PORTRAIT – The 22-year-old Slovenian, a symbol of ease and superiority throughout the 2021 edition of the Tour de France, won a second deserved coronation on the Champs-Élysées.
Last Friday, from Mourenx, Eddy Merckx announced bluntly that Tadej Pogacar would become “The first rider to win more than five Tours de France”. A well-known chorus, Bernard Hinault had served us for Jan Ullrich in 1997, and then the Festina affair and the return of the miracle Lance Armstrong had swept away these optimistic forecasts. The 22-year-old Slovenian prodigy, who has just kept his crown in the Grande Boucle with the arrogance of youth, is not asking for so much. The youngest winner of the Modern Era Tour last year, he only longs for that recklessness which, for the moment, protects him as much from criticism and doubts as from the timid banderillas of his opponents. Everything seems to slip on the yellow tunic of this kid who grew up too quickly, fell in cycling like in a cauldron of magic potion and who still seems astonished to be there to dominate the greatest cycling race in the world with his bewildered gaze and of his shoulders adorned with three distinctive jerseys:
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