Tour de France: “Crucial for the tour”: Pogacar wants Alpen-Revanche

Superstar Tadej Pogacar rarely shows large weaknesses on the bike. But two years ago, the fans marveled at a break -in, which has not yet existed in the three -time winner of the Tour de France. When the Slovenian on the royal stage with the climbing game over the Col de la Loze in the Alps fell back by several minutes and permanently rival Jonas Vingegaard paved the way to his second tour, the world champion experienced its greatest defeat. “I’m dead,” Pogacar sparked his team at the time.

Almost two years later, on the way to the Alpine giant – with a slightly different route guide than at that time – probably the next big duel between both exceptional drivers. Again the royal stage of the Tour of France is pending, with a whopping 5,450 meters of altitude.

Pogacar: “I look forward to it”

“It is one of the stages that I like very much and it is also crucial for the tour. So I’m really looking forward to it,” said Pogacar the day before the climbing spectacle. He hoped that he could reciprocate for his heavy legs from two years ago.

The exceptional driver recently made it clear that the Col de la Loze was one of the toughest climbs that he had ever contested in his career. Pogacar recently suspected that the mountains of this year’s tour had been created in order to “scare him a little”. He had experienced serious bankruptcies in both Hautacam in the Pyrenees and at the Col de la Loze.

Pogacar and Vingegaard have been making the tour victory among themselves since 2020. In the overall ranking, Pogacar is 4:15 minutes in front of the Danish before the 18th stage. The German young star Florian Lipowitz takes third place – 9:03 minutes behind Pogacar.

Sprinter must go to the load limit

The most demanding stage of the three -week tour demands everything from the drivers. A 26 km long climb with an average climb of 6.5 percent is imminent up to the mountain arrival. A total of three climbs of the highest category are waiting, including the mountain arrival.

The sprinters in particular will have a hard time. Phil Bauhaus, who gave up on the Col-de-La-Loze stage about 105 kilometers before the finish two years ago and probably exceeded the time limit anyway, is preparing for a hard load test.

“The next few days are only about getting to the finish line in the waiting period,” said the 31-year-old after his 12th place on the 17th stage in Valence at the possibly last chance of success for the Sprinter on this tour. On the days in the Alps it will be “very difficult” to stay with the tour at all, Bauhaus feared.