The season had already started, with some of the earliest tests, when covid-19 broke in the world of cycling, threatening to ruin the entire calendar for the year 2020, a cataclysm of biblical dimensions in a sport based on sponsorships and with obvious structural problems in the specific Spanish case. When the abyss seemed just around the corner, with all world sport standing still for weeks and even months, the Tour of Francia, that giant of world cycling, took the step forward that was expected and stood firm in the face of thick and thin. The willingness of the gala round to carry out its edition in this fateful 2020, also prompted the organizers of Vuelta a España and Giro d’Italia, determined to keep up despite the difficulties, with bubbles, masks, strict measures and resigning to the classic spirits of the fans, especially on the great peaks.
The start of the 2020 Tour came with a feeling unprecedented in almost a decade, that the Ineos de Egan Bernal, current winner, did not begin the gala round as the best team. The tremendous potential of Jumbo-Visma by Primoz Roglic and Tom Dumoulin was reflected in a race that seemed destined for the Slovenian’s victory. However, a young compatriot was willing to discuss it. Tadej Pogacar and the United Arab Emirates held out against the Roglic-Jumbo pairing until the penultimate stage, although the script remained true to schedule.
After eleven consecutive days wearing the yellow jersey, Roglic reached the time trial ending at La Planche des Belles Filles with an advantage of 57 seconds, more than enough margin for a specialist, even against another. However, and in an episode that is already part of cycling history, the young man Pogacar flew over the asphalt, stopping at an inhuman pace of almost 40 kilometers per hour, surpassing his rival by 1 minute and 55 seconds, before crowning himself on the Champs Elysees in Paris and becoming the third youngest cyclist to do so. The yellow was joined by the polka dot jersey to the best in the mountain, the white of the young people and up to three stage wins, a major balance for a great figure and incredible in a 21-year-old cyclist who faced the second big of his career after the third place in the 2019 Vuelta a España. Spanish cycling took the Mikel Landa’s fourth place and the fifth of Enric Mas, with Movistar as the winner of the team classification for the third consecutive edition.
With such a booty in his bag, it is not surprising that Pogacar gave the focus of the rest of the season to other cyclists, such as Julian Alaphilippe, sensation on the 2019 Tour, leader of the Grande Boucle in the early stages and the man who wore rainbows in the World on Road from Imola at the end of September. The Frenchman, a great clasicomano, beat Wout van Aert and Marc Hirschi, who had already been two of the sensations of the Tour and confirmed their great moments of form with silver and bronze world championships.
Against the clock, the Italian Filippo Ganna was crowned at home, before putting on a real show at the Giro d’Italia, taking all three stages time trial of a round marked by the surprise and emotion typical of a race with hardly any big names. Portuguese Joao Almeida He reached the pink jersey in the third stage and kept it for more than two weeks, giving in with three days to go, with a totally crazy finish in which the British from Ineos Teo Geoghegan Hart and the Australian from Sunweb Jai Hindley reached the final clock with the same time and that was resolved in favor of the first, retaliating his team for the disappointment with Bernal in the Tour and the abandonment of Geraint Thomas at the first change.
Roglic Resurrection
Roglic recovered from the drama suffered on the Tour by snatching the Liège-Bastogne-Liège Alaphilippe over the same finish line as the Frenchman rushed into the celebration, before facing the title defense in the Vuelta. As for the rest of monuments in cycling, the most select among the classics, Van Aert won the Milan-San Remo; Van der Poel the Tour of Flanders; Fuglsang a Tour of Lombardy marked by the terrible fall of the young and talented Remco Evenepoel, who was aiming very high in the season until the accident that caused a broken pelvis; and the Paris-Roubaix, ‘The hell of the north’, was left without contesting.
The Back to Spain This time the season closed, nothing and more and nothing less than between the end of October and the beginning of November, something unprecedented, but it did so with a great taste in the mouth. For its initial poster, for an organization that had no positives due to covid among the members of the platoon and for the spectacle that it gave from the first stages. Richard Carapaz and Roglic they distributed the red leader jersey over 18 stages, as the first three starts in the Netherlands were finally given up. The Slovenian was the most consistent, with up to four stage wins and the green jersey, and the bonuses allowed him to resist the push of the combative Ecuadorian on the mountain.
The British Hugh Carthy It was the revelation with a podium and the triumph at the legendary summit of Angliru, orphaned of its spirited fans, and Madrid crowned Roglic and his ability to rise after the defeat. It was the epilogue to the craziest year in cycling, which leaves the conclusion that only Roglic can hold out against a generation of runners who are just over twenty and who threaten to inscribe their names in gold letters in the history of a sport that endured in stand in the face of adversity.
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