Pinot’s heart aches, from so much love that he receives from his countrymen, when he climbs the Petit Ballon in the lead, alone, but he cannot correspond to his neighbors in his land, where he wanted to say goodbye in style to his last great mountain stage in the Tour. Vingegaard, who has the yellow card in his pocket, has a sore neck from looking back so much. He’s going to give you a stiff neck. Almost like an obsession, the leader keeps turning his head, looking sideways, to see if Pogacar is moving. He has him more than seven minutes away, he’s going to win two Tours in a row, but he doesn’t want it to raise his morale. Carlos Rodríguez’s face hurts. His eyebrow is open, a stream of blood runs down his face. He has fallen in the descent of the first port and has given a good blow. He is a chrome and the race becomes impossible when he is harassed by the Yates brothers on the last climb. He fights back, first with Pidcock and then alone, but he can never storm Adam’s podium and even loses fourth to Simon.
Pogacar’s soul hurts less. Because he can recover the smile. He can raise his head. He can unleash the rage within him. He can say that he has won two stages in a Tour that has turned out to be a frog. And he can shout that he beats Vingegaard in a head-to-head stage, in a head-to-head sprint at the Le Markstein finish line.
The Dane was clearly looking to pick at the wound but the Slovenian can still boast that he is much faster than his rival. At least that. A stage that sweetens defeat.
“I have felt myself again, after days of suffering,” says Pogacar, who confesses that he felt terror in the Col de la Loze, when, according to his own words, he was “dead”. He was afraid of losing everything, second place, the podium. He says that the face of Marc Soler pushing him to the limit will be a nightmare, that he is his worst sane on the Tour. But he won’t leave the French round with a bad aftertaste. But he was able to recover sensations and good legs to complete the great work of the UAE and prevail in Le Markstein. He achieves his goal for the day, keeps his word. He already has eleven stages on the Tour, where in his four participations he has been first (2020 and 2021) or second (2022 and 2023).
After everything that has happened, the alien time trial and the display of power at the Col de la Loze, it is hard to understand why Vingegaard is still watching the Slovenian. But that’s the way it is, he doesn’t trust it, he controls it through the rearview mirror and, when Pogacar attacks and they are both left alone, they look at each other. To the point that Gall, the winner in Courchevel, has to come and lift them up by the hand to the top of the Platzerwsasel.
And in the final sprint, both launch like possessed, again in parallel. The leader takes the turn on the inside, the white jersey starts on the outside. But the Slovenian is more explosive and faster and bends him to lick his wounds. Vingegaard looks at him from a distance, with the luck of the champion on his side. He hasn’t seen it, perhaps heard it, but right behind him Carlos Rodríguez and Kuss fell down the Ballon d’Alsace. The leader saves the fall and continues on his way with 100 km to go.
“When he got up I doubted that he would get on the bike again. He has to be very proud ”, confesses Omar Fraile, who acted as his escort. The man from Granada from Ineos has to show that he is a tough cyclist, with blood on his face, like a martyr, he forcefully forgets to play to be third and has to concentrate on not losing fourth place. But in the end the tiredness and pain come to light. He can’t be with the Yates twins, neither with Adam nor with Simon, and neither with Pello Bilbao. “I have given the best that he had but it has not been enough in the end. We will try to come back another year and do better, ”he promises. He is 22 years old and in his debut he will see Paris as fifth.
