It was July 18, 2023, when Tadej Pogacar suffered his most bitter defeat: that day, his surrender came on the Col de la Loze, the same climb where the Slovenian and Vingegaard will face each other again today.

Two years ago, Pogacar, at the end of that stage which turned into hell for him, said: "I'm dead". Terrible words that tasted of defeat and which the Slovenian champion had only pronounced that day in his extraordinary career. So much has changed since that July 2023 and today Tadej Pogacar is ready to write a new page in his Tour de France book, where the final word will be "victory".

"It seems like this Tour route was designed to scare me" Pogacar had said at the beginning of this week. Indeed, if one thinks about Hautacam, Mont Ventoux, and now the Col de la Loze: stage 12, stage 16, and stage 18, then the most terrible defeats of the world champion come to mind. But today, certainly it won't be like that, even if Visma - Lease a Bike will not surrender easily. The Dutch team will fight tooth and nail, but 4 minutes to recover is now almost impossible.

This time it will definitely be different, because those mountains where Pogacar had lost have this year transformed into triumph. On Hautacam he conquered the stage victory in an absolutely dominant way. On Ventoux, he countered every attack by Vingegaard, snatching a few seconds in the final meters. Today on the Col de La Loze, the Slovenian will not seek his revenge, but will find along the road that motivation that makes him one of the greatest champions of all time.

According to Thierry Gouvenou, designer of the Tour de France route, the Col de Loze will only be the final climb of a memorable day, because before, the group will have to face the Col du Glandon (21.7 km at 5.1%), then the Col de la Madeleine (19.2 km at 7.9%). "These are three hors categorie passes to be tackled one after another without ever catching a breath - said Thierry Gouvenou - It's the old way of pedaling applied to the new. It will really hurt".

Words that sound like prophecy from Glandon and that today will come to life in the clash between Pogacar and Vingegaard.

"Yesterday was relatively calm, but not easy, because it was fast and bad weather characterized the finale - said Pogacar in Valence -. I'm happy the stage is over and we all arrived safe and sound. The bad weather arrived and the next few days should not be much better. Usually it goes well for me, although in the end I prefer sunshine. The goal is to maintain the yellow jersey, nothing else".

Yesterday the bad weather tested the group, but both Pogacar and Vingegaard are less tolerant of heat and rain, but certainly not scared. But today tactics will worry the general classification riders, because surprising opponents will be anything but easy. "For today we can expect Visma to try to get in the breakaway and climb every climb at full speed. When we arrive at Col de la Loze, they will do everything to drop me. I'll be ready to face whatever comes my way. I know La Loze, it's a magnificent climb, one of the toughest I've ever done. Perhaps this side is a bit less hellish than the one we climbed in 2023".

The problem will not only be the climb to Col de la Loze, but the two climbs before that will burn the legs even of the strongest man. Controversies in recent days have not been lacking and Pogacar has been repeatedly defined by international media as too arrogant and polemical towards his direct rivals. "I think some people should calm down and keep their mouths shut, in my opinion. It might sound arrogant to say, but arrogance is one thing, trying to win the Tour de France is another. We're not trying to be arrogant, we're just trying to make the race as easy as possible for ourselves. Many riders might see us as arrogant, like when we tried to calm things down when we needed to, because we are the team that must control every kilometer of this race and we must do it".