Tadej Pogacar is Tour de France Champ Sam Bennett wins Green for Ireland

Slovenia's UAE Team Emirates rider Tadej Pogacar celebrates a great if unexpected victory as the second youngest (debatable) Tour de France champion in history.

Sam Bennett (pictured) won the final sprint in Paris to his great delight. This year’s race was a highly entertaining classic, which may well have been affected by COVID (and lack of doping, we hope!) but was all the more exciting for it. There were many first time records and no doping problems yet recorded.

Tafej Pogacar will have been unfamiliar to some cycling fans before this Tour but he was a huge talent at junior level and has since won the 2018 Tour de l'Avenir - a prestigious under-23 race whose winners regularly go on to Grand Tour and shine.

Pogacar, is the first Slovenian winner and first champion on debut since Laurent Fignon in 1983. He won three stages, the polka dot jersey as king of the mountains and the white jersey as the best young rider. Pogacar is 22 today (21st Sept) and the youngest Tour champion since France's Henri Cornet was controversially awarded the second ever title in 1904 at the age of 19 but that day the top four riders were disqualified. Wikipedia say: "The 1903 Tour de France winner Maurice Garin seemed to have repeated his win by a small margin over Lucien Pothier, while Hippolyte Aucouturier won four of the six stages. But the race became a victim of its own success and plagued by scandals; cyclists were accused of having taken trains during the race.[1] Twelve cyclists, including the first four of the final classification and all stage winners, were disqualified" - maybe that race should not count?

It is a first Tour win for UAE Team Emirates, in either their current guise or as former outfit Lampre, and ends a run of five straight titles for British team Ineos, four as Team Sky.

The Green (Irish) Man:

Deceuninck-Quick-Step rider Bennett had a great tour. At 29, he is the first Irishman to win a green jersey since Sean Kelly won the last of his four green jerseys in 1989, we will not dwell on Kelly’s two failed drugs tests and urine swapping system!

Peter Sagan has dominated the points classification since his debut in 2012, winning every year except 2017 when he was disqualified for his part in a crash involving Mark Cavendish.

It was clear from the beginning that an out-of-form Sagan would struggle to amass points this year to extend his record to an amazing eight wins. He was unable to match the fastest sprinters in bunch finishes and was lacking in opportunities to get ahead to take points without a competitive sprint.

Bennett, riding his first Tour since 2016, left Sagan's team Bora-Hansgrohe at the end of last year partly out of frustration at being overlooked for the Tour squad as they focused on Sagan. How the wheels turn!

Ineos Grenadiers boss Sir Dave Brailsford after the run of five titles, looks to have got it very wrong this year. A controversial decision not to take the experience of the four-time winner Chris Froome and 2018 victor Geraint Thomas on Tour may well have cost his team dearly. Froome announced in July that he would be leaving Ineis to join new WorldTour team Israel Start-Up Nation in 2021 to become their outright Grand Tour leader. His recent results were poor, almost as if he did not want selection.

However, not to take Thomas was a surprise as he could probably have ridden himself into the race and held the team together. The Welshman dismissed rumours that he had refused to ride in support of teammate and 2019 Tour winner, Egan Bernal.

“It’s nothing against Egan,” Thomas said in response to that suggestion. “It’s not like I’m throwing my toys out of the pram. But these last few years — I want to make the most of them. I could have gone and done a job, but there’s also other guys in the team that can do that job,” he added. “I feel that I’m at the stage of my career now where I want to make the most of every year. I’ve done so much for other people throughout my career."

After such a great race I am sure all sports fans will hope that we see Froom and Thomas competing against the new star young riders in 2021.

We all hope that COVID and doping is in steep decline and will not spoil race results, or next year’s TDF preparations and we want more positive firsts from this great sport!