Quintana’s insane record in the Galibier. His team took him to the sprint by even organizing a border in the pass at an average of 25 km/h for a new record of 20’46” over the 8.65 km at 6.76%, or 1’36” less than the Colombian in 2019″he wrote on Twitter, adding: “The last 10% slope at 2600 meters above sea level, for 2’10” to do the 900m to the summit, the Slovenian pedaled alone against the headwind at 25km/h. This is unprecedented in the history of cycling and in the history of high altitude passes with this slope. What you saw at the TdF2024 is abominable. It is well beyond a mutant performance at 450 watts Etalon.”
Beyond the progress sometimes mentioned by some to explain the many climbing records observed in recent years, and which is very difficult to quantify, Tadej Pogacar and the seven other riders who did better than Nairo Quintana in 2019 benefit from favorable circumstances. This ascent of the Galibier in fact took place on the fourth day of the Tour de France – and after a particularly calm day – and not in the third week. Above all, the stage was short and did not include any other major difficulties, whereas in 2019 the peloton had to climb Vars and especially the Izoard before the final battle.
