Pogacar’s rivals must work out how to defeat a champion at the top of his game | William Fotheringham

If ever a cyclist was suited to the intensity of the modern, made-for-TV format of the Tour, it is Tadej PogacarFourth Tour wins are, I once wrote, “more for the record books than the heart … the penultimate step to cycling greatness, [they] often do little to warm the soul at the time”. The past three weeks suggests that nothing has changed. It’s far from the four stages of grief, but you could argue that a first Tour victory is met with surprise and delight, a second a