Tadej Pogacar will be firmly in the spotlight as he goes down the ramp last on Sunday’s final day individual time trial in his adopted home of Monaco, with a third Tour de France title all but secured. More information with FRANCE 24 sports journalist James Vasina.
Finishing off a Grand Tour with a time trial is not an unusual concept – it’s how the Giro d’Italia ended three years in a row very recently, after all. For the Tour de France though, it hasn’t happened in 35 years – since the celebrated 1989 edition when Greg Lemond beat Laurent Fignon by a historically small eight-second margin.
There’s a lot to unravel when it comes to this year’s reprise of the final-stage ‘contre la montre‘. For one, not only does the Tour not end in its usual sprint stage, it also ends a very long way from the Champs-Elysées in Nice. It could not be further from business as usual.
Throw into the mix the mythologising associated with the final TT thanks to the feats of Lemond and it becomes quite the consideration.
The riders’ views on the matter tend to be more prosaic; after all, most of them were not even born in 1989. Theirs are the concerns of racing and logistics, and minimising stress.
As such, yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar would prefer the relatively relaxed Champs-Elysées ‘victory parade’ afforded to the GC leader on the last day, rather than waiting all day for a late start and then racing a hard stage.
“It’s going to be definitely different, but I don’t like it, because I will start so late, 17:45 in the afternoon,” he says. “It’s going to be such a long day just for a time trial, and it’s a really hard one too. I think I would prefer a Champs-Elysees sprint.
“But,” he adds diplomatically, “it’s something different, and I’m looking forward to it and experiencing how it is.”
