‘Hopefully I can be better at the Tour’ – Jonas Vingegaard limits damage but loses more ground at Dauphiné

Jonas Vingegaard will feel he’s getting a little closer, but he’s still further away from Tadej Pogačar than he would have banked on at this point in the year. Three weeks from the Tour de France, the hierarchy among the favourites is clear.

For the second day running, Vingegaard was unable to hold Pogačar’s wheel when he attacked on the final climb of the Critérium du Dauphiné, and although he limited the damage to 14 seconds at the summit of Valmeinier 1800, it was another sobering afternoon.

Visma | Lease a Bike had hoped their strength in numbers would help them outflank Pogačar on a day that included three hors catègorie climbs, but the Slovenian made light of his numerical disadvantage to surge clear with 12km of the final climb remaining.

As on the Côte de Domancy on Friday, Vingegaard was the only rider who even deigned to follow, but he barely lasted 200m on Pogačar’s wheel before relenting. He did battle gamely to limit his deficit to 10 seconds for a couple of kilometres, and he never relented even when Pogačar’s lead stretched out towards half a minute.

Vingegaard finished with a flourish, but at least some of the time he recouped in the final kilometre stemmed from Pogačar’s own decision to step off the gas. At Valmeinier 1800 as at Combloux, there was no debating Pogačar’s superiority.

“I couldn’t follow his attack but to be honest, I think I did quite a good job,” Vingegaard told reporters at the summit. “I just did my own tempo, and I didn’t lose much in the end so I think I can be happy with how things went today.”

With its longer climbs, stage 7 was better suited to Vingegaard’s powers of endurance than Friday’s explosive finale to Combloux, though he insisted there had been no material difference to his strategy on the final ascent. He tracked Pogačar for as long as he could, and he then followed his own tempo thereafter.

“I tried to follow and just like yesterday, I had to slow down,” Vingegaard said. “But I think I still did a very good performance. I can be happy with how I did today. I could see the numbers, and they were quite good numbers to be honest. Again today, Tadej was just better so congrats to him. He really deserves to win.”

Visma | Lease a Bike had hoped their depth could make an impact here, and they dispatched Sepp Kuss in the day’s early break. The American was later the first attacker from the yellow jersey group on the final climb, and Matteo Jorgenson was also poised with intent. But once Pogačar decided attack to be his best form of defence, their challenge faded.

Vingegaard, second on the stage, is now 1:01 down in the overall standings with a day to go, while Jorgenson drops to seventh at 7:18. 

The Dauphiné climbs above 2,000m once again on Sunday’s finale at Mont-Cenis, but on the evidence to date, Pogačar’s grip on the race looks unshakeable. But July, Vingegaard hopes, is still a different question.

“I still hope that this race can help me to get better, so hopefully I can be even better at the Tour than I am now,” Vingegaard said. “But Tadej was very strong yesterday and also today. He deserves to win these two days for sure, so congrats to him.”