Although Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) didn’t managed to win the Tour de France in three consecutive years, his performance was still extraordinary during the entire race. Especially on famous Paris-Roubaix cobbles of the 5 stage of Tour de France 2022.
The little nice memories of 2022 series on PelotonTales blog is focusing rather on small but interesting moments of the season.
So, the 5th stage of Tour de France 2022 finished in Arenbeg, although the organizer didn’t included the famous Arenverg Forest into the program of the day. Nevertheless, there were still 11 hard and dangerous cobbles sector to ride, and for the majority of the GC riders this day was just about to survive.
But not for Tadej Pogacar!
He really enjoyed the challenge on the cobbles, boldly presented himself on the front of the main bunch several times, and didn’t bother to gater his teammates around himself.
When inside the last 20 km Jasper Styuyven (Trek-Segafredo) decided to launch an attack form the reduced peloton, Pogacar was the only one rider, who could go with him.
This made them a very odd couple: while Stuyven is a successful cobbled one-day race specialist, Pogacar isa two-time Tour de France winner, who, obviously, has different priorities during a three-week race, and as I mentioned above, GC favourites usually just wants to survive a cobbled Tour de France stage.
At the end, the duo couldn’t catch the breaway riders at the front, the stage was won by Simon Clarke (Israel-Start Up Nation), and yet, it was a notable moment, how these two cyclists rode together for almost 20 km.