Jonas Vingegaard knew Tadej Pogačar was going to rip the Tour de France apart on the upper reaches of Pla d’Adet on stage 14, but this time he couldn’t stitch it all seamlessly back together. The general classification is now tailored altogether more comfortably for Pogačar, even if Vingegaard remained bullish about his prospects of snatching the yellow jersey off his back by Nice.
“I did a good performance, so I don’t think I can be disappointed in that, but of course it’s disappointing to lose 40 seconds,” Vingegaard said when he emerged from the Visma-Lease a Bike bus long after the finish. “I mean, we just have to take the good things from here, that I did another good performance. And tomorrow is another day, maybe a day that suits me even better.”
At Le Lioran in midweek, the momentum of the Tour looked to be with Vingegaard after he closed a 35-second gap to Pogačar and then beat him to the stage win. The Dane was braced for a repeat offensive here, but a forewarning about Pogačar is like a hurricane forecast; there is little to do but batten down the hatches and ride out the storm.
“We knew last night that Tadej would attack on the final climb,” said directeur sportif Grischa Niermann, and Pogačar telegraphed his intentions still further on Saturday by dispatching his teammate Adam Yates up the road on the lower slopes of the final climb while he took the measure of his rivals. The inevitable attack came with 5km go and it began with a familiar kind of pattern. Like on the Col de Galibier on stage 4, Vingegaard was unable to match the initial violence of the acceleration, but Pogačar then seemed unable to pull any further clear.
This most high-octane stalemate endured for two kilometres or so of hard road. Every time Pogačar checked over his shoulder, Vingegaard was still there, almost within touching distance. With 3km to go, the gap was just 8 seconds, but Pogačar’s advantage began to stretch out inexorably from there. With 2km to go, Vingegaard trailed by 21 seconds. Come the finish line, he would lose 39 seconds. In the overall standings, Vingegaard is now second overall, 1:57 behind his rival.
“Of course, I was very happy to see the finish line, but I did a good performance and I think I can be happy with that,” Vingegaard said. “He deserved the victory today, so congrats to him, it was really an impressive ride. But it’s a new day tomorrow and hopefully I can do better that.”
‘Nothing has changed'
On crossing the line, Vingegaard rolled directly downhill towards his team bus, where he warmed down intently while a jungle of television cameras and microphones knotted themselves into position on the other side of the rope. Teammate Matteo Jorgenson arrived soon afterwards, placing a consoling hand on Vingegaard’s back as he began his warmdown alongside him.
“We of course hoped for a different outcome,” Niermann said while his riders soft pedalled on their turbo trainers behind him. “But today Pogačar was on a different level, we have to accept that. Jonas did a good effort, he rode Remco [Evenepoel] out of his wheel, but in the end he lost quite a lot of time and we have to accept it. Tadej was better.”
Niermann smiled resignedly when asked if Pogačar had been better than Visma had expected at Pla d’Adet. “No, but he was maybe better than he hoped, eh,” he said, before insisting that Vingegaard’s increased deficit would do little change his team’s approach in the days ahead. “Not a lot, because we have to try to gain time somewhere and we’ll try all the way until Nice.”
Jorgenson was the next to make his way into the impromptu mixed zone that had developed outside the bus, while Vingegaard climbed aboard for a shower. The American had been pressed into action at the head of the yellow jersey group by Yates’ surprise attack on the final ascent.
“We decided before the stage to ride defensively today because we knew the stage didn’t suit Jonas. We knew the attack was going to come and we hoped Jonas could follow,” said Jorgenson, who echoed Niermann’s take on the road ahead.
“Look, we hoped the whole time since we made the plan for the Tour that Jonas would be his best for the final week, and nothing has changed.”
Plateau de Beille
When Vingegaard emerged from the bus, showered and changed, he talked reporters through his day in Danish and then in English. Reading his expression for signs of fatigue is essentially moot, given how his pallor is as striking in victory as it is in defeat.
Vingegaard’s words, however, were resolutely upbeat. Despite the losses incurred, he reasoned that he had held Pogačar in his sights on the steepest portions of Pla d’Adet before losing ground when the road flattened out and occasionally dipped closer to the summit.
“To be honest, I was more disappointed after the Galibier stage. Today I did a really good performance so actually I cannot be disappointed,” Vingegaard said.
“We knew that he had this crazy attack and maybe the last 3k suited him better with his better power on the downhills. In that case, it makes sense because he has more total power than I have. I was getting closer on the steeper parts. He gained most of the time when it was flatter because he has his total power. In some kind of way, this also gives confidence for tomorrow because it’s a different climb.”
On Sunday, the Tour peloton tackles four category 1 climbs en route to another hors catégorie finish, this time atop Plateau de Beille. Vingegaard maintained that the terrain would suit him better in the Ariège, and he suggested, too, that a second consecutive day of climbing would play to his strengths.
“I think that’s only in my favour too,” Vingegaard said. “In general, it’s just a harder day tomorrow. Today was very short, so to say. I think the longer and harder it is, the better it is for me.”
Vingegaard’s steadfast belief in his powers of endurance is all the more remarkable considering his truncated build-up to the race after he suffered a punctured lung in a crash at Itzulia Basque Country. A deficit of almost two minutes surely complicates his task still further, but Vingegaard was quietly defiant about his prospects of conjuring up another miracle to overhaul Pogačar.
Asked if it was still possible to wear the yellow jersey in Nice next week, Vingegaard’s response was politely firm. “Yes,” he said. “It is.”
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