The final hundreds of meters of a Tour stage couldn’t be much more exciting than Friday’s at La Super Planche des Belles Filles. Discovered by the Tour organization only ten years ago, the climb has never disappointed.
German Lennard Kämna seemed to defy predictions and had enough lead in the last kilometer to take the victory in the seventh stage of the Tour de France. He knew, like all riders with plans, about the last kilometer. Then the circus act would begin, indicated by the word ‘super’. Is that in the name of the climb, like Friday, then you know that the last thousand meters are extremely difficult. And treacherous.
After the red triangle of the last kilometer, Kämna drove another flat piece that in no way prepared him for what came next: a steep unpaved stretch of about six hundred meters.
The Bora rider pulled himself apart, wanted to stand on the pedals and sat down again, because the ground of sand and stones requires a subtle way of pedaling. Do not push too hard, then the rear wheel will slip, but you must exert enough force not to be overtaken. Kämna was unable to find that balance.
Luminous
And there he arrived: the man in yellow – which is called: an almost luminous ensemble of yellow jersey, trousers, bicycle, helmet, glasses. Tadej Pogacar had announced that he would come up first on this final climb and put his words into action. He managed to stand on the pedals plowing through the gravel, even in a bend, and, together with Jonas Vingegaard of Jumbo-Visma, counted into the drifting Kämna.
That was that for Pogacar, it seemed, the loot was in, despite Vingegaard’s presence. But the dessert was yet to come: an unadulterated wall. Three hundred meters of asphalt, yes, but 24 percent up.
Certainly, in the meantime a lot of leaders, recognizable by a jersey number that ends with ‘1’, had capitulated by Pogacar’s vigor. But the winner of the last two Tour de France had failed to finish all his competitors on the 7-kilometer climb, which is 8.7 percent steep on average. Jumbo-Visma and Ineos-Grenadiers, for example, each had three riders who could not quite follow the pace of the yellow, but still reasonably. “We saw today how many riders are still super strong,” said Pogacar after the ride.
But Jonas Vingegaard, the surprising number two of last year’s Tour of Jumbo-Visma, actually passed Pogacar on the steep asphalt section. The surprised Slovenian seemed unable to catch up with the Dane. Sweet revenge was therefore within reach for Jumbo-Visma.
On the same slope, but without the ‘super’ part, in 2020, just 21 years old, Pogacar drove his compatriot Primoz Roglic from Jumbo-Visma completely unexpectedly out of yellow in a climbing time trial and achieved his first Tour victory. Almost five years of Jumbo-Visma’s preparations were wiped out in one fell swoop.
reserve tank
But now Vingegaard could somewhat erase that shame. Were it not for the fact that Pogacar found a reserve tank somewhere in his body and drove very slowly back to the second leader of Jumbo-Visma. Still 75 meters to go: Pogacar just behind. Another 50 meters: Pogacar next to it. Another 25 meters: Pogacar in front.
The winner rode happily on, but Vingegaard, totally devastated, would have fallen a meter behind the line of his bike if an official had not arrived quickly. Behind them, at 12 counts, the first Jumbo-Visma leader, Roglic, was third. No revenge for him either, at least on paper, because third place is a remarkably good achievement after his heavy crash in Wednesday’s cobblestone stage.
In that tumble, Roglic lost more than 2 minutes, which means that he is now only thirteenth in the general classification. Vingegaard is now Pogacars next to attacker for the yellow card at 35 seconds. Former Tour winner Geraint Thomas follows at 1 minute 10 in third.
They can cling, if perhaps desperately, to the performance of Pogacar’s side on Friday. “Months ago I decided to try and win this ride,” he said. It worked, but before that he seemed to burn his entire UAE squad.
All day long, his servants, or all his seven teammates, dragged themselves in front of the pack to fulfill their leader’s ambition. When the final climb started, he had the respectable three of them left. Rafal Majka is highest in the pecking order and was the last helper to give way to the action leader of the classification leader.
But Majka sent a good distance from the finish and of the group that then continued on the Vosges climb, Pogacar was almost the only one who didn’t have a teammate with him. The lone jersey wearer was a bit thin against the rest, but the Slovenian also won his first Tour on his own in the same place.