The moment of truth has arrived at the Tour. The moment where all positions in the race will be decided, where the cyclist who goes through a bad moment will pay dearly. A dramatic scenario that came after one of the editions of Large Boucle most exciting and inspiring in memory and after playing the first 18 days.
Only three chapters remain to understand this masterpiece, which undoubtedly gives the feeling that it was written by a visionary, a lover of excitement. Three final acts marked by high mountains and the last hour test in Nicethe first year the Tour never ends Paris on the occasion of the celebration of Olympic Games. A test in which the race arrives with clearly well-defined positions in its most advanced places in the general classification, but by no means certain, given the development of the competition at the moment, the scenario that awaits theirs and the entity of opponents.
The Slovenian Tadej Pogacar –who will now lead this Tour for the 15th day and wear yellow for the 37th time in his career, becoming the eighth cyclist in history to hold this privilege for the most days along with Nicolas Frantz–, has a margin of 3’11” on the Dane Jonas Vingegaard and 5’09” in Belgian Remco Evenepoel; with Alava Mikel Landa 5th and the Granadan Carlos Rodríguez6th.
The bodies are very tired and the stages that await the heroes of the Tour are incredible. There is enough ground for great works and great disasters.
Tribute to Bahamontes
Of the three remaining stages, the first, now, may be the key. Decisive, so how much Pogacar has defined it as the queen stage of this Tour. It offers a short route, 144.6 kilometers, which is always a double-edged sword, with a profile that rises from the start and includes all the ingredients for a real battle, especially in the special sprint of Guillestre at kilometer 21. The first special climb in the category awaits the cyclists soon –Col de Vars2,109 meters, 18.8 km at 5.7%–, followed 40 kilometers later by the second ‘hors catégorie’: the Cime de la Bonette (22.9 km at 6.9%), on the highest road (2,802 meters) in Europe.
This is the roof of the Tour and the one remembered Federico Martin BahamontesOur Toledo Eaglethe first to reach this peak in 1962 and 1964. Today is the fifth pass on this mythical pass in a stage that is expected to be brutal and with runners and teams, as in the Dane Vingeggard2nd, that they should act to recover the lost land, with permission from the chief Pogacar who is not afraid of conflict and a Evenepoel (3rd) facing a new challenge in the high mountains.
Tomorrow, Saturday, the penultimate stage proposes another short route, 132.8 kilometers, and four climbs, three of them first class and the last one at high altitude; before the final 33.7 kilometer time trial which starts at Monaco and ends with Nicethat what happened in the penultimate stage of 2020 tourwhen during the The Planche des Belles Fillesfinal stage, Pogacar fly and snatch victory from Roglic in what was his first Tour de France.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Robert Maynard, and I am a passionate journalist with experience in sports writing. For the last few years, I have been writing for Today Times Live. My main focus has been on sports-related stories and features. With my strong background in journalism and extensive knowledge of the industry, I am able to provide readers with well-crafted pieces that are both informative and engaging.
