Did Tadej Pogačar Lose His GPS During Stage 21 of the Tour?
Recent Tour de France winner Tadej Pogačar’s underdog victory is one for the history books—at 21 years old, he’s the second youngest rider ever to win the Tour, as well as the first Slovenian cyclist to do so. Pogačar surprised everyone and upended the 11-day yellow jersey streak of fellow Slovenian Primož Roglič with his amazing Stage 20 time trial performance on September 19, the second to last day of the Tour.
It appears Pogačar set another first, too, by uploading most of his rides to his Strava account. Following his win, Strava released a media announcement congratulating him and highlighting his use of the app.
“Kudos to Tadej Pogačar on a historic victory and for becoming the first Tour winner to make his race part of the record of the world’s athletic activities on Strava,” the company said in its announcement.
So far, 12 of Pogačar’s Tour de France stage rides have been posted to Strava, which tracked him securing both the white and polka dot jerseys in the days leading up to the time trial, thanks to a cool app feature. (Yeah, he won those jerseys too!)
But his two final rides of the Tour—arguably his most important rides, which sealed his victory—are missing. What’s going on?
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For starters, Pogačar actually opted to forego using a power meter during the decisive time trial climb, which is a rarity in today’s data-obsessed world. The time trial bike that he started on sported his usual Stages Dash computer, but it was noticeably absent once he switched to a better bike for tackling the climb, which might explain the lack of a Strava post for the penultimate stage.
As for the missing ride upload for the final stage, a different Strava post from Pogačar seems to explain why. His ride from yesterday is humorously titled: “If someone finds my Stages dash on Champs Elysees, please sync it. Thanks 🤟.”
Looking over press images, it’s indeed missing from his bike at the finish line.
Somewhere out there, a lucky cycling fan has scored a used Stages Dash cycling computer, and a piece of Tour de France history. If you’re that lucky someone and reading this, could you do Pogačar (and us all) a favor and upload his ride to Strava?
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