“It’s good to have the yellow shirt,” said the captain of the UAE Emirates team. “It gives confidence and motivation to everyone in the team. The yellow jersey is something you can’t say no to, you ride every day with pride and a smile on your face.” Pogacar may be smiling, but his opponents are not. With another 15 days of matches to come, this could be a very long tour for some of them. So far they haven’t thrown a single punch. The leader’s yellow jersey is now back on the Slovenian’s shoulders without any significant climb to be tackled and there are all signs that the two-time Tour winner is just getting started. Friday’s summit finish on the Super Planche des Belles Filles, where he pulled off a remarkable coup to win his first Tour of 2020, is, the 23-year-old said, “special” to him. Back-to-back wins are now a distinct possibility. “The Super Planche des Belles Filles is special for me,” he said of the Vosges climb that saw him break the hapless Primoz Roglic’s grip on the race lead in September 2020. Now Pogacar will be favorite to win there again, in the extended gravel finish to the summit. “We will try to check [the race] but if it is not possible, it will not be a disaster,” he said, “but I should like to do it.” Australian sprinter Michael Matthews (Team Bike Exchange), buoyed by the Tour champion’s acceleration in the final 200m at Longwy, was full of praise for Pogacar. Tadej Pogacar wears the yellow jersey for the first time at the Tour de France 2022. Photo: Yoan Valat/EPA “It’s amazing to see a guy with that kind of talent put it to good use,” Matthews said. “He has won the Tour twice but he puts on a show for the fans, making it difficult for us riders. It will make it even more special when I can finally beat him.” What Pogacar does for this round is reduce it to a one horse race. His biggest rivals, the Jumbo-Visma and Ineos Grenadiers teams, could soon be pulling away for the podium places, particularly if Pogacar increases his lead in the Vosges on Friday. On the way to Longwy, Jumbo-Visma’s best laid plans failed when overnight leader Wout van Aert attacked in an attempt to put pressure on Pogacar. Van Aert’s move began as the peloton crossed back into France with just under 150km to race. From there, he pushed his two breakaway partners, Trek-Segafredo’s Quinn Simmons and Israel-Premier Tech’s Jakob Fuglsang, to their limits. Fuglsang, plagued by a mechanical problem, went first while Simmons, with 30km to go, simply couldn’t hang on to Van Aert’s coat tails any longer and shook his head in resignation as the race leader he was moving fast. Quick guide
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Thanks for your response. But Van Aert was swept with 11km to go and then fell far behind the peloton, with Pogacar emphasizing his superiority, making it a tactic that backfired. Now the Belgian is wearing a green sprinter and not a yellow one. Ineos Grenadiers, despite having four riders out of eight, must reassess their strategy. Perhaps Van Aert’s move was also indicative of a growing air of desperation now creeping into the peloton, with Pogacar already looking so dominant. It’s better to try something, anything, than to try nothing, even if you know it’s probably doomed to fail.
