Tour de France: In search of Pogacar .’s weaknesses

Can Tadej Pojakar be captured? No one is unbeatable, in the opinion of the sporting directors of the French WorldTour teams, but the Slovenian, two-time Tour de France winner, offers all guarantees at the start of Copenhagen to continue his lease.

“It’s impressive!” said Christian Guiperto (Cofidis). “If he has little weaknesses, it doesn’t really show. At one point, you could have said the team around him was less efficient in the mountains than the others. But the team just got stronger” with the arrival of New Zealander George Bennett, appointed to the rival squad Jumbo, And Spaniard Marc Soler.

Julien Jurdie (AG2R Citroën) raises the same reservation. For him, too, the team organized around Pogacar represents the potential flaw in the shield.

“At certain times in the race, we feel that the UAE doesn’t necessarily have the best team team, especially in the mountains. We have to see anyway,” comments the technician from Saint-Etienne on a group that has pole ranks Rafal Majka, an experienced runner (32 years old) He twice won the GP de la Montagne at the Tour de France before joining Pogacar last year.

“Finding fault with the Pogacar is very complicated,” admits Jurdie who, without believing him too much, evokes “a certain fatigue of always winning.” “When you’re so strong you can suddenly make little mistakes,” he says, before listing the risks inherent in a three-week race, “Illness, falls, whatever you don’t want. No.”

– ‘Difference in their patterns’ –

“The problem with Pogacar’s opponents is that he is talented everywhere,” admits Thierry Pricaud (Groupama-FDJ), similar to his colleagues. “He knows how to ride fast, he knows how to climb, he knows how to run, he’s a real courier. He’s skilled on the bike, he knows how to do everything.”

However, Prikod also points to the playful personality of the young Slovenian man (23 years old): “He has phases where he can get a little sore. He takes a lot of fun on the bike and from time to time unwinds a bit because he’s probably feeling confident of himself. She’s in His state of mind, but over the course of three weeks, you can play some tricks with him.”

Will the race be undisturbed and thus lead to Pogacar’s impeachment? “This is how he can get stuck by being isolated 50 miles from the end and finding himself with the other leaders. These are situations where he can be destabilized but there isn’t anything. There’s a lot in the tour,” Pricaud reckons, citing the Tour example. In the Basque Country 2021, the last “defeat” of Bougacar in a staged race (third).

“The difference is in their plans,” Guiberteau confirms. “There is absolutely no risk-taking strategy, they think it’s better to go that way to protect their leaders, everyone is afraid of losing everything.” Especially in the case of a yellow jersey well hanging on the shoulders of its owner, despite the scattering of traps on the track.

“Pogacar does cyclocross in the winter, he’s skilled, he’s one with his bike, the cobbled stage wouldn’t be a problem for him,” Jurdie predicts. Indeed, Guiberteau sums up, “In a one-on-one match, he is impregnable.”