By: Isabelle Wang
Tadej Pogačar is a 23-year-old professional Slovenian cyclist of the UAE Team Emirates. Currently, he is the best cyclist in the world, and recently won the 2024 Tour de France, the most prestigious and difficult cycling race in the world. It was his third Tour title. This year, the Tour de France was set to be a 3,492 km trail from Monaco to Nice. The course is done over 21 stages, all of which are different. The 2024 Tour route had eight flat stages, four hilly stages, seven mountain stages, and two individual time trials. Time trials are races that are timed from the moment you roll down the ramp to when you cross the finish line. Cyclists are sent down one minute apart.
Pogačar’s win at the recent Tour de France was validated in the final time trial, as he gained a 1:03 lead against defending champion Jonas Vingegaard. Pogačar said, “After two hard years in the Tour de France, always some mistakes. This year — everything to perfection. I am super happy to win here.”
The Slovenian cyclist led by 5:14, starting off strong. His win would only be affected if something terribly disastrous happened. Starting off with a lead of three minutes and 11 seconds, Pogačar had an advantage against his opponents, but there was a chance that he would crack under the pressure and make a mistake. Fortunately, he did not.
Vingegaard was just returning to the sport from recovering from an injury due to a crash that occurred in April 2024. He knew that Pogačar would be hard to beat because they had competed together before, so he instead focused on staying ahead of Remco Evenepoel of Belgium. The final mountain was when competition became fierce, as Evenepoel had dropped behind Pogačar and Vingegaard.
Pogačar and Vingegaard rode side by side, neither wanting to be behind the other. Richard Carapaz of Ecuador was left behind with half a mile in the race. Pogačar and Vingegaard sprinted towards the finish line. Unsurprisingly, Pogačar won.
Pogačar achieved a double, winning the two biggest cycling tours, the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France, in a single season. The cyclist made history as the first to do so since Marco Pantani in 1998. When asked about his win, Pogačar said, “This is the first one I was totally confident every day. Even in the Giro I had one bad day — I won’t tell which one.”
In addition to Pogačar’s win, other notable performances at the Tour de France included Richard Carapaz’s polka dot jersey for best climber. The polka dot jersey for best climber is given to the rider that gains the most points for reaching mountain summits first. Another notable performance was Biniam Girmay’s historic win as the first Black African to claim a win on any Tour stage. Only two other African riders, both white – Robbie Hunter and Daryl Impey of South Africa – had previously won stages on the Tour.