Tadej Pogacar only saw just before the finish line on Friday that he was going to win the mountain time trial in the Tour de France. The yellow jersey wearer rode the race against the clock, in which he once again gained a lot of time on his rival Jonas Vingegaard, consciously without earpieces.
“I am very happy,” were Pogacar’s first words after his victory in the time trial in the French ski resort of Peyragudes. “This time trial was already a question mark for me in December. I wanted to have everything perfect and the team made that possible.”
After Thursday’s display of power in the first tough mountain stage, Pogacar was also in a class of his own in the 11-kilometer mountain time trial. He gained 36 seconds on his great rival Vingegaard, increasing his lead in the general classification to more than four minutes.
Yet Pogacar did not realize for a long time that he was going to book his fourth stage victory in this Tour. The yellow jersey wearer said that he rode the time trial without earpieces, which is quite unusual. “From the start, the tactic was to go all out,” Pogacar explained.
“I only saw the times at the checkpoints. The first checkpoint gave me motivation and at the second point the gap was bigger. I knew I had a good pace. At the end I almost exploded, but I saw the timer and that gave me an extra boost. Because I saw that I was going to win.”
In contrast to Vingegaard and Evenepoel, Pogacar did not start on a special time trial bike. “This was the most important decision I had to make: which bike do I ride the time trial on? I ride a regular road bike 90 percent of the time. I made a choice for comfort and it all worked out.”