'He'll keep on attacking' - Pogacar repels Vingegaard's first onslaught
Tadej Pogacar was more restrained on the Tour de France's third day in the Pyrenees, where he withstood Jonas Vingegaard's attack on the final ascent to Superbagnères before outsprinting his rival for second place to extend his overall lead.
And on the third day, he relented. After two exhibitions on the first two days in the Pyrenees, Tadej Pogačar opted for a controlling brief on stage 14 to Superbagnères, where he contented himself with tracking Jonas Vingegaard’s attacks on the final climb.
Although it looked for much of the day that UAE Team Emirates-XRG would hunt down the break to tee up another Pogačar victory, the pace in the yellow jersey group never ramped up on the ascent to Superbagnères, and early escapee Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) held on for the stage win.
After following Vingegaard’s attack with 4km to go, Pogačar proceeded to rip past his rival in the final 200 metres to take second place on the stage, 1:08 down. He picked up four seconds on Vingegaard with kick – plus another two in bonuses – to extend his overall lead to 4:13.
“Jonas tried today, of course,” Pogačar said. “He’s really good. I was expecting him to try earlier on the climb, but he attacked about 4k to go or something. I could respond well but I didn’t have that firepower in me to counterattack and give it all to the finish. I committed just to control the stage until the very last 250 metres and then do the sprint for second place, so all good. We controlled the stage and I’m happy to be in yellow.”
Pogačar put two minutes into Vingegaard with a crushing display at Hautacam on stage 13 and he tacked on another 36 seconds in Friday’s mountain time trial to Peyragudes. Vingegaard appeared heartened to have broken more or less even with Pogačar at Superbagnères. Asked if this was Vingegaard’s best display of the Tour so far, Pogačar preferred to focus on the road ahead.
“I mean, to be honest, we didn’t have very many mountains yet,” Pogačar said. “We had Hautacam and the time trial. I think out of these three days, he was very, very strong today. I think he will not give up, he will keep on attacking when we reach the Alps and Mont Ventoux. We will have a big battle next week.”
The final week of the Tour sees the race visit two locations where Vingegaard has enjoyed the upper hand over Pogačar. In 2021, Vingegaard briefly troubled Pogačar by dropping him on Mont Ventoux, while in 2023, the Slovenian lost all hope of overall victory on the Col de la Loze, a moment forever encapsulated by his “I’m gone, I’m dead” radio message.
Then again, Pogačar has already conquered Hautacam, where he conceded the 2022 Tour to Vingegaard. In an appearance on France TV’s ‘Vélo Club’ show on Saturday evening, Pogačar made light of the design of this year’s Tour.
“Well, this year is like they designed the parcours just to remind me of all my bad moments in my history on the Tour de France,” he smiled. “I lost time on the Ventoux, I lost time on Hautacam and I totally exploded on Col de la Loze – but I like all these climbs, so maybe if I have better legs than 2021 on the Ventoux, I can do well there. And the Col de la Loze is a beautiful climb. I’m looking forward to it.”
After claiming his fourth stage of this Tour at Peyragudes on Friday, Pogačar shrugged off the idea that he should refrain from attempting to win more stages between here and Paris. For much of Saturday, he appeared to be intent on third straight win in the Pyrenees, but he eventually allowed Arensman enough leeway to claim the day.
“He deserves it, he rode incredibly strong,” Pogačar said. “I love to see a victory like this from Arensman. It was a strong performance and even when Jonas and I went, he was still pushing to the line. He deserves the victory.”
Pogačar had words of sympathy, meanwhile, for Remco Evenepoel, who abandoned the Tour on the Tourmalet having begun the day in third overall.
“It’s really sad to see Remco leave the Tour, he was looking great to finish again to win the white jersey, to finish on the podium” Pogačar said. “I don’t know what happened today, why he abandoned, but it sucks to see him leave the Tour. I really hope he recovers fast physically, whatever it is, and mentally so he can come back strong. I hope not too strong, but I wish him all the best, it really sucks to lose such a class rider in the Tour de France.”
