Are we witnessing the return of “two-speed cycling”, a symbol of the dark years of cycling? The question arose after the performance of Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates), Saturday July 3 in Grand-Bornand (Haute-Savoie), at the end of the eighth stage of the Tour de France, during which he donned the yellow jersey . Then, the young prodigy did it again, Sunday July 4, suddenly accelerating in the last three kilometers of the climb to Tignes (Savoie) depositing his rival to General Richard Carapaz (Ineos-Grenadiers), fortified by this sovereign indifference of the champion – the solo victory went to Australian Ben O’Connor (AG2R Citröen), Pogacar is sixth on the line.
The verbs of the first group – to gut, knock out, flay, kill, etc. – in use during the Lance Armstrong years (1999-2005) are back with this slightly sickening aroma. What to think of the ascent on Saturday of the Romme and Colombière passes (both category 1): 45 minutes of infernal pace, without apparent effort, in the rain and after a 250 km stage the day before, run at 45 km / h average?
What questions is the metronomic regularity of the “Pogacar machine”, as described by the dean of sports directors, the Belgian Hilaire Van der Schueren (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux). In truth, there would be “him”, Tadej Pogacar, and the rest of a cycling peloton from which two leading figures abandoned on Sunday – Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) and Mathieu Van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix). With its corollary: has the Tour already been played while there remains the double ascent of Ventoux, the three Pyrenean stages and the 30-kilometer time trial between Libourne and Saint-Emilion (Gironde)?
“I wouldn’t put my hand in the fire”
In cycling, the inexplicable phenomena – like the third place Sunday of the Italian Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain Victorious), a sprinter in a particularly tough mountain stage – were often associated with the scenes of crimes perpetrated by a killer in series, Lance Armstrong, and his supernatural ascents: Sestriere in 1999, Hautacam in 2000, Alpe-d’Huez in 2001, Luz-Ardiden in 2003, plateau de Beille in 2004.
In the days of the American, the secret was guessed by the whole bike family, but never revealed by them. Confused in 2010 by the justice of his country, the sound of his fall, in 2012, raised a cloud of dust that the Tour strove to dust. Until his name deleted from the archives of the Grande Boucle.
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