The penultimate stage of the Tour de France was decisive on Saturday: Tadej Pogacar won and took the yellow jersey from Roglic.

Unless the situation turns around, he will win the Grande Boucle this Sunday.

But who is he?

Why did he decide to ride a bike?

Europe 1 traveled to Komenda, her hometown in Slovenia. 

After 20 days of competition marked by the coronavirus and multiple withdrawals like that of Egan Bernal, the Tour de France ends this Sunday, with the traditional arrival on the Champs-Elysées.

Except for an incredible surprise, it is Tadeg Pogacar, a Slovenian runner, who will be crowned shortly on the Champs-Élysées.

On the eve of his 22nd birthday, he will be the youngest winner of the Big Loop since the end of World War II.

Pogacar dethroned his elder Primoz Roglic, whom everyone saw as the winner, in the time trial of the Planche des Belles Filles.

An incredible scenario, which finally crowns the jewel of Slovenian cycling, monster of precocity.

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 Tour de France: Pogacar and Roglic give Slovenia "goosebumps"

A mind of steel

It was to do like his big brother that Tadej Pogacar started cycling at the age of nine.

A late-growing teenager, he will remain smaller for years than other runners his age.

A size that will forge a nickname for him: "Tamau Pogi" - "little Pogi" in a Slovenian dialect - and a strength of character, explains his uncle, Domen.

"Everyone told him that he was too small to be a cyclist, but that did not stop him, he fought even more in front of the others", he tells on Europe 1. "It is perhaps because of that he succeeded: he wanted to show that he was capable of it. And I could see in his eyes that he would do something like that, "explains the cyclist's uncle.

# TDF2020 This morning, I planned to tell you about the roads that saw @rogla go from ⛷au ...



Finally you will be entitled to a portrait (just as raised) of the little prodigy @TamauPogi, seen by his family and his relatives.

We talk about pancakes, among other things!



@ Europe1 7h pic.twitter.com/HdGWcG5Sbb

- Théo Maneval (@TheoManeval) September 20, 2020

In Komenda, a small town with 5,700 souls, where Tadej Pogacar was born, everyone heard the story of this recruiter who arrived on a village race, saw the young Pogacar all alone behind the peloton and asked who was this little guy struggling.

"But not at all, he's in the lead," he was told, "and he's going to take everyone's turn soon."

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"He is not like the others"

Since then, Tadej Pogacar has grown up well, while keeping his attacking mentality ... and an openly relaxed personality that stands out in the peloton, explains the cyclist Jaka Primozic, one of his childhood friends.

"Two years ago, we were running a race in Tarragona, Spain. There were two or three passes to climb and it was very hot: 40 degrees in the morning. So, no one wanted to eat," says he.

"Tadej put on a plate full of pancakes with Nutella ... and he put us in misery on the bike afterwards!"

explains Jaka Primozic, before summing up in one sentence the (young) career and personality of Tadej Pogacar: "He is not like the others."