Tour de France leader Vingegaard adamant third week stages suit him best

Jonas Vingegaard loses eight seconds to Tadej Pogacar on the Puy de Dome on stage 9 at the Tour de France
Jonas Vingegaard loses eight seconds to Tadej Pogacar on the Puy de Dome on stage 9 at the Tour de France (Image credit: Getty Images)

In the 1964 Tour when Jacques Anquetil was dropped by Raymond Poulidor on the Puy de Dôme, when the future winner was told he’d held onto the leader’s jersey by 14 seconds, his famously succinct answer was ‘That’s 13 more than I needed.” 

Fast forward more than half a century and on the same climb, race leader Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) had a remarkably similar attitude to his having lost eight seconds to his arch-rival Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) on the Puy de Dôme, but retaining the overall lead by 17 seconds.

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.