Pogacar and team downplay 'explosive' Mende summit finish in Tour battle

UAE Team Emirates teams Slovenian rider Tadej Pogacar wearing the best young riders white jersey awaits the start of the 13th stage of the 109th edition of the Tour de France cycling race 1926 km between Le Bourg dOisans in the French Alps and SaintEtienne in central France on July 15 2022 Photo by Thomas SAMSON AFP Photo by THOMAS SAMSONAFP via Getty Images
Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) continues as the best young rider in the Tour de France after stage 13 (Image credit: THOMAS SAMSON AFP via Getty Images)

Defending Tour de France champion Tadej Pogačar and UAE Team Emirates have played down the chances of the Slovenian using the Mende summit finish on Saturday to try to regain time on race leader Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma).

The brutally-steep three-kilometre ascent to Mende airfield has seen sparks fly in the past on GC, but barring its debut in 1995 when Laurent Jalabert and his ONCE squad staged a spectacular long-range attack on yellow Miguel indurain, the sparks have rarely been part of an overall conflagration.

Alasdair Fotheringham

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 IndependentThe GuardianProCycling, The Express and Reuters.