(Florence) Despite a recent COVID-19, Tadej Pogacar advances as the big favorite of the Tour de France to regain his crown from a Jonas Vingegaard in mysterious form and achieve a Giro-Tour double unprecedented in the 21st century.
The 111th edition sets off from Florence on Saturday and it was difficult to find a more enchanting setting than the cradle of the Renaissance, the city of the Medici, Boticelli, Machiavelli and Donatello, where palaces and museums compete in beauty, to celebrate the first start of Italy in the more than century-old history of the event.
The cast is up to the moment as we will see for the first time at the start of a bike race the six cycling superstars – Pogacar, Vingegaard, Primoz Roglic, Remco Evenepoel, Mathieu van der Poel and Wout Van Aert.
Since the unveiling in October of the course, which will end on July 21 in Nice, again a great first because of the Olympics, we have been salivating at the prospect of seeing the first four, “the fantastic four”, battle for the yellow jersey . Each with a story to tell.
For Evenepoel, it is that of “exploration” as the Belgian prodigy says, who waited until he was 24 to discover the Tour.
For Roglic, it is the opportunity for sweet revenge, four years after being dispossessed of the yellow jersey by Pogacar on the penultimate day.
For Vingegaard, it is the stake of a third consecutive coronation, like Louison Bobet, Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Miguel Indurain and Chris Froome.
But one challenge surpasses all the others and it is up to Pogacar to take it up: winning the Tour of Italy and the Tour de France in the same year, a feat only achieved by seven riders in history, the last time by Marco Pantani in 1998.
Since then, it has been considered an almost impossible task and the last to really try it was Chris Froome, winner of the Giro in 2018, then third in the Tour, at the end of his strength.
Today, the Briton is convinced: “if there is one who can do it, it’s Pogacar. I ended up on my knees. Even though he flew over the Giro, Tadej was able to save a lot more. He has a very good chance. »
At the end of the Giro, the 25-year-old Slovenian, who can rely on a UAE team that looks like a Dream Team (Yates, Ayuso, Almeida, etc.), himself announced the color by claiming to have “never felt just as good on a bike.”
“If he stays healthy, he will be unbeatable,” Evenepoel concluded on Thursday, a few minutes before Pogacar pointed out that he had contracted COVID-19 ten days ago, a threat that is once again hanging over the Tour.
Enough to instill a slight doubt? “I am fully recovered,” assured “Pogi.”
Until proven otherwise, uncertainty first surrounds the state of form of his three main rivals, all swept away in the same collective fall at the beginning of April at the Tour of the Basque Country.
Roglic, the least affected, seems the most ready and has just won the Dauphiné.
Evenepoel, a victim of broken scapula and collarbone, formulated unusually cautious goals: “a stage victory and the best possible general classification.”
As for Vingegaard, he himself does not know what to expect after twelve days of hospitalization in April for fractures and a pneumothorax, and almost three months without racing, “the most difficult of my career”.
Since the Dane’s start could be laborious, many observers expect Pogacar to attack on Saturday, between Florence and Rimini during the first stage with the highest altitude difference (3700 m) in history of the Tour.
“He will jump at Vingegaard’s throat so as not to let him breathe and settle down quietly. I think that by Tuesday evening, we will have Pogacar with the yellow jersey,” predicts Julien Jurdie, the sports director of Décathlon-AG2R, to AFP.
Overall, the first week, “completely crazy” according to Roglic, could cause significant gaps since there will also be the Galibier on the program from the fourth day, for the return to France, a time trial in the vineyards of Burgundy and the dreaded Chemins Blancs stage of Troyes on Sunday July 7, the day of the second round of the legislative elections in France.
The Grande Boucle will then pass through the Cantal mountains, where Romain Bardet, for his last Tour, will want to aim for victory. Then the Pyrenees with the venerable Tourmalet. Before a finale in the Southern Alps, where we will climb very high (top of Bonnette at 2802 m) and a final time trial in Nice on Sunday July 21, thirty-five years after the legendary Fignon-Lemond duel on the Champs-Élysées .
