Featured image courtesy of ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT via Getty Images
Sunday 24th July, it’s around 8pm in Paris and the sky is slowly fading from dazzling clear blue to a visual assault of red and orange dusk descending on the city. In the background the Arc du Troimphe stands proudly, commissioned as a signal of the strength of Napoleon’s army. In the foreground standing proud and iconic in yellow is Jonas Vingegaard, conqueror of the 2022 Tour de France – Jonas and his Jumbo-Visma team displaying one of the most dominant performances we have seen at a Tour.
Reminiscent of an all-conquering army sweeping its way across continents, the Jumbo-Visma team took General, Mountain and Green jersey classifications along with six stage wins in what was one of the greatest editions of Le Grand Boucle we have ever seen. Below are some of my reflections.
Each edition of the race has its winners and losers, the ecstasy and pain is part of what makes pro cycling so enthralling. Over 200 stories every day played out by the riders, each with their own view, their own triumphs, their own catastrophes. Pro cycling’s ability to connect emotionally with its fans is unparalleled, be it the stories it tells or simply the ability for the amateur to take on the very roads that their heroes do.
It is in my experience that nothing compares to the connection one feels with the professionals in cycling when compared to any other sport. We have all felt what they have, we have all had that “dead mans click” just praying that our cassette has one hidden gear we didn’t know about and we have all felt the exhilaration of a town sign sprint or beating a personal best up a local hill. So when those goals, those feelings come at the biggest race of them all, what comes next for our major players? How do they reflect on their race and set goals for the rest of the season and for their careers beyond?
Tadej Pogačar came into this race as the red hot favourite. The back-to-back champion had won every stage race he had entered in 2022, so it wasn’t surprising to see him win two stages in the first week and take the yellow jersey after just six stages.
All was set for a commanding third victory – until Stage 11 happened.
In possibly one of the greatest grand tour stages I have ever seen, Jumbo-Visma set upon a tactical master plan with Primož Roglič and Jonas Vingegaard, double teaming the Slovenian on the Col du Galibier. All came together as they descended to the finish atop the Col du Granon, but the damage was already done for Pogačar when Vingegaard dropped him to put two minutes 51 seconds into the defending champion.
From *THAT* moment onwards, the chances of Tadej Pogačar overturning the two minutes 22 second advantage of Vingegaaard seemed slim. He of course took home the white jersey, his third maillot blanc and one competition that he is still amazingly eligible for in the next Tour, but what does Pogačar take from this defeat going forwards?
Previously seeming unbeatable, the young man is not used to coming second, especially in peak form. He exudes confidence and in his post-race interviews he has been humble in defeat praising both Jonas Vingegaard and Jumbo-Visma for their rides. There was little doubt that the current two-times Tour winner accepted that the better man won.
The well-trodden route for Tour de France runners-up is to go and aim for the third and final grand tour of the season – La Vuelta a España. Previously finishing on the podium in Spain, Pogačar may fancy his chances at taking top spot and would be an instant favourite to take the red jersey if he entered*. If he added the Vuelta to his palmarès, could he be tempted to complete the set and target the Giro d’Italia in 2023? Giro race organisers RCS would certainly be keen and it has been previously rumoured that large appearance fees have been offered to tempt riders to the Giro over the Tour.
*After writing this piece, the news has been revealed that Tadej Pogačar will NOT be riding this year’s Vuelta.
The very thought of Tadej Pogačar completing the grand tour set by just 24-years-of-age would etch him further into the history books, except he already will be when he finally calls time on his career! It certainly will be fascinating to see how Pogačar responds to defeat and how UAE-Team Emirates bulk up their team ahead of next year in support of their star man.
How do you solve a problem like Primož Roglič?
The trail blazer for Slovenian dominance and the face of Jumbo-Visma finds himself in a tricky situation post-Tour. With reported spinal fractures it seems unlikely Roglič will take to the start line in defence of the Vuelta although at the time of writing this it hasn’t yet been confirmed. Plus, the added factor of Jonas Vingegaard’s victory begs the question of whether Primož Roglič now has to play second fiddle to any future Tour de France plans at Jumbo-Visma.
Contracted until 2026, there are already rumours flying around of how the INEOS Grenadiers might be sniffing around to sign a further GC man. With Geraint Thomas approaching the end of his career, Egan Bernal’s recovery still unknown and the younger generation seemingly not quite ready to take that step up, you can certainly see why INEOS, albeit any team, would be interested in acquiring Primož Roglič’s services.
