who is stronger – Corriere.it

They have specular physiques (one meter and 75, about sixty kilos, toothpick calves, ribcage out of scale with respect to the rest of the body), blue eyes, very pale skin, immeasurable talent. They come from two small nations (eight million inhabitants in total) with no cycling heroes of reference in their sporting history, rather skiers or basketball players. For three years Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard they compete for the Tour de France as if it were a private affair: according to the experts they will continue for a long time. Accustomed to an alternation between absolute monarchs (Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault, Indurain, the cheat Armstrong and Froome) and temporary regents, the Grande Boucle rejoices in the face of this duopoly that drives its fans crazy. Divided by ten seconds after 62 hours of racing (we’ll see if today the Combloux time trial will widen or shorten the groove), Slovenian and Danish have very different technical characteristics.

Pogacar probably really a new Merckx, capable however of transforming into joy of overcoming the ferocious bulimia of the Cannibal or Bernard Hinault, who forced themselves to hate opponents and race to be able to dominate them. The Slovenian never rides a bike without thinking of success and without happiness: he has won two Tours and three classic classics, he came close to Sanremo, he can conquer Roubaix if he believes, he is a superfine time trialist, he has an unheard-of cue on short, steep stretches and very fast in the sprint.

Vingegaard who has a versatility similar to that of his colleague compensates for a lower brilliance in dry shots with an incredible suffering capacity on long climbs and phenomenal recovery skills. And in melee practically impossible to detach, and if he detaches sooner or later he comes back under. Like Indurain (and like Armstrong, even if the comparison with the offensive American) Jonas races and thinks only of winning the Tour de France, at least in this phase of his career in order not to have any possible distractions, and because effort empties him.

What the two monsters have in common is that they have brought climbing performance to the highest levels in history, in a sport where the climbing records stood still thirty years ago and were almost totally doped by EPO and transfusions. You must always doubt us and verify our performance so that cycling doesn’t go back to being what it was in the past, prisoner of cheaters Jonas and Tadej courageously said on Sunday.

And we do it very distrustfully, but the impression that the 2,000 meters/hour of ascent speed and the 7 watts/kilo of uphill power that the two graze on medium climbs can finally derive only from a mix of absolute talent, excellent training and technology highly evolved. As well as the ability to snap in the face not three (the number of the classic canon) but ten times in a stage and that of overcoming the Alpine triplets without failure.

Among their common secrets there is a non-secret that annuls a dogma of the religion of marginal earnings theorized in recent years by the Sky/Ineos gurus: the abandonment of a self-defeating idea of ​​training as an obligatory penitential ritual for success.

The endless monastic retreats at high altitudes are reduced, families are admitted, irony (unknown to the Armstrongs and Froomes) is the master to compensate for the effects on the psyche of the very hard work. In different ways, the two monsters of modern cycling are likeable monsters. Let’s see if they will both remain smiling and optimistic after today’s 22 very undulating km against the clock (the very tough finale) with the technicians giving Vingegaard is a slight favourite
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