Slovenian Tadej Pogacar of the Emirates Team wins the Tour de France

And the moment of glory arrived. Slovenian cyclist Tadej Pocagar of the Emirates Team was acclaimed as the champion of the Tour de France this Sunday on the Champs-Elysées in Paris after the final stage. Pocagar has won the yellow Mayotte after an impressive time trial in which he managed to snatch his teammate's time trial this Saturday. Although Sam Bennett finished first in the sprint this Sunday, Pogacar was virtually in first place after winning the time trial this Saturday.

"Being here in Paris is the greatest thing. It's been a three week adventure. I thank all the organizers for their efforts and the UAE Team for giving me the opportunity to be part of this team. It's a feeling that is hard to describe," said Pogacar on the podium after receiving the yellow Mayotte. The riders of the UAE Team, the team sponsored by the Emirates, carried the new champion in their palmettes during the sprint around the Champs-Elysées.

Pogacar, 22 years old, has been the surprise of this Tour de France, he managed to recover one minute to his teammate Primoz Roglic in a stage outcome that has already passed to the History of Sport. Pogacar took the stage by overtaking Roglic, who was dominating the race from the start. The Slovenian finished with three stage victories, with the young riders' classification and also with the mountain classification. Roglic lost the yellow Mayotte at La Planche des Belles Filles after eleven days at the head of the standings.

Roglic started this Friday's time trial with 57 seconds over Pogacar. Although Roglic struggled to give his all, in his own words after reaching the finish line, he could not stop young Pocagar from taking the race. This cyclist is part of the new generation that is taking the reins of professional cycling alongside the likes of Egan Bernal and Renco Evenepoel.

Pocagar managed to reach the top in a time of 55:55, one minute and 21 seconds better than Dumoulin. Pogacar said after the race that he could not believe it. He is the youngest player to win the Tour de France since 1935. The victory was so resounding that Roglic, after being defeated, came forward and with a hug accepted his teammate's victory: "I am disappointed, but I can only say chapeau for Tadej. It is possible that he has not pressed the last days to make more time".

The threat has not stopped since the start of the Tour de France on 29 August in Nice: the COVID-19, which forced a delay of two months, marked the edition that, finally, was able to arrive in Paris three weeks later. With less of a crowd in the gutter, masks on their faces and the cyclists isolated from the rest of the world, the French round has managed to overcome the challenge, to the point that its director, Christian Prudhomme, proclaimed that seeing the peloton parade down the Champs-Elysées is a victory. The Tour was the first major sporting event to be held after the confinement, alongside the US Open in tennis, but with the added difficulty that it is not held in a closed venue.

The edition has not been free of criticism. The Tour gave up on being held in July, because the health situation did not allow it, and went on to be held in September, when the pandemic came back to life in France, as in other European countries, where contagion is once again multiplying.

The caravan, which is small, has been adapted to the safety system of each territory, as set out by the authorities. The gutters have been much less crowded and the mask has been the predominant note among the spectators. But there have been some black spots. For example, the promotion to Peyresourde, where a large number of spectators gathered and the vast majority were unprotected, which led the organisers to tighten the screws. The images were seen at some other moments of the race, above all in the ports, where the spectators defied the surveillance imposed to avoid crowding in the ditches.

On the sporting front, the Tour officially ends without any positive coronavirus in the peloton. The authorities imposed strict controls, a bubble that affected the riders, technicians, doctors and mechanics, who were cut off from the rest of the world. 

A logistical feat, since the Tour is not a static event and had to be moved to a new city every day. The waterproofing of this bubble was often questioned, but the riders all passed four tests without any positive results. There were only two before the start, which caused the organisers' alarms to go off. The protocol was established that two cases in the same team meant their expulsion from the race.