Vingegaard survives the Pogacar volcano in the Tour – Spain’s News

Climbing up the slopes of the Puy de Dome, deserted and protected, ghostly with the public, the echoes of the history of cycling that have been written here, on this volcano, resound. The scream of Eddy Merckx is heard on an afternoon in 1975 when a fan hit him in the stomach. ‘El Caníbal’, with his killer look, went down almost without brakes, after the stage to look for the person responsible for that attack as soon as he crossed the finish line.

You can also feel the gasps of Federico Martín Bahamontes in the first time that the Tour dared to climb up to the crater of this dormant volcano in 1959. Yesterday, just the day the Tour returned to the Puy de Dome, the Eagle of Toledo turned 95 years old. Just the same day also the one who raised his arms.

But in addition to the echoes of triumphs, the roars of legendary duels resound. That of Poulidor, the eternal second best, and Jacques Anquetil almost touching each other’s sides in July 1964, twisted before the terrible ramps of the Puy de Dome. Cycling in black and white that two runners as great as those are endeavoring in these modern times to reissue.

They are Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard who are climbing here, already almost alone in their majesty in front of the volcano They resist with great difficulty and as they can with them Sepp Kuss in the last relay, Carlos Rodríguez who endures extraordinary while Jay Hindley sinks and begins to close the gap in order to sneak on the podium. With him his partner Tom Pidcock, the boy who came from the MTB who performs so well the more vertical the ramp is.

The others have already burst. The Puy de Dome is a place reserved for legends only. Not even the public can access here. Not even anyone has permission to win over the sleeping crater. Matteo Jorgenson knows it well, the American Movistar runner who seeks the top among the eternal straights and ends up devoured by the volcano when Michael Woods, an exceptional Canadian, a track boy who injuries got on the bike and so far had two brilliant stage wins in the Tour of Spain.

His are the victories of Mount Oiz, where he cried with joy and turned his life around after the abortion that his wife had suffered a few weeks before, and that of Valdegobia, after defeating his idol Alejandro Valverde in the port of Orduña, who was almost swiped by the Innsbruck World Cup in 2018. Woods began to climb the volcano two minutes from Jorgenson. “I took it as a time trial against myself. I never thought about victory, only that when I reached the finish line I could feel proud of what I had done”. Wow if it was.

The stage started emotional. A historic day. The Tour de France was returning to the Puy de Dome 35 years after his last visit, when Pedro Delgado climbed it dressed in yellow in the middle of the ‘affair’ for his positive that jumped days before. The starting point was Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat, the adopted town of Raymond Poulidor and his grandson, cycling wonder boy Mathieu Van der Poel, tearful up on stage to pick up the Mercier bicycle his grandfather used climbed the Puy de Dome. “It’s not easy for me because all this brings back a lot of memories,” said the Alpecin rider.

The leak was formed on the first attempt. Numerous and perfect for the Jumbo to let do even the slopes of the Puy de Dome. There, the guys from Vingegaard opened the gas first with Kelderman and then with Kuss. Everything invited optimism. Pogacar had ordered his men to retire and Majka, his closest gregarious, strove to cool him down by throwing drums over his head.

But appearances are deceiving. Pogacar was the sleeping volcano that erupted with a kilometer and a half to go. When there was no one left and the echoes of the deeds resounded. There she demarcated and immediately seated Vingegaard. He kept up the pace and accelerated again to 400 meters. Eight seconds he pulled out of booty at the top. He is already only 17 behind the Dane. “In the perfect position because we don’t have the lead and they will have to keep pulling and wearing themselves out,” says Matxin’s manager.

And behind, in his wake, Carlos Rodríguez who cut 14 seconds to the podium. Exceptional. “Both of them have lost a bit at the end but I go day by day and I think that I have lost some time but not a lot. Plus I’ve cut Hindley. Now the important thing is to remain constant and not have a bad day to stay there.