The scenes couldn't be more different on a golden evening in Nice on a warm Sunday evening. On one side, cheers, water being thrown, lots of hugs, a whole team wearing specially designed t-shirts. On the other, silence, a word from a partner, and acceptance of disappointment. As the Patrouille de France - the French Red Arrows - flew overhead in the colours of the tricolor, the dichotomy was clear.
That's the cruelty of winning or losing in individual sport. It's all or nothing. Tadej Pogačar, after two consecutive editions where he had to deal with the ignominy of winning, was able to finally taste victory again at the Tour de France, while Jonas Vingegaard had to stand there, watch his greatest rival celebrate.
It is a reversal of how the last two editions have ended, with Pogačar licking his wounds while Vingegaard was triumphant. In 2022, after his first defeat, Pogačar promised "a lot had been learned". Last year, after another chastening performance, the UAE Team Emirates rider said that he hoped to "come back stronger and without injury".
This was Pogačar, then, after lessons had been learned and he had strengthened, and without injury. Is it that simple? To come from bitter disappointment in 2022 and 2023 to this dominant victory in 2024. Six stage wins. Three Tour triumphs at the age of 25. The Giro-Tour double. It all seems like a lot.
"This year my preparation went really smooth," Pogačar explained in his post-victory press conference. "In 2022 I had one bad day, Jumbo at that time with Primož [Roglič] and Jonas and all the time they cracked me really good. They threw great punches at me and I cracked. That was one bad day, one mistake, which I couldn't bounce back from.
"I was really motivated to come back in 2023. I started the season super good... but then I crashed at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. I broke my wrist, I started riding the bike one month before the Tour started, and it was s*** preparation. In the end I cracked mentally and physically, and I was just really down from that. To bounce back this year, with the perfect preparation, I am super happy that I could pull it off."
The Slovenian, normally verbose and funny, seemed lost for words, such was the scale of his achievement: "It’s hard to describe how I feel right now. It’s all a bit crazy. The craziest feelings I‘ve had so far in cycling, for me."
After two years of having to watch from the other side, it was clear that the comeback - the bounce back - meant a lot for Pogačar. The scenes on the podium, with his whole team, seemed especially poignant. A lot had gone into this victory, even if it looked like a canter at the end.
It is staggering, really, to think about the achievement. Six stage wins at the Giro d'Italia, but six stage wins at the Tour de France, against the calibre of opposition he was facing, seems momentous.
"I think this year was really special for me, but coming into the Tour against Remco [Evenepoel], Jonas and Primož, and others," Pogačar said. "Expectations were high for the big showdown, big battle at the Tour. I think it was. We threw so many punches at each other in the race, everyone showed balls at one point, every single one of the riders, from first to last.
"It was a great show, but in the end, I can be happy and proud at the end. I can be happy and proud that I came out of this a winner. It’s a beautiful moment of cycling, and this kind of competition is going to go into the next years."
To the casual viewer, it might have seemed that none of those punches really landed. Pogačar was the best at the beginning, and he was the best at the very end. Six stage wins takes him into the top 10 of all time, and he's only just getting started.
Sunday's stage 21 was a case in point of Pogačar's dominance. He didn't even wear overshoes in his time trial, and yet he put over a minute into Vingegaard, the man who vanquished him in the time trial at last year's race. There is not slowing down; he is insatiable.
"I started with a good feeling in Monaco, I was enjoying the crowds," he explained. "I felt really good on the climb, and when you train for a Tour de France stage you want to win it. I trained so much on these roads that Urška [Žigart, his partner] kind of hated me for it.
"I was thinking in my head that I wanted to see how I could do, after so many days on this road, doing recons so many times. I wanted to see I could do it, and in the meantime, I could still enjoy the crowds. They were cheering full gas, and they gave me even more motivation to go fast today."
What's next for Pogačar? The Olympics beckons, as do the World Championships, both with courses that are eminently winnable for the Slovenian. He isn't done raising his hands in victory yet. There will be no Vuelta a España this year, but he will surely try to win it in the next couple of years, and then there are the outstanding Monuments. He said on French TV that he fancied a go Paris-Roubaix, and Milan-San Remo is very much in his wheelhouse.
He says he doesn't care about records, but is clearly just desperate to win it all. "I don’t like to see myself in the records, statistics, history," he said. "Maybe in 30 years I will look about this, but right now, I want to enjoy this moment. Even if I never come back to the Tour de France I will be satisfied."
For now, though, he's "super tired", and looking forward to some rest. Just don't expect Pogačar to stop winning soon. He proclaims a "golden age" for cycling, but it's his really. We're in the Pogačar era.
