On Monday´s rest day, the race's best young rider, third-placed overall Remco Evenepoel, added his name to those impressed by the Slovenian's performance.
The Belgian finished third on Plateau de Beille himself, dropped by Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard with 10km to go but able nonetheless to buttress his podium position.
5:19 down but over five minutes clear of João Almeida, Evenepoel said his main goal in the third week would be maintaining his podium finish.
"I came here with the goal of a top-five finish overall and a stage win, and I do want a second stage if possible," Evenepoel said. "But in any case, to finish in the top three next Sunday would be great."
There have been plenty of comments too, that stage 15 of the Tour de France, with a blistering pace set all day by Visma-Lease A Bike and then Pogačar in person on its four first-category climbs and the final hors catégorie ascent to Plateau de Beille, was in its own league in terms of difficulty.
And Evenepoel confirmed that it had been an exceptional day, culminating in an exceptional performance from Pogačar.
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"It was for sure, the whole day we rode a tempo that put an enormous amount of fatigue in my legs, something I have personally never really had before, especially on a stage with 5,000 metres of climbing," he said.
"It was probably not called the queen stage, because there will be some [mountainous] stages around Nice as well, but yes, for myself it was hard, it was really tough.
"The last climb I did pretty, well, maybe over 6w/kg. But I think Tadej´s performance was just outstanding, probably one of the best 40-minute performances after a long time in the saddle already that we'll ever see in cycling.
"He beat Marco Pantani's record by three and a half minutes [3:39 - Ed.]. If I'm not wrong, then you're from another planet. So we're going fast, but I'm proud that I was also faster than Pantani."
As for himself, rather than try to fight for the second place on the podium, which Vingegaard holds with a 1:50 advantage, Evenepoel said he would continue to look to add another stage win as well as defending his 5:30 lead to Almeida.
"I will definitely fight for third. It would be terrible to fight for second and then lose third," he said.
"I do want another stage, and I'll fight for it if the opportunity arises, but if from her on what I get a podium in Nice and nothing more, I will be very happy, too. I wanted a top five overall from this race, so to finish my first Tour in the top three will be great. I will kill myself to fight for it."
Closing time trial is in Evenepoel's sights
Evenepoel sped to victory in the stage 7 time trial (Image credit: Thomas SAMSON / AFP/ Getty Images)
If becoming the first Belgian on the Tour podium since Lucien van Impe in 1981 would be a remarkable achievement, Evenepoel said he was also motivated to round off his maiden participation with another big boost for national pride – by taking the final time trial stage on July 21, Belgium's national holiday.
"It's definitely an advantage to know the stages that are still to come. I've already reconned stages 17, 19, 20 and 21, so almost all the last week," Evenepoel said. "The Pyrenees were much more of a voyage in the dark, I'd only ever ridden over the Tourmalet before, so it wasn't a question of fear but more of a question mark.
"I know these upcoming stages by heart, though, I've reconned the time trial three times, I've ridden over stage 20 twice, too, so I definitely know them much better than the second week.
"That knowledge gives you a certain degree of calm, knowing what's coming up, knowing when you need to be in front, and it also means I'm very motivated for the last stage.
"It's not really a time trial though, because we have to ride up the Col de la Turbie, and then the Col d'Eze, so half of the time trial is really a mountain stage. But the last 8km are much more about aerodynamics and power on the flat. Either way, in any case, I'm very motivated for the whole last part of the race."
Barring perhaps Paris-Roubaix, arguably no other race in cycling offers such a steep learning curve as the Tour de France. As Evenepeol looked back at the action-packed last two weeks, he had time on the second rest day to draw breath and reflect a little on how he handled it performance-wise, not just in terms of results.
"Maybe this is a question for you journalists because it's difficult for me to say what I did or did not do well," he said. "But honestly, I think my positioning in the nervous moments, the crosswinds and gravel stages, always being up there – that showed my quality in that has really improved.
"So that's maybe the biggest surprise for me, too. Everybody says the Tour is the most nervous race in the year, which is true and I think I'm handling that pretty well and doing not badly in terms of positioning and all that stuff."
Globally in any case, Remco said he was very satisfied with his Tour to date – which, assuming all goes well, will be the third Grand Tour he has managed to complete – and that the upcoming battles will likely be fought on similar lines to the previous showdowns.
"We all thought that week two was going to be relatively easy, but from the gun we had echelons, there was a big break that went away on a really hot day," he said. "So it was a very tough week 2, and I think that a lot has already been decided. The Alps are tougher climbs than in the Pyrenees, and the tarmac too, is different - it's slightly harder and more annoying to ride on, let's say.
"So it´s already been very hard, but stages 19 and 20 will be very hard as well. They aren't the longest, though, not like stage 15, but it's clear you'll still need really good legs to perform."
In Evenepoel's case, though, he has now built himself a very solid position to defend. And if week three is always the toughest in a Grand Tour, following his 'Best of the Rest' performances of week two, he has more than reasonable grounds to be optimistic about what's to come – particularly stage 21 and a potential repeat of his stunning time trial victory on stage 7.
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Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for Cyclingnews, he has also written for The Independent, The Guardian, ProCycling, The Express and Reuters.
