Muhammad Ali floated like a butterfly and hit like a mule kick, and the impressed poets describe John Ram with the fists of Paulino Ozcudón with a conductive baton, delicate and rhythmic, touch, and add, in this regard, the same thin stick flies harmoniously in the hands of Carlos Alcaraz who makes the ball run almost at the speed of light , so precisely. Strength and sensitivity, demolition and beauty, in solid and light legs, graceful, synchronized as if they had not danced on the pedals of an organ, by Tadej Pogacar destructivewhose butt is lifted slightly from the saddle, almost as excited in a sitting position Rotation In the gym, almost like Fabian Cancellara in his wild days, and in the 100m on the Keutenberg slope, he beat the sticky, muscular Tom Pidcock by 30m, unbeatable in anything at Strade Bianche, and smile, follower grin the killerAnd win the Amstel Prize. Massive attack, endless comparisons, atomic like that which Ding Neibo subdued on the chessboard at the same time and thousands of kilometers away, in Astana.
And three days later, the peloton is behind him all day, not watching his movements, but waiting for the moment to attack so that more than 20 riders can fight freely for second place, and he, sadistically, first makes them think he was letting them pass, makes them wait and sigh, And at 180 meters from the summit of Mor de Huy, he repeats the acceleration, showing the rebel lock of the helmet and pointing the way to victory in the Walloon arrow, this time coinciding with Nepo’s crushing of Ding.
In the golden age, cycling was like that. Fantastic five fighting each other, each one in his field, and Tadezh Pogacar, who is fighting everyone, in all fields. To the endless duel of Van Aert-Van der Poel in one-day races, Pogacar joins, who makes them sweat in San Remo and beat in Flanders. Against Vingegaard, a competitor in the stage events, the 24-year-old Slovenian has already won and won in Paris-Nice. With old compatriot Primoz Roglic, Pogacar really had it since his first year with the greats, in 2019. He made him sweat in that year’s Vuelta and beat him in the Round of 20.
This year, Roglic hasn’t cut his way one day, nor has the sixth phenom, Remco Evenepoel, a very similar profile to him, same supreme ambition, great at stage events (he’s won the Vuelta) and also at hard. And the broken one-day tests, the World Cup, San Sebastián, Liège, those who are called men of the tour.
It’s the duel that’s been missing, the last battle. It will take place this Sunday (Eurosport and TDP, 13.00-17.30). in the Belgian Ardennes region. brig. Liege-Bastogne-Liege. Born in 1892, Monument is as alive as ever. It was won by Pogacar in 2021, Evenbühl the following year. They have never been seen there. Another Sunday, a new clash of phenomena. Vingegaard defeated Van Aert, van der Poel, it was Evenepoel’s turn, always following the path of Eddy Merckx, cannibals of monuments in April and throughout the year.
Although they rose to the great cycling stage at the same time, in the spring of 2019, and although they are only 16 months old, the Belgian is much younger, the paths of Pogacar and Evenepoel have barely crossed. In almost five years in the peloton, only 16 days they started in the same race, and a half, eight, in the same test, La Tirreno-Adriatico in 2022. In this test, the Slovenian, who won the general classification and won two stages, beat the same The way Lombardy won 2021 as the Calpe-based Belgian was 19th. Two of Evenpoel’s victories, the Clasico in San Sebastian and the 1922 World Cup, were attended by Pogacar, who watched from afar.
Evenepoel is preparing the Giro, which starts in two weeks, and training on Teide. High altitude, 21 days of competition – three laps a week, one in January, in Argentina; One in February, in Dubai, and one in March, in Catalunya – three wins and one defeat against Roglic in the Volta. From Pogacar his numbers repeat after every win, 12 in 18 days of competition. After Liège he will rest until June. A preparatory race, his Tour of Slovenia, and the Tour de France, where Vingegaard, who beat him last year, awaits him.
When everyone gave up to Merckx 50 years ago, Luis Ocaña despaired and cried. What a miserable band, what a coward, accuse him, you should always try to overthrow the king, you will never have to bend your back. The man from Cuenca called his dog Eddie and Merckx teased him and made him bleed. Most of the time, Ocaña was defeated, but when he defeated him in the Orcières Merlette in Tour 1971 – “he killed me as bullfighters killed a bull in the arena”, the cannibal gave in – he felt all his rebellion and character made sense. Evenepoel is of Ocaña temperament, proud, arrogant. He won’t say in the end, if he doesn’t win, I’m happy, being second behind Pogacar is the best thing, everyone says, but he’ll cry and rebel. And before he fights. And he will cry if he wins, as he cried last year when he entered the final stage on his own. He attacked, in his pure style and pure Pogacar style too, over 30 kilometers, ascending the penultimate slope, La Redoute, the toughest two kilometers of the 260-kilometre up-and-down, the Belgian Ardennes.
Pogacar won his Liège car, beating a small group, Alaphilippe, Gaudu, Valverde and Woods, on the Ardennes pavement straight, next to the quiet Ourthe. The most hallucinatory they warn that being two, impatient and daring, the most likely thing is that they will attack each other in Stockeu, the perfect slope – 1000 meters at 12%, a track that reminds Merckx, cannibals both imitate -, more than 70 kilometers from Liège . The wiser expect a battle at La Redoute, and the more accurate remember that this year between La Redoute and La Roche aux Faucons the last hurdle is presented, 13 minutes from the finish line, the slope of the Forges, absent in 2022 in the lonely ride to Evenepoel’s greatness.
The two and the wind at La Redoute, in the Forges, in Stockeu, and the peloton from behind. The fighting in Liège will acquire an almost metaphysical value, a vision of the future, a reflection of what is to come, and vertigo.
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