Tadej Pogačar is flying, albeit against lesser competition
The winner of the past two Tours de France, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), took the lower-key entry into the Tour again this year, going into his home race and dominating the action along with teammate Rafal Majka.
The supreme climber and his mountain lieutenant won two stages apiece, with Pogačar winning the race overall with Majka finishing second. Domen Novak (Bahrain-Victorious) was a distant third, over two and a half minutes, but there wasn’t a true contender to oppose UAE Team Emirates.
“I feel great,” Pogačar said post-race. “It was an amazing week, amazing race and yeah, brilliant teamwork, brilliant stages and atmosphere. It was all incredible. And I’m super, super happy to take also today the win and the green jersey (leader’s jersey).”
Pogačar used the race as preparation for the Tour de France in 2021, to much the same result, with the form coming out of the Slovenian race sufficient for him to mount a convincing Tour de France campaign for victory.
“Here in Tour of Slovenia it was everything... except the super big climbs, cobbles, crosswinds,” Pogačar half-joked when comparing the two events.
“So still a lot to cover in three weeks in the Tour de France, but yeah, the shape looks good. The team looks good.“I hope it stays like this until the Tour and that we will have the same mentality, like here in Slovenia.“
“F*** these tyres”
It wasn’t all smooth sailing for Pogačar however… there was a particularly peculiar section after he and Majka had attacked on Stage 2 of the Tour of Slovenia and were descending to an assured victory where Pogačar skidded out then slowed to a crawl for the rest of the descent.
On the audio, Pogačar could be heard swearing about his tyres which had presumably been at fault for him losing traction. Despite the pair taking the rest of the treacherous descent and a very sedate tempo, they were only caught by one rider, Nicola Conci (Alpecin-Fenix), before dropping him on the final, short climb to the hill-top finish.
While it was never going to affect the race against the competition in Slovenia, the Tour de France is a different beast and Pogačar can’t afford to be that tentative against world-class competition.
Tour de Covid
The Tour de Suisse started with 154 riders… just 76 completed the race, with riders pulling out after contracting COVID-19, or with other illness, and a number of riders complaining of gastroenteritis.
It follows earlier stage races like Paris-Nice and the Volta a Catalunya where a particularly severe strain of bronchitis ripped through the peloton.
Hopefully, a buffer of a few weeks between most major races (with the obvious exception of national championships) and the Tour de France proves enough of a stop to prevent a repeat scenario at the biggest race in the world. However, the Tour organisers are relaxing requirements for vaccinations among the travelling entourage of media, race staff and officials, and are also without the strict bubble system and mass tests of recent Tours.
It could force the greatest event in cycling into a much-limited form if over half the peloton gets wiped out in a week like at the Tour de Suisse.
Thomas back to Tour-winning form?
It was Geraint Thomas who won the Tour de Suisse in the end, after the lead changed every day in the final four stages. Alexsandr Vlasov (BORA-hansgrohe) won Stage 5, then had to pull out with COVID, meaning that Jakob Fuglsang (Israel Premier-Tech) inherited the leader’s jersey the next day.
Then it was Sergio Higuita’s (BORA-hansgrohe) turn, as he danced away on the hardest finishing climb of the race before Thomas provided a very strong final time trial to claim the victory. The British rider will be hoping a similar script plays out in France, with a similar length TT on the penultimate stage of this year’s Tour.
“I just want to go there and race hard and do what I can,” Thomas said after the race. “We’ve got two other leaders on the team.
"Whether I stay up on GC for a while to play another card, go for stages, or help other guys … whatever. I’m happy to do whatever. I’ll take my chance for sure if it comes, I’ll help the boys if I have to.”
Sprinters and stage-winning types tune form in Belgium
The Baloise Belgium Tour was where the riders not keen on the high mountains of the Dauphine or the Tour de Suisse went to test themselves on the traditionally tough roads of Belgium.
The stage finales were typical of the region, packed with traffic furniture and seeing some chaotic dashes to the line that probably masked as much as they showed of the key sprinter’s form heading into the Tour de France.
What is certain is that the top quickest riders at that race were Fabio Jakobsen (QuickStep Alpha Vinyl) and Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Fenix). Neither could quite get a consistent leadout going during the race, but that didn’t stop them winning a stage apiece.
Jakobsen looks like the fastest man in the world at present, and while he’ll need a bit better delivery at the Tour de France that in Belgium, Michael Mørkøv and the rest of the QuickStep train are top dogs in the high-pressure and fine-margin world of leadouts.
It was a double success on the final stage for QuickStep as Mauro Schmid won the race overall.
