Tour de France: Tadej Pogačar – the fourth time another

Tadej Pogacar wins the Tour de France for the fourth time. His superiority remains unchallenged. But this year the Slovenian is no longer the boy who just wants to play.

Tadej Pogacar was dressed in yellow on the podium in Paris and felt uncomfortable. “I still haven’t got used to standing here and talking to so many people”said Pogacar. It wasn’t the first time that he was up there, the Champs Élsysées in mind. But maybe such a moment doesn’t actually become routine.

Tadej Pogačar has already won the Tour de France four times. At the age of 26, no cycling professional has managed. And it is difficult to believe that this will not follow fifth, sixth or even seventh times. The dominance with the Pogacar again contested the tour of France this year suggests that further tours will follow.

Vingegaard seems to resign

Himself Jonas Vingegaardwho was in the best condition this year and only remained well below his possibilities at the first time trial on the fifth day of the tour, has had no chance against Pogačar in the past three weeks. In the end, the Dane seemed almost resigned and at a loss, given the superiority of his competitor.

Vingegaard was still comparatively close after 3,300 kilometers with almost four and a half minutes behind. The total third of Florian Lipowitz was more than twelve minutes ago, the Frenchman Jordan Jegat In tenth place, took more than half an hour longer. And from 13th place, the gap was more than an hour.

Seriously and in the end too tired

But despite all the superiority, Pogačar was different in his fourth tour victory than in the three successes before. No longer the new cannibal with the face of a louse boy, which considered the largest and hardest bike races as a game with which he wanted to have maximum fun, flirted with every camera and made nonsense on his social media channels.

This time it didn’t exist. Pogačar seemed more serious this year, in the end also tired, sometimes also annoyed. Whether he is afraid of one Burn out I asked in Paris late in the evening. He would probably have dismissed the question last year, but now the question answered in detail.

“If I get a burn out, I could end my career and could be happy with what I have achieved”said Pogačar. Cycling professionals are sometimes too obsessive with their training and would then be tired early in the season, but would still have to run further. “Burn outs occur frequently and of course it can hit me too.”

The cannibal with the Lausbuben face is gone

In fact, the years at the top seem to pay tribute: When Pogačar first appeared on the tour in 2020, he was the new, the child prodigy, a young daredevil who turned the race on his head when he left his compatriot Primož Roglič the yellow jersey the day before. The following year he practically went without competition.

However, he became acquainted with a young Danes for the first time, who was actually intended as a helper for Primož Roglič, but after leaving it drove to second place. In the following two years, Vingegaard claimed the yellow jersey for himself and taught Pogačar in 2023. “I’m gone, I’m dead”Pogačar radioed back then Col de la Loze. At the end he was around seven and a half minutes in Paris behind Vingegaard.

In 2024 Vingegaard came to France with the experience of a horror fall that had feared him for his life. He was still good, but not good enough for Pogačar, who not only won yellow and won the mountain jersey, but also celebrated six stage wins.

The accusation: Pogačar is bored

There were four stage victories again this year. But the impression was that there could have been two or three more. Pogačar, it seemed, but refrained from just taking everything with you. The Slovenian primarily won the stages that were important. After gaining more than a minute on Vingegaard in the first time trial, he finally killed the yellow jersey on the first two Pyrenäenen stages.

The race was only half of it, but after that Pogačar only had to manage the more than four minutes ahead of the Danes. Neither on the prestigious stage to Mont Ventouxstill in the Alps, he was seriously trying to take another day of the day. In the first week he had said that he would not stop winning because he was finally paid for it.

The fact that Pogačar did not make any institutions in the Alps to add another 21 stage victories, although there were opportunities for occasions, brought him the accusation in France, he obviously bored. French ex-professionals and journalists therefore accused him of disrespectfulness compared to the Tour de France national sanctuary.

“I’m really sick”

In truth, Pogačar was obviously sick. In La Plagne Sitting on Friday after two cold rainy days he sunk into a thick down jacket with a hat on his head at the obligatory press conference. It looked like he had chills. A day later, when the peloton had driven again by heavy rain, he only answered the last question briefly, then to break off with the words: “I’m really sick.”

Regardless of his state of health, the undisputed sporting dominance of the Slovenia has also set itself a fundamentally new seriousness. Pogačar was not joking this time, his smile also no longer seemed youthful and he didn’t flirt with the cameras at the beginning of the tour. “I matured, more adult”said Pogačar. “It was my sixth tour. I can be more confident now that I have more experience.”

The role of the patron

A new understanding of roles apparently also goes hand in hand with the maturity. For the first time, Pogačar almost looked like the patron of the peloton. Just as the big touring winners were always, who always showed a certain hardness. In the first week he criticized the tactical behavior of Vingegaard’s team Visual–Lease a bikehad his helper Nils Politt put together attackers who started trying out when some of the peloton still made it easier on the roadside and moaned that the route was well designed to scare him because he was in Hautacamon the Mont Ventoux and on Col de la Loze had already been left behind by Vingegaard.

And as with the dominators of yore, there are now warning voices from cycling itself that speak of monotony and boredom. Pogačar acknowledged with an armpit shrugs that his hunger for victory is met with criticism and that he could possibly make a few friends with it: he would no longer have anything to do with 99 percent of the other drivers in the Peloton after his career.

Also the eternal skepticism with the Pogačar – despite its assertion – has long been confronted with its superiority, in view of its superiority, the ever new speed records such as this year on Mont Ventoux and his environment with relevant doping past.

In Paris, however, Pogačar looked more tired than ever before, even if he really wanted to know it again on the spectacular last stage there. That day he found his master in Wout van Aert. This may be the hardest tour he has ever driven, said the Slovenian.

The Slovenian does not want to take a break. He’ll probably be sitting on the bike again on Tuesday, drinking a coffee and enjoying the summer at home in Monaco. So just be the boy who has fun.