Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) celebrates after winning the Tour de France(Image credit: Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP/Getty Images)
The very modern tradition of handing a microphone to Tour de France champions to address the multitudes on the Champs-Élysées began in 2005 when Lance Armstrong claimed what was then a record seventh overall victory and proceeded to admonish the “cynics and sceptics” for refusing to believe in miracles.
Tour champions have tended to be rather more conciliatory in tone in the years since, with any edge largely limited to attempts at comedy, from Bradley Wiggins quipping about raffles to Geraint Thomas’ mike drop at the end of his speech three years ago.
Tadej Pogačar, always courteous but usually sparing in his public utterances, was never likely to buck the trend and provide a memorable oration from the podium on the Champs-Élysées. Rather than take aim at those who questioned his performances, he preferred to limit himself to thanking his team, the race organisation and the spectators.
When Pogačar won his first Tour last September, victory came as a surprise and at the expense of his fellow Slovenian Primož Roglič. Even the yellow jersey himself confessed to mixed feelings that evening, but there was no such riot of emotions to quell on this Tour. Pogačar’s dominance has been total throughout, and the race was effectively won by the time he crested the summit of the Col de Romme on stage 8. He could have been jotting notes for a victory speech for the past two weeks.
“Last year, I should have written a speech for my first Tour de France victory but I didn’t know how to write it. Also, this year, I said ‘OK, I’m going to speak from the heart and just say what I have to say,’” Pogačar said on Sunday, before thanking the French public and “all the friends of cycling in the whole world.”
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