Tadej Pogacar won his fifth Tour de France on Sunday and joined the select group of Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain. He claimed five stage victories and finished 6 minutes and 26 seconds ahead of Remco Evenepoel, but one of the images that best explains his triumph came when he already had the yellow jersey under control. The best cyclist in the world spent the final days protecting the podium place of his teammate Isaac del Toro.
The Mexican had worked for Pogacar throughout the race and entered the final week in third place, despite being ill and part of a weakened team. Pogacar then changed his role. During the penultimate stage, he spent around an hour and a half controlling the attacks that could have threatened Del Toro and accompanied him all the way to the finish.
“It was an honour to ride for Isaac. I was happy to do it and I realised how difficult it is to work for someone else”, he explained afterwards. The two crossed the finish line together and used their fingers to imitate a bull’s horns, a gesture the team had turned into a recurring celebration during the race.
The leader who discovers the domestique’s work
Pogacar had arrived at the Tour as the man around whom every UAE Team Emirates-XRG decision revolved. The race ended by also showing the leader taking on the most understated work.
Del Toro completed his first appearance in third place and admitted that he had tried to hide his physical problems so he could continue helping the team. “Tadej has shown what a good friend he is”, said the Mexican. Pogacar repaid part of the effort he had received over three weeks and protected the position of a 22-year-old teammate whom he has already identified as one of the riders capable of leading the team in the future.
That gesture also reflected UAE’s real situation during the final week. Adam Yates suffered stomach problems, Tim Wellens came close to finishing outside the time limit and Brandon McNulty abandoned on stage 18 because of a throat condition. Florian Vermeersch was also carrying an injury, while Del Toro was racing despite being ill.
From the outside, Pogacar appeared to dominate the Tour without difficulty. Within the team, the race was being sustained by weakened riders, strategic changes and daily treatments designed to prevent the illness from reaching the yellow jersey. The Slovenian’s superiority concealed much of the effort required to keep the structure standing.
The work behind every attack
Pogacar’s victory at Alpe d’Huez was once again presented as an individual exhibition, but the move began long before his attack. Wellens, Vermeersch and Nils Politt controlled the opening part of the stage. Felix Großschartner then reduced the group of favourites, while Yates waited further up the road to pull for two kilometres.
Pogacar completed the job with an 11-kilometre pursuit, won the stage and recorded the fastest ever ascent of Alpe d’Huez, in 35 minutes and 26 seconds. The attack carried his name, although the construction of the victory had involved a large part of the team.
McNulty did not leave after abandoning either. He remained in France and appeared in Paris to celebrate the victory alongside his teammates. He could no longer complete the final stage on his bike, but he returned to the leader’s side when the time came to lift the trophy.
Pogacar later dedicated the victory to his family, his friends and the team. “Without them, I would not be here five times”, he said. He also explained that his development has been linked to managing his mood and emotions more effectively, after finishing the previous Tour exhausted and with pain in one knee.
His fifth Tour will be remembered for his five stage victories, the 26 Tour stage wins he has now accumulated and his entry into the group of cycling’s great five-time champions. This edition also produced a less familiar image: Pogacar protecting a teammate’s podium place and discovering, while wearing the yellow jersey, the difficulty of racing for someone else. A flawless leader who leads by example.
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