Imagine Roger Federer for example, during his heyday. The Basel player crushed everyone in his path and all tennis fans, especially the Swiss, were delighted to have a string of crazy seasons. Like his 2005 exercise for example, with only 4 defeats for 81 victories. The following year, the Master suffered only 5 defeats for 92 victories. Have we read anyone complaining about this? Was he asked to withdraw from one or other of the Grand Slams or Masters 1000 to let the others win?
Like the Basel resident, have you seen a Frenchman complain about the repeated victories of swimmer Léon Marchand? Should Spanish footballers stop passing each other around to leave a title to others, one time or another? Will PSG give money to its competitors in the hope of being beaten from time to time? Should Mondo Duplantis take smaller poles so as not to beat world records by the shovel and get beaten from time to time? Did Usain Bolt run back, just to give others a chance? Michael Jordan… Anyway, you get the point.
No, the Pogi boy is just like the older ones and that’s how it is. It’s boring as hell and the July naps are even longer than usual. Even the castles and scenery of the Alps, the Vosges or the Pyrenees are no longer enough to brighten up long summer afternoons. So much the worse, so much the better. In ten, twenty or thirty years, we will just remember that he was one of the best runners of all time. The glorious ancients can testify to this. And there, we’re not talking about Lance Armstrong, caught by the patrol. Unlike Eddy Merckx and Bernard Hinault, for example. While they too were hated in their time.
The Belgian was nicknamed “The Cannibal” and that was by far not a compliment at the time. Merckx so dominated cycling in the 1970s that he eventually tired of part of the public, his habit of winning almost every race becoming too predictable. He ended up taking a direct injury to the liver during the 1975 Grande Boucle, during the climb of Puy de Dôme. Bernard Hinault was known for his implacable authority over the peloton and his refusal to leave the slightest crumb to his opponents in the 1980s. Today, they are legends.
The legendary journalist Antoine Blondin, for his part, nicknamed Jacques Anquetil the “road manager”, as opposed to the so-called heroes of the time. In 1961, the Frenchman wore the yellow jersey every day before winning the Tour. He ended up being booed at the Parc des Princes, by an audience who gave the third place, Charly Gaul, a standing ovation. Raymond Poulidor case law. Well, that’s very French. Like relaying the boos that Pogacar would suffer in the 2026 Tour de France, while 99% of the public applauds him. And when will it be Paul Seixas who will be chasing stage victories in a few years? We understood each other…
Worse still, these few jokes coming from the sides of the road could excite the beast even more… “The haters will hate, it’s always like that. Me, I always think of Novak Djokovic, what an incredible mind he has!, the Slovenian explained in recent days. He’s had one of the most difficult careers about this, about the boos. Just because he’s the biggest. When someone boos me, I turn to Novak Djokovic and think of him. Even though there were a few boos, to all the guys who were booing, they actually helped me get even more power.” That alone can potentially calm the idiots down.
I see the eternal criticism coming about the potential doping of the yellow jersey. But at such a level of financial and therefore medical resources, why would he be the only one to have found the magic potion? Why wouldn’t the other big budgets, why wouldn’t his teammates be entitled to the same soup? To return to tennis, we have known for a long time that pharmacies are open all year round in the locker rooms of the little yellow ball, in particular. Look at Rafael Nadal and his foot. He’s going to be a nasty old man.
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