The Four Horsemen

We are so fortunate to have four true Yellow Jersey contenders to follow this year. The match between Tadej Pogačar, Remco Evenepoel, Jonas Vingegaard and Primoz Roglic has been fascinating, the slight differences in their respective abilities worth analyzing, the dynamic between them in the races always of interest.

I completely enjoyed the Time Trial especially its name: Nuits-Saint-Georges to Gevrey-Chambertin – might as well called it Hermés to Chanel such was the high-tone association with French luxury, in this case some of the most coveted wines in the world. It must have been madness to get into the VIP tents that day. I got a quick glimpse of Pogačar warming up on his home trainer –revving it up to over 140 rpm – and he was smooth as silk. Just pure power oozing out of his body and flowing into the pedals. It was an impressive sight, one that showed just what a master of the bicycle he is.

Evenepoel burst out of the start house in perhaps the most exciting start to a TT that I’ve ever seen. Sprinting in and out of the turns, he attacked that race with everything he had. The Belgian is just so fast, so perfectly smooth and of course, his aerodynamics so far off the charts, that he represents the perfect time trial racer - a bullet flying down the road. Evenepoel took 12” out of the Yellow Jersey Pogačar to win the stage, giving the Belgian the distinction of having won stages in all three Grand Tours. However, and his competitors have certainly taken note, Evenepoel, who led at all three time checks, lost time to Pogačar on the tricky downhill section; he’s still not the great bike handler we’d hoped he’d become so, come the high mountains, watch for him to be attacked on the descents.

Pogačar is a delight to watch, so smooth yet at the same time, so loose. He’s not the perfectly poised statue on a bike that Evenepoel is, he moves around, letting his body flow along with the efforts. The Slovenian throws himself into the turns, right at the limit and happy to be there. He just loves to race a bicycle. Roglič, still slightly off his form, followed the duo in third, 0:34” down with the man-who-won’t-give-up, Vingegaard, coming in an excellent 4th, at 0:37”, in a ride that is surely giving UAE Team Emirates some real worry as the Dane is improving and remains within striking distance with six major mountain stages and a final, mountain TT still to go in the Tour.

The day of gravel through the Champagne vineyards made for spectacular TV and I’m sure the ratings will show how the race resonated with viewing public. Was if fair to have such a stage in the Tour? Well, the ratings will surely decide that issue so plan to see more of these types of races in the future. There didn’t seem to be many flats, the four top riders in the world put on a spectacular show for us, really fighting amount themselves. Pogačar made fantastic attacks, Evenepoel fought hard to match and counter-attack him while Vingegaard rode pure defense. Roglič got into trouble a couple of times, had to chase, but always made it back so that the gaps between the quartet remain unchanged. 

A note in Biniam Girmay: the Eritrean, after a bit of a sophomore slump, has confirmed his enormous abilities this Tour. Two stages in the pocket already, and in the second group along with Mathieu van der Poel on the Troyes gravel stage, he’s showing that he deserves to be wearing the Green Jersey of Best Sprinter. That competition too is a gift to us all.