WWhen you see him riding, dominating and winning like this, it’s easy to forget just how young he is. So young that at the end of the day’s racing he is asked onto the stage twice to receive the jersey for the overall leader as well as the jersey for the best young professional in the field. If, at the age of 24, he were to only exhibit all his main prizes from his four professional years in the first division of his sport, he would have to rent an extension in his adopted home of Monaco.
Tadej Pogacar didn’t have far to go home on Sunday with his freshest gold trophy. He could have simply strapped her onto the luggage rack and cycled the 20 kilometers from the Promenade de Anglais in Nice along the coast to the Principality. At a fast pace, of course. After his impressive performance at Paris-Nice, it is clear that the Slovenian superstar would have had the strength and the ability to do so.
Pogacar wins by a wide margin
It is now a fixed, decades-old ritual among fans and experts in cycling to derive something from the outcome of the traditional “race to the sun”, as will be run in the summer at the Tour de France, sometimes on the same roads. Only Bradley Wiggings (2012) and Egan Bernal (2019) managed to prove an excellent early form in March at Paris-Nice and then to be the best on the tour. Pogacar is well on its way to being there this season.
The Slovenian seized the 81st edition of the prestigious long-distance race in a manner that scared the competition. With a view to the upcoming classics, in which Pogacar naturally wants to get involved, with a view to the Tour of France and in general. With an insatiability like Eddy Merckx once did, he picked up every bonus second in the sprint and left the best climbers standing on the mountain as if in flight. Still without a hint of the cynical coldness that once surrounded dominators like Lance Armstrong, but with the good nature and joy of cycling that he almost always exudes.
Of six stages ridden – one fell victim to bad weather – Pogacar won the three most difficult ones and ended up 53 seconds ahead of Frenchman David Gaudu and even 1:39 minutes ahead of his Danish rival and reigning Tour champion Jonas Vingegaard. The widest gap at the top of Paris-Nice in ten years.
“It has always been my goal and dream to win this race and to do it now is incredible,” said Pogacar. What means to an end did he choose? “They say attack is the best form of defence.” He’s been following this motto for a long time. On Wednesday he easily parried an attack from Vingegaard and won the stage that led up to the La Loge des Gardes ski station. Actually, it wasn’t Pogacar and his team UAE’s plan to take the overall lead. But: “You never say no to yellow,” said the lightweight – and from then on no longer gave up the yellow outer dress.
On Saturday’s queen stage, Gaudu and Vingegaard were also at a disadvantage as Pogacar sprinted past them like a breeze at the end of a grueling day. The two-time Tour winner achieved a true attacking masterpiece that shouldn’t leave anyone in the dark on Sunday’s final stage – in the middle of his home training ground. The ascent to the Col d’Eze became his solo show when he sped off on the big chain ring and snatched away his opponent for 30 seconds alone on the six kilometer long final climb with an average gradient of 7.6 percent. “I know the roads here very well, have trained a lot here and know exactly how much I can invest on the last climb to get to the top. I calculated it very well,” said Pogacar happily after his victorious debut at Paris-Nice.
A racer who has fantastic abilities, goes everywhere to win, seems to be able to handle all kinds of weather and never falls. Pogacar has competed in three competitions this season, winning an incredible seven out of 13 days of racing. His team has not only found new strong helpers for Pogacar – newcomer Felix Großschartner, who came from Team Bora, prepared his captain for the coup on Sunday powerfully – but has, it seems, also been able to reduce the backlog in material.
This is all news that Vingegaard and his team, Jumbo-Visma in particular, provide brain teasers. Now, no tour winner has been made in March. But if you want to defeat this Pogacar from spring in the summer, you still have to pick up the pace.