Chapeau, Cav... Allez, Pog
As one Tour de France superstar leaves, another arrives with a swagger
When Mark Cavendish was on the start line for Tour de France in London in 2007, Tadej Pogačar and his older brother Tilen were riding unicycles around their home town of Komenda, some 20 kilometres north of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia.
It made them famous around Komenda, said their mother Marjeta, which all came to an end when someone stole the unicycles. The next year, when he was nine, Pogačar followed Tilen to the Rog Ljubljana cycling club. By then, Cavendish had taken part in his second Tour de France, winning the first three stages of an extraordinary career.
Cavendish also joined his first cycling club in Douglas on the Isle of Man at the age of nine. On Sunday, both crossed the finish line of the 111th Tour de France in Nice, one to be crowned as the king of a new era, the other bringing an end to a journey as perhaps the greatest sprinter of all time.
Pogačar won the time trial in Nice, and the Tour, with a swagger. Cavendish was down in 134th place in Nice with a smile and a wave, wearing a white Darth Vader time trial helmet, the naked, seven-metre tall marble statue of Apollo at the Fontaine du Soleil proving an appropriate and inappropriate backdrop to the final pictures of his last ride in the Tour. He took one more prize from this Tour, that of the Lanterne Rouge for the final rider overall. Hell, Cav even finishes last with a swagger.
“Cav will definitely will go down as the best sprinter of all time,” said South African champion Ryan Gibbons, who has been a teammate of both Cavendish and Pogačar, the former at Dimension Data and the latter at UAE Team Emirates.
“Cav was not just a teammate, he was someone I looked up to. He actually played a big role in getting me in the team at Di Data at the end of 2016. For him to win his 35th was special, not just for him but for everyone. The whole peloton was happy for him,” said Gibbons.
“Professional cycling is a world where the average career is said to last two and half years, where most professionals don’t get past their initial two-year contract, and merely to win one race is an achievement. To win a Tour stage is still viewed as the crowning glory for most, and to keep racing into the early 30s is a big ask. So where, then, do you rank winning 35 Tour de France stages, over a span of 17 seasons, and to be still winning at 39, let alone breaking the Tour stage-winning record held by Eddy Merckx?” wrote William Fotheringham in the Guardian.
“It’s still as obvious when Cavendish is on song as it was back in the early years. You watch the diminutive figure in the helicopter shots – he’s always seemed smaller than the other fast men – and he has the cycling equivalent of an extra smidgin of spin, that apparent extra moment on the ball that is the hallmark of the greats.
“So it was for win number one at Châteauroux, so it was for number 35 at Saint-Vulbas: a roundabout with 2.7km left, where he sailed through in the first 10, where on a bad day he’d have been shoved back among the flotsam, and then the little jostles and shimmies in the final 500m, now nudging Phil Bauhaus off the wheel he wants to own, now leaning on a Movistar rider, next keeping Fabio Jakobsen out of the gap he needs. The instinct that leads him to Pascal Ackermann’s wheel, and the final drive up the left.”
Gibbons agrees: “He’s been a pro for almost 20 years, has been racing the Tour de France over 17 years of that. To have been racing for so long, with cycling changing so much over the years, is very impressive. He’s an inspirational rider. Just to be in a sprint with him is a privilege. Cycling was very different in 2008, 2009 and 2010 compared to now. Things are a lot harder these days. Just to be in a sprint you have to have to have some big power to stay there. For him to be still doing that at the age of 39 is incredible.”
And, then there is Pogačar, the third of four children, born to a mother from the village of Gora, which means “mountain”. His father is from Klanec, which translates as “hill”. He was born to be a climber. He is the first to do the Giro-Tour double in one year this century.
“His rise has been both meteoric and deceptively steady. He comes across as a youthful boy wonder with big eyes, a soft voice, and an impish smile,” wrote Kate Wagner for Bicycling magazine.
“Pog is a phenomenal guy,” said Gibbons. “I’ve ridden with him a fair bit over the years, not at a Grand Tour, but at some big races, like Amstel Gold and San Sebastian. I would often room with him and he is just such a nice, humble guy.
“For someone who is so talented, he’s just like a kid, particularly for someone who is so big and so adored. He’s got his feet on the ground and is a super-friendly, genuine guy. We still send each other memes on a daily basis.”
He is, wrote Wagner, one of the greats, with “the ability to withstand endless suffering while not internalizing it, the ability to read a race and be clever and bold and unafraid in acting upon their instincts – it’s half raw physical talent, and half cunning and psychological strength. Tadej Pogačar is not unique in the peloton for possessing the former, but he is perhaps stronger than most in possessing the latter.”
“He is just superior,” said Gibbons. “He won’t ride his bike for months and months, then climb on it fat and unfit and still be better than 95% of the peloton at their best. He is just gifted. I believe he is generational and I think he is going to do many, many more things in his career, over and above what he’s already done.”