Cycling in rude health thanks to Pogacar and testingImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, A crowd of 180,000 spectators stood on Montmartre for Sunday’s finaleByMatt WarwickBBC Sport Senior JournalistPublished23 minutes agoTour de France fans were spoilt for choice in Paris when it came to drinking in the drama of cycling’s greatest race.Should their attention be all on Tadej’s Pogacar’s crowning as the joint most successful rider of all time, with five Tour titles?
But then what about Mathieu van der Poel’s superhero-style victory on the final stage, climaxing magnificently on the Champs-Elysees?
Or would the focus be on the sheer passion of a huge, fervent crowd which lined the streets on Montmartre and around Sacre-Coeur?
That last element illustrated a sport in rude health and again raised the question of why organisers had not run the traditional closing stage over the scenic cobbled hill before its debut visit last year.
Pogacar, the rarely beaten 27-year-old Slovenian, is widely regarded now as cycling’s greatest of all time.
The fifth Tour win helps in that respect, matching fellow greats Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain – but Pogacar can also point to his many successes elsewhere in cycling’s other huge events, such as one-day monuments.
Brutal Belgian Merckx stood alone as the sport’s greatest before now, thanks to a similar versatility on the bike – capable, like Pogacar, of winning in all formats: time trials, cobbles, high mountains and even some sprints.
But perhaps what elevates Pogacar to the top now is his respectful demeanour, paying tribute as he did in Paris to every one of his domestiques by name, before thanking his family.
He also shepherded his young UAE-Team Emirates-XRG team-mate Isaac del Toro across the line on more than one occasion during this year’s race when his own job was done.
The fact Pogacar achieved what he did while most of his team-mates – and possibly even himself – suffered sickness across the second half of the Tour is even more remarkable.
The Tour de France still is, after all, one of the hardest events in elite sport.
