Slovenian cycling sensation Tadej Pogacar wins Tour de France for the second time in a row

(CNN) – The last stage of Tour de France which concluded this Sunday in Paris confirmed the Slovenian cyclist Tadej Pogacar as the winner of the race for the second consecutive year.

In reality, Pogacar’s dominance in the 2021 Tour seemed almost like a caravan at times, especially after rivals such as compatriot Primoz Roglic and Geraint Thomas suffered crashes early in the race.

Roglic suffered a severe crash in the third stage and retired from the race a few days later. Despite dislocating his shoulder in the third stage, Thomas kept going, but slipped down the rankings.

On the mountain, Pogacar came under pressure from Jonas Vingegaard when the peloton climbed Mont Ventoux twice, but the Slovenian rallied to waste no time. The cyclist then prevailed in two summits in the Pyrenees.

The UAE Team Emirates rider won the Tour de France five minutes and 20 seconds ahead of second-placed Danish Vingegaard.

It was a sign of Pogacar’s dominance that he also won the polka dot and white jersey as King of the Mountain and best young rider, respectively.

Last year, Pogacar became the youngest winner since 1904 of the famous three-week race and the first Slovenian to wear the yellow jersey, cycling’s most coveted award.

The Pogacar era

Pogacar became known worldwide with his surprising victory in the Tour de France last year.

Since then, he has become a true superstar of the sport, and his second consecutive victory on the Tour culminates one of the most meteoric ascents of recent times.

At just 22 years old, Pogacar looks set to be a dominant force in cycling Grand Tours for many years to come, but the Slovenian has scoffed at the idea that this is the beginning of a “Pogacar era.”

“I don’t consider this to be the ‘Pogacar era’,” the Slovenian rider told reporters after scoring another dominant victory on stage 18. “That’s stupid in my opinion, but a new era is sure to come.”

“We see many young people reaching the highest level and we will see many battles between all, many young names. The next few years will be very tough.”

However, former Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas, while admitting that Pogacar is “a talented guy”, told ITV4 that “no one is unbeatable.”

Slovenian compatriots

Many of those who fight at the highest level are Pogacar compatriots.

Primoz Roglic, 31, has already established himself as one of the best riders of his generation, with two victories in the general classification of the Tour of Spain, while Matej Mohoric, only 26 years old, is already two-time Slovenian champion of road cycling and has at least one individual stage victory in each of cycling’s three Grand Tours, claiming his stage victory on the Tour on Friday.

Pogacar’s girlfriend Urska Zigart claimed the first professional victory of her career earlier this season at just 24 years old, contributing to the country’s burgeoning cycling reputation.

It is a remarkable achievement for this young nation of barely 2 million inhabitants, which has already begun to dethrone the most established powers of cycling. France, which has not had a Tour winner since Bernard Hinault in 1985, has a population of more than 67 million people.

The surprise is the meteoric rise of Pogacar

Pogacar’s rise to Tour de France glory might not have been a surprise; the only surprise was that it happened so quickly.

Just three years ago, Pogacar won the prestigious Tour l’Avenir, a race for under-23 riders that follows the conclusion of the Tour de France and often part of the same course.

If Pogacar’s victory was one of the most important, this year’s Tour was not always a bed of roses, after a woman produced a banner and caused the fall of dozens of cyclists during the first stage.

According to video coverage of the race of Saturday’s incident, the banner struck German cyclist Tony Martin, who was pedaling near the head of the peloton. Martin fell, resulting in the subsequent fall of dozens of cyclists behind him.

The cyclists fell in droves and the crash left bicycles and bodies tangled in the road. The fall stopped the race for several minutes.

The woman allegedly holding a banner was identified and subjected to police questioning, the Brest prosecutor’s office reported to CNN.