Dear Tadejwith the Champs-Élysées in Paris ready to welcome you as the second-place finisher of a Tour that you won the previous two times, I wanted to remind you before you go up to the podium in your white jersey, that in recent days only one cry has been heard, coming from ‘Radio Tour’, those who report what happens in the test and the first, behind you, who almost immediately notice your offense, seconds before they see it million viewers. That phrase was repeated almost every day in French and English: “Attaque de Pogacar, Pogacar attack! & rdquor ;, which obviously does not need to be translated.
You lost count of how many times you tried as a wounded champion against a Jonas Vingegaard who in no case should be belittled or detracted from for winning a Tour that in his birth carried you in the womb as the only contender for a victory that has escaped you because of a mistake you made at the Granon.
Indurain, 1996
And, possibly, that mistake will come in handy so that you won’t make it again in the future, not on the Tour, not anywhere else. Eating and drinking is a must for any champion. There isn’t a great star on the Tour who didn’t make that mistake at some point in his career. is reminded of Miguel Indurain struck down by a ‘bird’ in Les Arcs, in 1996, in a Tour, very different from yours, and even with a Danish winner who fortunately Vingegaard is nothing like. That fainting of the Navarrese champion marked the beginning of the end of him in the conquest of a sixth victory in Paris, which never came. In your case, with 23 yearsthe future is huge, in the Tour and in any other race you sign up for.
Because, essentially, there is a big difference between you and Vingegaard, and that is undoubtedly what drives you to write this kind of open letter. Because you don’t do like the vast majority of great bike geniuses who aspire to a victory in Paris. Those champions disappear, at least until June, when the dauphine wave Tour of Switzerland They mark the way to the podium of the Champs Elysées. They are not seen in late winter or early spring. And that’s what he’s done this year Vingegaard, dedicate the entire season to preparing the Tour, in silence, without making noise, without attracting attention and even doing well that only your candidacy was talked about. But what was done by Vingegaard it’s what they did Chris Froome, Lance Armstrong (doping apart), Jan Ulrich And till Indurain. The spring races were taken as training with a dorsal with an eye on the Tour.
fantastic season
You are different. debuts in the Emirates Tour, because it is the race of the bosses who pay you, and you win it. You go to the Strade Bianche, you escape 40 kilometers from the finish line and give a lesson in cycling and honor. you sign up for the Milan-San Remo and you are the first to attack at the Poggio. They recommend you to play the Tour of Flanders for a first contact with the boulders and you can’t think of anything else but to escape in the company of Mathieu van der Poel to dispute the victory until the very finish line and you end up exciting your countrymen by taking the Tour of Slovenia with the feeling that you haven’t even messed up your hair. And only a family misfortune deprived you of running the Liège-Bastogne-Liège, which you won in 2021.
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You are, therefore, the inspiration and the maximum respect for this sport. Therefore, another defeated in the Granonhe would have already faced the rest of the Tour with the mask of the defeated and would have dedicated himself to putting away his clothes to finish second in Paris, without attacking and without offering the show that you gave especially in the Pyrenees until the rear wheel skidded and arrived the snap that put an end to your duel with Vingegaard.
Many would like them to have been born in their town, but it doesn’t matter, they respect you as if you were the best of neighbors and they are happy that the freshness of your 23 years allows you to aspire to everything in the coming years, cyclists with permission, of course, by Jonas Vingegaard.