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In the Tour of the Geniuses, the hunger of those who are perhaps the two best cyclists in the world ended up colliding in the penultimate episode.
Wout Van Aert
longed to
complete a triplet at the height of few cyclists throughout history, adding in different editions victories to the 'sprint' (he has three), in high mountains (he achieved it a few days ago in Mont Ventoux) and against the clock , his great specialty and the only one in which he had not yet claimed victory. And
Tadej Pogacar
, determined to show his supremacy on a daily basis, the antithesis of the great generous and condescending champions with their rivals, was looking for a fourth victory that would consolidate him as one of the most overwhelming winners of recent times, tied for his final triumph long ago. in Paris.
Only one could win and the Belgian did, who can proudly say that he was the only cyclist to beat
Pogacar
on a key day in these three weeks of the Tour. And he also did it clearly, as the Slovenian performed well below expectations, finishing in eighth position, 57 seconds
behind Van Aert
. It is true that it was a time that did not favor him, flatter than the first, in which he swept, but seeing his overall performance it was impossible not to place the leader in the favorite poster, at least at the same level as the one who finally won the victory. . "He has not risked, but he has squeezed himself," his director,
Josean Fernández 'Matxin'
, later acknowledged
.
"Winning a time trial on the Tour was one of the great goals of my career," the Belgian champion later acknowledged, after clearly winning at Saint Émilion. He was the only one to drop below 36 minutes in the 30.8 kilometers from Libourne, leaving second best
Kasper Asgreen
at 21 seconds. Third was
Jonas Vingegaard
, 32 seconds away, who confirmed his second overall position (third will be
Richard Carapaz
) and his
pinch
-runner status that could be one of the main contenders for the final victory in the coming years.
For the rest, the time trial left things as they were, unchanged in the top 19 overall.
Enric Mas
offered a good performance and managed to defend the sixth place against
Alexey Lutsenko
, who had just won the lap of the Tour of Switzerland.
Ben O'Connor
also managed to clinch fourth place against a
Wilco Kelderman
who, thinner than previous years, has lost his dexterity in the specialty. Nor could Pello Bilbao unseat
Guillaume Martin
from eighth position, after a time trial in which he had problems with the position of the radio station on his back.
The Tour thus heads to a final stage on the Champs Elysees with everything decided, although with a pending historical challenge.
If
Mark Cavendish
achieves his fourth win of this edition (and it is by far the top seed), he will surpass
Eddy Merckx
as the rider with the most partial victories in the history of the Tour.
The rest of the stage will serve as a well-deserved tribute to Pogacar.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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Tour de France: stage 20, live: Libourne - Saint Emilion Time Trial