Tadej Pogačar has five stage wins at this year's Tour de France. Five. He's not a sprinter, but a general classification rider. To put that feat into perspective, it's the first time a non-sprinter has won five stages at the Tour since Bernard Hinault in 1981, and four of those were time trials. It just doesn't happen.
12 teams have won stages at this year's race, with ten going empty-handed - something unlikely to change on Sunday's final time trial - while Pogačar has won five. The UAE Team Emirates rider has won 19 races this year, which would put him joint-eighth on the team victory rankings, above Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, above Ineos Grenadiers.
The numbers are mind-boggling. He has raced 51 times this year, and won 19 times. That's a win every 2.7 race days.
However, the 19th win and fifth Tour de France stage of 2024 was not supposed to happen. Somehow, Pogačar won stage 20 by accident. He wanted the breakaway to take victory, but just ended up crossing the line in first place, after passing them with Jonas Vingegaard and then sprinting off in the last few hundred metres. Oops.
"Today was super hard," the Slovenian explained. "In my mind, the breakaway was gone, we went at our own pace with the guys. We keep the group together with the team. We keep all together, riding as a group. Then the race exploded. On Colmiane, Quick-Step did a super good pace, and I knew it was going to be a hard final climb. It was. Remco tried everything to drop Jonas, there were many attacks, and it was super hard to follow.
"The last time, when Remco attacked, Jonas did a counter attack directly over, I was really at the limit. I didn’t want to work with Jonas, I wanted to recover on his wheel, and maybe let a chance for Carapaz and Mas to go for the victory. I think Jonas wanted to gain more time on Remco just to be sure."
However much he wanted to let the breakaway take the victory, though, Pogačar was not prepared to gift a win to Vingegaard. Why should he? Vingegaard has beaten him at the last two Tours, and every win counts.
Asked if he should have let Vingegaard win, Pogačar paused, looking incredulous.
"You don’t give away stages to your closest competition, for sure not," he said. "We gave the breakaway enough time today. They had big chances. They had chances a lot of times. Sprinters also don’t say another sprinter can win, I will back off a bit. It’s a sport where you want to win, you need to win, and you’re paid to win. It’s a pressure, and you need to deliver, otherwise it’s not good for you. You alway need to go for the victory if you can."
The Tour was already decided, bar some incredibly bad fortune, on Friday night atop Isola 2000. Pogačar has over five minutes on Vingegaard, with only one stage to go. After the surprise of victory in 2020, and his dominant performance in 2021, this is a return to the top for the man who can't stop winning this year. This Tour has been one serious comeback.
"Compared to this year, I have to say that 2021 was probably close to now, but I think this year is one level higher," he explained. "It was more pressure, more focus on the Tour after two years where I couldn’t win. It’s just different. We can talk about it almost forever."
Having taken five stage wins, Pogačar might very well take a sixth on Sunday's time trial - he was second to Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) in the Tour's first test agains the clock, and this one suits the 25-year-old more. Don't expect him to gift it to anyone else.
