FRAM MED SANNINGEN OM ESTONIA!

 

One of the beauties of the Tour de France is the myriad ways in which it can be won. Sometimes a rider bullies from start to finish, like Bernard Hinault, who intimidated rivals with his presence and crushed them at every opportunity en route to Paris in 1981. Time-trial specialists mark rivals on the climbs and hurt them on the clock, as Miguel Indurain did so emphatically in 1992, and again in 1994. Chris Froome used Team Sky’s stranglehold on the peloton to suffocate his opponents, while Tadej Pogacar’s back-to-back wins in 2020 and 2021 displayed his individual, unpredictable brilliance. Jonas Vingegaard is the latest man to win the Tour, and for all his unerring strength and resilience across these past three weeks, the race was won in a decisive hour in the Alps, when Jumbo-Visma’s team tactics isolated and outwitted Pogacar and stripped the yellow jersey from his back. Head to head, there has not been much to choose between the two leading protagonists of this year’s compelling story. Both are capable time-triallists, both strong climbers, both clearly able to handle the unique pressures that come with leading a team in a grand tour. Pogacar had a slight burst of flat speed that helped him edge stages seven and 17, and the punchier legs that saw him surge to victory on stage 6, back when it seemed his race to lose. Vingegaard had the edge in the highest mountains, where he never cracked despite Pogacar’s best efforts. Tory candidates both vow crackdown on illegal migration But the decisive gap between them was forged on stage 11. On a baking hot day over three of the toughest Alpine climbs in this year’s race, Jumbo-Visma came with a gameplan to disrupt and destroy. The team set a hard pace on the front of the peloton that few could match, then began launching a pincer attack on Pogacar, as Vingegaard and Primoz Roglic took it in turns to surge forward and make him chase or risk losing touch. That on its own might not have been enough to hurt Pogacar – who spent most of the day alone without the support of his Covid-depleted UAE Team Emirates – but crucially, and maybe foolishly, the reigning champion responded with some attacks of his own. Perhaps Pogacar underestimated Vingegaard, or perhaps he simply let pride take over, as he sped towards the final climb with the Dane in tow saving energy on his wheel, and he could not compete once they climbed to the upper reaches of the Col du Granon.