The impossible challenge Pogacar will seek in the Tour after sweeping the Giro

Farewell to Turn around and thinking of him Tour. When at the end of last December the Slovenian became known Tadej Pogacar I would have run for the first time Italy is spinning and that one month after the end of 107th edition of the Corsa Rosa is on the line departure of the Tour de France from Florence There are some dissenting voices raised, due to the difficulty of the task, it is not in vain that no one has managed to win the Giro d’Italia and the Tour in the same year since the Italian achieved it. Marco Pantani in 1998.

Pogacar changed its racing calendar and program and the results seem to prove it right, beyond its excellent quality there is no doubt. He had lost almost every race he participated in before the Giro, a good level that he not only maintained but increased in his first Corsa Rosa. The leader of UAE Team Emirates He dominated the Giro peloton as he wanted. He has been the master and lord of the race and arguably has no rival, as shown by the extreme margin of 9’56” with respect to second place, the Colombian Daniel Felipe Martínezthe six stage victories, five of them pink, or the 20 days he commanded the race.

After these results, there were fewer dissenting voices who believed that Pogacar’s challenge to link the Giro and Tour was too bold. At this point, Joxean Fernández ‘Matxin’, general manager of UAE Team Emirates, explained to the MD that the drawn route map was correct. “We see Pogacar well for the Tour, but we’re going to see how the rivals are doing. Now the rivals already know how he is, but we are going to see how they are, but I repeat, I see him well, but we have to understand that we are not competing alone and we have to be careful.

In favor of Pogacar He reveals that there is only one month left and he has a plan drawn up that should allow him to regain the throne of the Tour that the Dane has made. Jonas Vingegaard took the last two seasons, at the expense of how the runner of Team Visma-Bike Lease after the serious fall he suffered at Itzulia. At this moment he increased the intensity of his training to Majorca and we first have to see if he is on the list of runners from the Dutch team who will be doing altitude concentration before the Tour. Pogacar, along with his colleagues from the UAE, will travel to Island 2000 after being disconnected for a few days at his home in Monaco with his partner, also a cyclist Urška Žigart.

As ‘Matxin’ the former professional cyclist and MD analyst Eduardo Chozas He doesn’t see why Pogacar couldn’t do the double: “In the Tour he didn’t have to pay for the effort of the Giro. Nobody demanded it and he was always well supported. He didn’t take any beatings. He was in better physical condition condition than others and they still have to stop him if he doesn’t win more stages Tour with full battery.

The Dauphié test for Evenepoel and Roglic

Despite this superiority and this galactic condition of Pogacar, it is not easy to achieve the Giro-Tour double in the same season. Proof of this is that it hasn’t achieved anything since Marco Pantani in 1998. Miguel Indurain He achieved it twice (1992, 1993), but closer champions, such as Alberto Contador, Vincenzo Nibali or Chris Froome cannot sign it.

Only one month left to resolve the doubts, which more than Pogacar seems to be on the performance of its great rivals. First to see if finally Jonas Vingegaard will run on the ‘Grande Boucle’ and then check what the performance of Primoz Roglic and of Remco Evenepoel, was also involved in the fall of Itzulia. The Belgian is making his Tour debut and the Slovenian will try to avoid the bad luck that follows him in the French race; We will see them both in Dauphiné Criterium which starts this Sunday.