This weekend, defending champion Vingegaard suffered two heavy defeats against his rival Pogacar at the Tour de France. There aren’t many opportunities to counterattack.
Jonas Vingegaard is running out of antidotes in his battle with Tadej Pogacar at the 111th Tour de France. After two clear defeats in the Pyrenees at the weekend, the Danish defending champion is hoping that his opponent will not perform as well.
“Over the last two years we have seen that he sometimes has a bad day. So we have to hope that he has a bad day. Of course, if he stays at this level, then it will be tough,” said the two-time Tour winner after his day’s defeat on the Plateau de Beille.
On the queen stage, overall leader Pogacar left his rival behind for the second time in a row – and crossed the finish line on Sunday with a lead of just over a minute. In the overall standings, he is a full 3:09 minutes ahead of Vingegaard.
The current second overall still has two challenging stages in the Alps and the final individual time trial in Nice to stop the Slovenian from his third overall victory in the Tour de France.
Vingegaard: One of the best performances of my life
Last year, the exhausted Pogacar collapsed in the third week of the Tour. This year, however, he does not look like that will happen again. Vingegaard, who was seriously injured in a fall in the spring, was satisfied with his performance. “I was super strong on the last climb. I probably delivered one of the best performances of my life. But Tadej was simply stronger,” lamented the 27-year-old.
His sporting director Grischa Niermann shared this assessment. “At the moment, Tadej Pogacar seems unbeatable, but the final week is still ahead of us. We’re not letting our heads hang yet, but we’re taking a break,” he said. The Tour has a rest day on Monday and Vingegaard has time to catch his breath.
Source: Stern
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