Jonas Vingegaard Wins Tour de France Again, After Vanquishing His Rival
When Tadej Pogacar slipped behind Jonas Vingegaard on the Col de la Loze mountain pass through the Alps on Wednesday, eight kilometers and a world away from the top of the hot, punishing climb, it was only briefly unclear why. Pogacar’s own voice, over his team’s radio and broadcast on television during the Tour de France’s 17th stage, provided an immediate explanation for the rare sight of Pogacar being left behind like a mere mortal.
“I’m gone,” he told his team. “I’m dead.”
It was an astonishing bit of television, a moment that will be replayed on every Tour de France broadcast for decades.
Most of Pogacar’s teammates did not wait for him. They did not try to help him. What would have been the point? There was no saving Pogacar’s race. The 24-year-old from Slovenia who usually rides with a smile on his face, perpetually unbothered, tufts of hair peeking out of his helmet, was gone.
He was dead. Vingegaard quickly rode away from him, and rode away with his second consecutive Tour de France victory.
Source: The New York Times
