As the Tour de France hit the foot of Plateau de Beille on Sunday afternoon, a graphic appeared on the screen with the details of the climb. Viewers were informed the ascent was 15.8km long and the average gradient was 7.9%, and they were also told that the fastest time up the climb had been recorded by Thibaut Pinot.
This was true only to a point. Pinot’s time of 45:08, clocked on the Tour’s last visit in 2015, was the quickest time recorded on the Strava app. In a different and more analogue age, however, the late Marco Pantani had clocked a time of 43:20 on the 1998 Tour, while Jamie Burrow was reputed to have been even quicker when the under-23 Ronde de l’Isard came up here the next year.
In 2013, a French Senate report revealed that Pantani’s doping samples from that Tour had revealed traces of EPO when they were retested in 2004. When the Tour visited Plateau de Beille again in the 21st century, after the introduction of a test for EPO, Pantani’s record remained out of reach. Alberto Contador and Michael Rasmussen went closest in 2007, when they clocked 44:08.
On Sunday, Pantani’s record was obliterated by Tadej Pogačar, who powered up Plateau de Beille in an estimated time of 39:41, some 3:39 quicker than the Italian. Jonas Vingegaard, second on the stage at 1:08, and Remco Evenepoel, third at 2:51, also scaled Plateau de Beille faster than Pantani had managed 26 years ago, but they were also-rans relative to the unassailable Pogačar.
“Today Tadej and Jonas showed they were above the rest,” Evenpoel said on France TV’s Vélo Club show after the stage. “And Tadej is higher again, he’s on another planet.”
A large degree of caution is needed when comparing times on mountain passes from different eras. The wind conditions are often different, of course, and the racing circumstances and equipment can account for differences too. It’s an interesting guide rather than an exact science.
In that light, rather than by comparing Pogačar with Pantani, this astonishing athletic performance might be better understood by comparing Pogačar with the men who laboured behind him on the mountainside on Sunday afternoon.
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Behind Vingegaard and Evenepoel, only three more riders finished within five minutes of Pogačar, and two of those were his UAE Team Emirates companions João Almeida and Adam Yates, who came home 4:43 and 4:46 down.
Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers) and Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) began the climb tucked into the yellow jersey group, but they would lose 5:09 and 6:29, respectively by the summit. Both men remain safely in the top 10 overall, but the effects of their efforts were clear as they spilled across the finish line.
“At the beginning, I felt good, but then on the climb, it was impossible to stay in front,” Rodríguez said, after taking a considerable length of time to catch his breath. “I went a bit too deep, and I paid for it. I suffered a lot in the last kilometres, but I gave everything, and in that sense, I can’t ask for more.”
By the end of the last decade, the Tour had felt a race of relatively small margins, with cautious strategies prevailing and GC rivals generally holding one another at arm’s length. In 2019, for instance, yellow jersey Egan Bernal reached Paris with just 7:32 separating him from the rider in 10th place overall, Warren Barguil.
In the 2020s, the outlook has changed dramatically. In five years, the style of racing has changed almost beyond recognition. After Pogačar’s remarkable onslaught here, only two riders – Vingegaard and Evenepoel – still lie within ten minutes of him on the general classification with six stages still to go. His teammate Almeida lies 4th at 10:54. These are time gaps from another age.
Only 22 riders finished within 20 minutes of Pogačar on Sunday afternoon. Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), twice a top 10 finisher at the Tour, came home more than 13 minutes down in 20th place. After talking to reporters about the doomed prospects of the early break, Martin was asked if he had been surprised by Pogačar and Vingegaard’s contest here.
“Surprised? I can’t say. To be honest, I’ve been watching them from quite far away,” Martin said. “I didn’t see it. Frankly, I didn’t see it.”
For most of the peloton, Pogačar and Vingegaard are by now visible only by telescope.
The overall picture
At this point in the Tour twelve months ago, Vingegaard and Pogačar were similarly dominant. After the corresponding stage to Saint-Gervais in 2023, third-placed Carlos Rodríguez was already 5:21 down and 10th-placed Guillaume Martin was 14:18 back.
The great difference, however, was that only ten seconds separated the yellow jersey Vingegaard and Pogačar atop the overall standings in a race that – until the subsequent Combloux time trial at least – seemed too close to call.
This time around, Pogačar has a buffer of 3:09 over Vingegaard with six stages remaining. For all Visma-Lease a Bike’s belief in Vingegaard’s powers of endurance in the third week, this is a hefty deficit. It is unclear, too, if Vingegaard will eventually start to pay a price at this Tour for his truncated build-up after his serious injuries at Itzulia Basque Country in April.
“It’s only over in Nice, on the last day,” Almeida insisted when he crossed the line. “But Tadej is amazing and he is showing he is the best.”
After winning the Tour in 2020 and 2021, Pogačar suffered sobering defeats to Vingegaard the past two Julys. His response was to follow a radically different race programme in 2024, skipping the cobbled Classics in favour of racing – and winning – the Giro d’Italia in May.
“We knew Tadej was in better form than last year, that he’d made a step up with his changes in training and preparation,” UAE Team Emirates manager Mauro Gianetti said atop Plateau de Beille. “It was more specific to the high mountains and long, hard stages.”
Gianetti shook his head, however, when asked if Pogačar had already put the Tour beyond the reach of Vingegaard.
“No, no,” he said. “Fortunately, there’s a rest day tomorrow, but then there’s a terrible week to come, so there’s still work to be done.”
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