Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard break all records up Madonna di San Luca during Tour de France showdown

Monday, 01 July 2024 at 12:50

There is not a single doubt that Jonas Vingegaard is close to or at top form. He and Tadej Pogacar raced up the Madonna di San Luca yesterday at absolute record speed, by far beating the previous times up the Italian ascent after the Slovenian launched a devastating attack up it's very steep slopes.

The climb is every year used at the Giro dell'Emilia. The Italian classic antecedes Il Lombardia, and so top climbers every year race up it close to their best form and to the absolute limit as it coincides with the finish line. However, usually there are several ascents of the 1.9-kilometer climb which averages just above 10%, but with a ramp of 18%. At the Tour there were only two ascents, but the first one was ridden at high speed and the heat (alongside stage 1) added some fatigue to the riders' legs.

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But the speed at which the top riders raced up it was never before seen in the history of the sport. Unofficially Primoz Roglic held the record up the climb, having won up it both in the opening time-trial of the 2019 Giro d'Italia but also beating Pogacar and Simon Yates to victory last year at the Giro dell'Emilia. Roglic in fact was not far from the time he set previously in the ascent, but a few riders were quite superior.

Team Visma | Lease a Bike entered the climb at full speed well positioned but Adam Yates quickly hit the front, smashing the group to less than a dozen riders before Tadej Pogacar launched a furious attack right after its steepest section. The Slovenian went all-out into the summit of the climb but was closely followed by Jonas Vingegaard. Roglic's previous record was of 5:22 minutes but the duo rode up it this Sunday in only 5:06 minutes. This is confirmed by the Strava segment of the climb, showing Pogacar's big difference in relation to all other times.

However four riders beat the previous record at least, as both Remco Evenepoel and Richard Carapaz climbed it in 5:17. According to CyclingGraphs, the front duo rode the 5-minute ascent with a power output of 7.89W/Kg... But in any case, both spectators on the road and TV were blessed with a spectacular stage finale where the GC contenders showed their true form for the first time and where gaps were created in the city of Bologna.