Fall and danger go hand in hand. Mountains and fear are inseparable. Confidence and skill come in handy. Doubt and inaction are not forgotten. Pogacar attacks and then takes risks. Vingegaard defends himself and then makes the mistake of being conservative. Or the past takes its toll on him. In Olaeta the wounds and scars of the fall are still fresh and he presses the brakes too hard while descending the Galibier. His opponent, on the other hand, has his hair down. He senses the opportunity and strives for it. In Valloire, risk smiles at you with good loot. Win and open a big gap counting the bonus, about a minute.
In the last two years, in which he came out on the losing side, he has never been able to achieve so much on a mountain stage. And the paradox is that the blow struck by the Slovenian from the UAE on the table was not going up, but down. The main thing, as always, was not an explosive attack, but the courage to take risks.
Everything up to the top of the Galibier was according to the script for 2022 and 2023. A handful of metres. A gust. That was what separated the champion from the ambitious contender. Wingegaard knew how to manage the demand once again. The first boot is well sustained. In the second dose, he lets it go without losing context.
The big difference comes in the descent. “Now follow me if you can,” he told Pogacar as he reached the top, who plays with the bicycle on the first turn, still wet from the melting snow. Vingegaard, on the other hand, thinks about it, he has some doubts. He hasn’t reached this far, he hasn’t recovered, only fell on the fourth day. And he punishes him.
At the hill banner they were 5 seconds apart. At the finish line the distance had grown rapidly. It was more than half a minute. One flies. The other calculates. The Slovenian takes advantage of the moment. Carpe diem. The heads come out. The Dane hopes the future will be more favorable, he hopes to sharpen his set-up, and he hopes the third week will benefit him. The tails come out.
Four stages, two days in yellow and a victory. You can’t ask for more than this for the start of the Pogacar Tour. While Vingegaard takes refuge in the group of Evenepoel, Roglic and Carlos Rodriguez, thinking that they too have things to say, that unity is strength, starting a coalition of all against one. Also entering this quartet is Tadej’s teammate, the young Ayuso, who has been crucial in the final kilometres of the climb, and who still has the strength, even as a debutant, to sprint and take third place on the finish line to steal the bonus.
