Tour de France: Pogacar praises his team

The Tour de France has temporarily left the Alps, but the summit assault by the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar has left a deep impression: For the French sports newspaper The team After the stage to the Col du Galibier, it is already clear who will dominate the Tour de France this year. “The real takeover,” was the headline in the paper after Pogacar left his rival Jonas Vingegaard behind on Tuesday and opened up a lead of 50 seconds. The outcome of the race seemed like revenge, because in 2022 and 2023 Pogacar had been duped by the Dane. He wanted to “hit hard,” said Pogacar, winner of the two previous years. And he is already planning the next attack: “On Friday there will be the next rendezvous in the time trial.”

In his quest to become the first professional cyclist since Marco Pantani 26 years ago to win the Giro d’Italia and Tour double, Pogacar has one major advantage: his overwhelming UAE team. While the 25-year-old was regularly worn down by Vingegaard’s Visma team in the past, the situation is now reversed. On the flat sections, Cologne time trial champion Nils Politt is a win for Pogacar. And on the first climb of the highest category, his helpers managed to tear the entire field apart, so that Vingegaard, who had a serious fall in the Tour of the Basque Country in April, lost all of his helpers. Riding like that takes courage: “We have it,” enthused Pogacar. When analyzing his ride to the Col du Galibier, the Tour leader praised his team’s performance: It showed “that we have one of the strongest teams here. Riding like that is crazy. We have to keep going like this,” said Pogacar.