When Tadej Pogačar came into this world, cycling was in a catharsis whose effects are still being felt. We are talking about '98, but '98 of the last century, a year that shook the foundations of this sport and opened a new cycle, very different from the previous one. More than twenty years later, Tadej Pogačar is the guarantor of a new cycle.
An era in which cycling comes from the beginning, like a gift fallen from the sky, a way of doing that accompanies the baby in its first steps and continues until winning a Tour. Tadej Pogačar was, less than a year ago, the youngest winner of the Tour for as long as we can remember and as long as writings tell us. A privilege that does not go from generation to generation, because it is rooted in the first editions, in the prehistory of the Tour, and with it, that of cycling. Tadej Pogačar is fighting in those records.
But he, with that carefree air of a teenager, is making and fattening a short palmarès, for the short time he has been in the bidding, but valuable, for the quality that labels his successes.
A Tour that is worth everything
In the Tour that was held at the gates of autumn, which ended well into the month of September, the UAE Team Emirates rider signed the history book. in his own handwriting to put the name and surname of a "normal kid", as defined by his director Matxin, on the list of winners of the best race on earth.
Three weeks in which he lived with all the stages of cycling and life, bad moments resulting from a cut, a lottery in the form of a fall that left him delayed at the gates of the Pyrenees. Far from giving up, he grabbed hold of the possibility, he climbed up in Peyresourde and walked crouched in the group, in the heat of the pace of the rivals, knowing that the opportunity would come.
And it came... on the Planche des Belles Filles.
So much for a thin kid, but not especially thin like many others, who keeps the makings of a good cyclist and feeds the spirit with passion and dedication, but also disconnecting when it is convenient, knowing how to enjoy the small pleasures of life.
A life for cyclingA life for cycling, but not all of it, enough to unfold a potential that has proven to be a winner, but omitting the mental collapse that implies giving 110%, because in the end they are still children.
Advanced and seasoned children, with an equidistant point of ambition and competitive sense of smell, who, even being advanced, do not disdain a live lesson in tactics and order, taking to the extreme all the work of a team, the UAE Team Emirateswho set everything in place for that afternoon in the Vosges to storm the throne of the Tour.
Because the Tour is the most obvious piece, but Pogačara good footballer in his younger years, was already on the fast track. Only two years as a professional, rowing on the World Tour and a generous track record that spoke of his talent from the very first minute of stepping on the top circuit.
Professional with the Tour del Porvenir under his arm, he already showed signs of the wood that was in there when he was a debut and conquered the Algarve. among long-distance pros, displaying a control and knowledge that anyone, at first glance, would attribute to a veteran. But no, this child with a chubby complexion and supreme intelligence was not only there to learn, but also to win at the first attempt, which he did and repeated.
The 2019 Vuelta a España will always be in Primoz Roglic's list of winners, but for the romantics it will remain as the one of the explosion of Tadej Pogačarwho took a podium plus three stages, each one different and with a range of records, highlighting the last one, in Gredos, with a forty-kilometer breakaway with the big guys pulling for him.
That day it became clear that the talent chiseled in the team of Ljubljana not only promised a lot, he also executed what he let us glimpse. And that, as Matxin told us, the best thing is that "he still has a lot of margin".
By El Cuaderno de Joan Seguidor
Photos: Lorenzo Fizza
