Paris (AFP)

Man of records, at least precocious, Tadej Pogacar, 22 years old on Monday, shook up the history of the Tour de France which he finished on the top step of the podium, Sunday on the Champs-Elysées.

Pogacar, the first Slovenian to win the biggest race in the world, remained hidden until the end.

Like the other survivors of this very special Tour, the latest to date since 1903 due to the two-month delay due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"It's already a victory to arrive in Paris", welcomed the director of the Tour, Christian Prudhomme, who admitted having trembled before the start given in Nice, in the middle of the red zone.

But the "great popular and sporting festival which is the pride of the country", in the words of President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron on Saturday, took place.

Even if the arrival of the 21st stage, taken in the sprint by the Irishman Sam Bennett, already assured of the green jersey, took place in front of an audience limited to 5,000 spectators.

On the eve of its 22nd birthday, Pogacar is doing even better - by a few months - than its award-winning predecessor, the gifted Egan Bernal, symbol this year of the failure of the Ineos team, formerly Sky.

End of cycle?

After seven victories in eight editions, the British formation was outclassed by its Dutch rival Jumbo.

- "A good lesson in cycling" -

However, the strategy of "yellow and black", in excess in the highlights of the race, failed.

To bet everything on her leader, the Slovenian Primoz Roglic, she took the risk of suffering a terrible and unexpected setback, in the time trial of La Planche des Belles Filles, 24 hours before the finish at Paris.

Legend of his sport, Eddy Merckx was scathing in the newspaper L'Equipe: "They should have understood that Pogacar was not going to attack them, it was impossible to trap them in the mountains. But they should have tried to blow up long before to have enough headroom. It's a good lesson in cycling. "

Still groggy, Roglic took the blow without providing any real explanation for his poor performance which ruined the efforts of his teammates, foremost among them the Belgian Wout van Aert, incredibly powerful in the various sectors of play (third time in the climb of La Planche des Belles Filles!).

The Slovenian however climbed for the first time on the final podium, 100% unprecedented this year since Tadej Pogacar, neophyte, and the Australian Richie Porte (3rd), regular of the Tour, had never appeared there either.

Pogacar received congratulations from the President of Slovenia, sensitive to this historic moment for the sport of his country.

He has also been dubbed by former champions, from Greg LeMond ("for me, he's a very big winner of the Tour de Fance") to Eddy Merckx ("since his third place in the Tour of Spain last year , I know it's a very big ").

- Status change -

Neither LeMond nor Merckx have expressed any reservations about this young talent, an attacker revealed by his victory in the Tour de l'Avenir 2018 and turned pro just 21 months ago.

But the very high performances on this Tour have raised questions here and there for the moment without a certain answer, especially as the usual benchmarks have been blurred this year and the falls have decimated the long list of candidates for the podium, the French first (Thibaut Pinot, Romain Bardet).

Youngest winner of the Tour since ... 1904 and the success of Henri Cornet (19) acquired on the green carpet a few months after the end of the race, the Slovenian of the UAE Emirates team - an offshoot of the late Italian team Lampre - now changes status.

And also responsibilities since he will be much more closely watched in the future when he returns to the Tour, the biggest race in the world.

Faced with the challenges, this son of an industrial designer and a French teacher seems rather carefree in character, to hear it: "I love life, little things, I love to have fun, I have always been like that. "

© 2020 AFP