Pogacar poised to win Tour de France after shock turnaround
Tadej Pogacar all but clinched the Tour de France on Saturday after his Slovenian compatriot Primoz Roglic let a 57 seconds lead slip in a tricky individual time-trial, the last day of real racing.
The 21-year-old Pogacar will lead the peloton into Paris on Sunday wearing the overall leader’s yellow jersey and, barring disaster, will climb onto the top step of the podium.
Pogacar pulverised the field with his stage-winning performance, and his team hugged and kissed him as they realised the 20202 Tour was theirs.
“My dream was just to take part,” said Pogacar on his first Tour de France.
“I could hear nothing on the final climb and I went for it with everything,” he said.
Roglic had led the Tour since stage nine and his dramatic meltdown on the final climb means Pogacar become the youngest postwar champion.
The UAE rider Pogacar changed bikes, which took 12 seconds, after the 30km rolling section to tackle the 6km eight percent climb at top speed.
The 30-year-old Roglic, known to panic, only decided to change bikes once he began to crumble fast, but it became painfully clear he was in for a horrible finale.
