Today I had the temerity (or poor judgment) to post to Threads: My sense is that today Tadej crossed over into “unlikeable.”
Turns out that on social media, anything but the most cotton candy-puff post elicits a serious response! For that rash statement I was told I was stupid, and knew nothing about cycling, and why did I care if he attacked while confidently holding a likely insurmountable lead?
(Friends, don’t be like Mike; don’t post to a broadcast social media platform, and if you do, really don’t read the responses. It’s ugly out there.)
But we’re starting to hear those descriptors again: Unbelievable. Superhuman. Out of this world. I’m not privy to any evidence; I just know that professional athletes need to manage their brands, and Pogacar is putting his at risk — not just by betraying not a hint of fatigue, but also today by tracking down and blowing by — with vivid ease — a young rider who seems, um, likable.
I’m showing my American bias, sure, but heck yes I was rooting for Jorgenson. But when he started up the final climb with a three-minute lead, you might as well have started playing the Jaws theme. He was going to outlast some of the sport’s most credentialed climbers, Yates and Hindley and Carapaz, but you just knew that lead wasn’t safe, not if the Yellow Jersey decided it wasn’t.
And decide he did. Perhaps Pogacar was just insuring his win; after all, last year he lost nearly six minutes on one stage. Perhaps he it’s all visceral, all instinct, all an innate sense of drive and joie de gagner that he really can’t control. But he’s raising more eyebrows with every stage win, every attack.
At least we have a dynamic leader, an animator who makes the sport exciting. We may well be watching the greatest cyclist ever, but notwithstanding the sentiment of one of my Threads responders, who suggested that he wants to be the first Tadej, not the next Merckx, he’s riding awfully Cannibal-like — and Eddy Merckx earned his reputation in a pre-doping and pre-social media era.
But Pog adds spice to the Tour, and to the conversation around the Tour – and to our game, because for the first time in something like ten stages, we have a new leader! Mike Schmitz, I don’t (believe I) know you; would you mind introducing yourself? Thanks to that tandem of point earners Pogacar and Carapaz — plus a few from yesterday’s victor Victor Campenaerts — you’re currently riding atop our standings.
This Tour has been a blast, replete with rich, even poignant moments, but…I’m afraid it may be wearing thin. There’s Tadej’s domination, and evident frustration with it among his rivals, but we see fraying elsewhere: Bob Roll is clearly becoming exasperated with Phil Liggett, almost snapping at him; Phil himself is only uttering more misnomers, and indulging in more hyberbole (“NEVER have we seen…”). And the tears continue to rise and fall, though now seemingly out of disappointment.
Perhaps not, though; perhaps tomorrow reveals another sob story, of the gratifying kind. On the eve of this Tour I forecast that “cycling will break your heart.” Yes, we’ve witnessed our share of crushing moments: Jakobsen dropping out; Percher — and Jorgenson — barely being beaten to the line. But the soaring arcs have far outnumbered the depths in this Tour. As I said at the beginning, I’m (still) here for it.