Could Roglič be tempted by guaranteed leadership at the Tour? Surely being one day away from winning yellow in 2020 and misfortune prematurely ending his 2021 and 2022 campaigns, you would feel that he had unfinished business at the Tour. Primož Roglič could be tempted by a team that is one hundred percent committed to the aim of him winning.
Primož Roglič however has always exuded a philosophical approach to racing, a “what will be, will be” approach. Perhaps he would be keen on a return to the Giro to attempt to finish off what he started in 2019 rather than play the foil for Vingegaard at the Tour. Roglič seems happy at Jumbo-Visma but it may be tricky 12 months ahead for the Slovenian as he ponders again what could have been if it wasn’t for another unfortunate crash.
Reaffirming his position as a top general classification racer, Geraint Thomas can now claim to have occupied every step of the Tour de France podium with this third place and clear daylight between him and fourth-placed rider David Gaudu.
Thomas looked at close to his best form and at 36, with many doubting his ability to reach the those heights again, he set the record straight that he is still a formidable force in the grand tour stakes. Geraint Thomas’s path from this Tour does however seem clearer compared to those around him. The Welshman has alluded before in his podcast that he wanted another good run at the Tour and he has just done that.
A return to the Classics next year might be on the cards or maybe another crack at the Giro, having been in great form twice but sadly marred by crashes in the first week in 2017 and 2020. It seems probable that come the end of his contract next year, it will be Geraint Thomas’s final season in the peloton. A chance to enjoy the last year of racing rather than perhaps the sacrifices that are needed for a tilt at the Tour general classification. Geraint Thomas seems destined for a media role after he hangs up his wheels – hearing his plans on the podcast would be nice to hear over the next six months!
Elsewhere in the final general classification stakes, Aleksandr Vlasov was some people’s dark hose for the Tour this year, and on the back of Jai Hindley’s win at the Giro, there would have been a feel-good factor at BORA-Hansgrohe going into the race.
Vlasov has always been tipped as a future grand tour contender. A first week of struggle was disappointing but a second week saw Vlasov in 11th overall and then in week three, some sterling efforts backed up by a strong time trial on Stage 20 to Rocamadour allowed Vlasov to climb to fifth overall.
A strong result for Aleksandr Vlasov but it was a far cry from the challenge some may feel he could have made. It is perhaps a now or never situation for Vlasov. At 26, we would be expecting him to come into his peak but his inconsistency over longer climbs is probably his weakness. It may be that Vlasov is better suited to shorter one-week stage races because the three-week grand tour form has never quite come to fruition.
With BORA-Hansgrohe seemingly becoming a GC force since Hindley’s pink jersey triumph, there is little doubt that Aleksandr Vlasov will have a good team behind him for a possible Tour de France campaign next year, but the question will be Tour or Giro? With Hindley winning the Giro against a strong Richard Carapaz backed by the INEOS Grenadiers, you certainly wouldn’t be surprised if the Australian wanted a run to try and claim yellow next year. Vlasov would be the perfect substitute for leadership in Italy, probably the push he needs to move up to the next level of competition.
Finally, I come to the rider who has won this year’s Tour de France – Jonas Vingegaard, perhaps the easiest to predict what his path will be over the next 12 months.
First comes the lucrative Tour de France criterium circuit and the extensive media duties that will be filling up his calendar as I write this piece, and second, like all new Tour winners, he’ll face the usual questions about whether he has balanced post-Tour celebrations, media appearances in Denmark will sky rocket and his training will now be monitored far closer than it has been previously. Undoubtedly, barring injury, the defending champion will be on the start sheet for the 2023 Tour.
As the pages of history have been written and the non-stop nature of the professional cycling season speeds forward towards La Vuelta and the UCI Road World Championships, I hope fans will pause for breath to reflect on possibly one of the greatest grand tour of this generation. The pure pace of this year’s Tour was unrelenting with barely a pause in the action except for the rest days.
There was very little sign of 200 km transfer days destined to end in a sprint, never a GC day that ended in stalemate between the competitors, and days on paper promised little but delivered us spectacle. Emotion and wins that I will remember long beyond the start of the Tour next year – moments like Magnus Cort in polka-dots playing to the ‘home’ Danish crowd, Jumbo-Visma exploding the race with Wout Van Aert as early as Stage 4, Pogačar powering across the Roubaix cobbles as gracefully as a multiple Paris-Roubaix winner and perhaps most of all *THAT* iconic handshake between Pogačar and Vingegaard.
Thank you to the 109th Tour de France. You’ve been awesome.
