Tour de France: Favorites before rest day: Pogacar “happy” with Tour course

Tour de France: Favorites before rest day: Pogacar “happy” with Tour course

The 111th Tour is about to take a breather. After nine stages, superstar Pogacar is in strong form, and defending champion Vingegaard is still close behind him.

On his way to his targeted double victory at the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia, cycling superstar Tadej Pogacar was satisfied with the course of the Tour de France.

“I’m very happy with how things are going at the moment,” said the Slovenian overall leader before the first rest day of the 111th edition of the Tour – even though his big rival Jonas Vingegaard parried all attacks on the stressful gravel stage and really annoyed Pogacar. How are the top favorites around Pogacar, defending champion Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic doing so far? An interim conclusion.

Tadej Pogacar

The superstar rides extremely confidently over the French tarmac roads and mountain ramps. The winner of this year’s Giro d’Italia wore the yellow jersey on seven of the nine stages. The Slovenian raced up the Col du Galibier at a breathtaking pace, leaving last year’s winner Vingegaard behind and building a comfortable lead over his opponent. After the clear time trial defeat against Vingegaard in the last Tour had left its mark, he finished the first race against the clock 12 seconds behind world champion Evenepoel and 25 ahead of Vingegaard.

Pogacar is the big favorite to win the Tour. And this success would be historic: He would achieve the rare double of Giro and overall Tour victory in one year. The last person to do this was Italian Marco Pantani in 1998.

Jonas Vingegaard

Whether the Dane would even take part in this Tour was a matter of speculation for a long time. In April, the two-time winner of the Tour de France was seriously injured in the Basque Country. After Vingegaard took part in the altitude training camp with his team, it became clear that the 27-year-old was scheduled to take part in the Tour. And after just the second stage, the climbing specialist proved that he could keep up with Pogacar.

However, the seconds lost by last year’s winner to his rivals on the Galibier and in the time trial made it clear how difficult it will be for Vingegaard to beat the fresher-looking Pogacar. The Dane is gambling with time in order to possibly be able to strike back in the tough third week. In the tricky gravel stage on Sunday, Vingegaard was able to hold his own and stayed close to Pogacar despite several attacks. “The aim was not to lose any time. We managed that,” he said.

Remco Evenepoel

The time trial world champion is in great form on his Tour debut. The 24-year-old is currently second overall, 33 seconds behind Pogacar. The Belgian left his competitors behind in the time trial and celebrated his first Tour stage victory. The wearer of the white jersey for the best young rider is likely to have problems with the high mountains in the third week of the Tour.

Primoz Roglic

The new addition to the top German team Red Bull is so far the weakest of the fabulous four at the top. The veteran, who dramatically failed to win the Tour in 2020 in a duel with Pogacar, has his problems on the mountain compared to the other top riders. Only in the time trial did he finish at least three seconds ahead of Vingegaard. The Slovenian, who is expected to give Red Bull its first victory in the Tour de France, is likely to be fighting for the podium in the end.

Source: Stern

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