Slovenia maintains the throne of world cycling in a ‘déjà vu’

The year 2021 brought a return to a certain normality on the world cycling calendar after a chaotic 2020. The vast majority of tests returned to what were their usual dates before the covid-19 pandemic that turned everything upside down, but this did not mean a significant change in the hierarchies established in recent years in the sport of the two wheels. In fact, such an identical record is not remembered among the main competitions in two consecutive years.

Slovenia, a small country with little tradition until just a few years ago, is now the hegemonic power of cycling, hand in hand with the two men who dominate with an iron fist in the great tours. Tadej Pogacar threatens to mark an era in the purest Eddy Merckx style. At 23, a tender age at which many cycling legends had not yet debuted in professionalism, he already has two victories in the Tour de France and the feeling that he is almost an alien called to establish an authentic hegemony in the near future. .

Infallible against the clock and able to withstand the most demanding ascents without losing the ability to strike the blow at the highest peak of suffering, the new cycling genius revalidated his crown in Paris with authority, wearing the yellow jersey with sufficiency from the eighth stage and also taking three partial victories, the mountain polka dot jersey and the youth white. To such booty in the Tour he also added two of the monuments of the classics, the Liege-Bastogne-Liege and the Giro de Lombardia.

This time there was no option for another Slovenian, Primoz Roglic, who lost the 2020 Tour in the last time trial, in the most painful way possible when he had it in his hand, and in 2021 he was forced to leave early in the gala round . After eight stages, just as his compatriot was wearing yellow, Roglic was packing his bags more than half an hour in the general classification and limping since his spectacular crash in the third stage.

He took it out again in the Tour of Spain, a test that has given him everything that the Tour insists on denying the former ski jumper. Spanish roads seem tailor-made for them after three consecutive wins, a milestone only available to Tomy Rominger (1992-94) and Roberto Heras (2003-05). He also took the Olympic gold in the time trial of the Tokyo Olympics, an event postponed one year in time in which the Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz was crowned a few days earlier in the road modality.

The new generation

They also repeated crown, increasing the feeling of ‘déjà vu’ compared to 2020, Julian Alaphilippe and Filippo Ganna. The French and the Italian retained the rainbow jerseys and are world champions twice on the road and on the time trial, respectively, after an edition held in Flanders, the cycling land par excellence.

Slovenia dominates but South American cycling is also in luck, as Carapaz’s gold medal in Tokyo was joined in 2021 by Egan Bernal’s triumph in the Giro d’Italia. Second great lap of the 24-year-old Colombian after his victory in the 2019 Tour. A success that confirms him as another of the illustrious of the new generation of cyclists called to mark a golden stage in this sport, among whom are also the versatile Wout van Aert or Mathieu van der Poel, men for everything capable of shining in the mountains, against the clock and even when sprinting.

That select club was joined on the 2021 Tour by the Danish Jonas Vingegaard, who surprised with his second place in the final drawer in a round that left the great news of the return of Mark Cavendish. The legendary British sprinter equaled the 34 partial victories of the ‘Cannibal’ Merckx with four stage victories that confirmed a resurrection like a phoenix, after five years away from the first level.

Spain, no stage win on a grand tour for the first time

The year 2021 will go down in the history of Spanish cycling because of the negative. For the first time, there was no stage win in the three grand tours. Neither in the Giro nor in the Tour de France. Not even in the Tour of Spain. There was no national rider capable of raising his arms to the sky as a sign of partial victory, a black record that clearly outlines the current complicated situation of the sport of two wheels in Spain. The reality right now is marked by the scarcity of first-class projects, with Movistar as the only UCI WorldTour team, the highest category, and supported only by a handful of good riders and the good work of Enric Mas in the generals of the big ones.

The Mallorcan cyclist signed the greatest Spanish success of the year with the second drawer of the podium in the Vuelta, where he could not discuss the final triumph in Santiago de Compostela to Primoz Roglic but at least he emerged as the most solid alternative to the Slovenian. On the Tour, the Movistar leader was also the best Spaniard in the general classification, with his sixth place in Paris, where the Bahrain Pello Bilbao rider was ninth. The Biscayan was the best Spaniard in the Giro, with the final thirteenth place.

Beyond the great stage tours, the veteran Alejandro Valverde was once again the most prominent in the most prestigious classics. The Murcian, who turned 41 in April, was third in the Flecha Walloon, fourth in the Liege-Bastoña-Liège and fifth in the Giro de Lombardia and the Amstel Gold Race. He may no longer exhibit that final point of speed to win, but it has a lot of merit to remain competitive after the forty-five mark.

The one from Caravaca was the leader of the Spanish team in the road test of the Tokyo 2020 Games. Nothing went as planned, with covid positives from an assistant and the coach, Pascual Momparler, which greatly altered the Spanish participation and they even put her at risk in the hours leading up to the race.