'I still think I can win it' - Vingegaard continues to believe in yellow dream

Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) remains in fighting spirit heading into the third and final week of the Tour de France. He was asked at the Team Visma | Lease a Bike rest day press conference on Monday if he still believes he can win the Tour de France, to which he replied, "I do still think I can win it."

"Of course, it looks very hard now, it's a big gap, but yeah, I still do think that I can do it, and normally my strength is in the third week, I'm not going to tell you the tactics, but I do still believe I can do it.

"To attack, I mean, we have to attack, let's be honest, I'm more than four minutes behind, so we have to try to do something, again, I'm not going to tell you more in depth," he added. 

Despite the significant time gap between himself and Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Vingegaard's fighting spirit remains intact, "I have the feeling that I'm increasing my level also throughout this Tour de France, obviously I've had two bad days, normally I don't have any bad days, so yeah that's a bit unfortunate, but you can only look forward, and if you stop believing, then for sure it won't happen."

Those two 'bad' days that the Dane is referring to are the individual time trial to Caen on stage 5, where Vingegaard shipped 1:05 to Pogačar and the battle on the slopes of Hautacam, where the Slovenian dominated, taking a further 2:14, including bonus seconds at the finish. Vingegaard was asked if he had found an explanation for his off-days, but the Visma rider remained consistent is suggesting that he was unsure.

"We're still looking into it; we haven't found an answer yet," he explained, as he also quashed the idea that the crash he suffered at Paris-Nice in March was the answer.

“For sure, the crash last year [at Iztulia Basque Country] had a big impact, because it was not two steps back, it was ten steps back. I think the crash this year [at Paris-Nice] didn’t have an impact because after a week, I could start slowly training again," Vingegaard explained

The damage overall for Vingegaard is that he sits 4:13 behind his eternal rival on the second rest day, but with many more tough mountain stages to come with Mont Ventoux and the Alps, the two-time champion refuses to throw in the towel, stating that, "I'm willing to sacrifice second place to achieve first place."

Vingegaard was asked about the upcoming stage to Mont Ventoux on the other side of the rest day. The climb was arguably the location where the Dane illustrated he was going to be Pogačar's greatest rival when he distanced the Slovenian on the slopes in 2021.

"Yes, it's a bit of a different day to be honest, it's a bit of a flat day then one climb in the end, it's an iconic climb, sure."

He was asked if he could potentially exploit any weaknesses of Pogačar on the climb if he suspected any vulnerability.

"No, I don't think so, anyway it will be a super hard climb, probably be paced super hard from the bottom and then yeah if someone is sick, it will show already in the bottom," Vingegaard explained. 

Whilst Vingegaard suggests that he has had off-days, which have cost him in the fight for yellow so far, it's also fair to focus on the supreme performances of Pogačar, who has been operating on a different level to the rest of the peloton, including Vingegaard, at this Tour de France so far, and this was something that the Dane acknowledged.

"To be honest, [Tadej] has been looking very strong so far, so of course, I wouldn't say that he has any weaknesses. I think he is one of the most complete riders in the bunch, if not the most complete rider. So of course, he doesn't have a lot of weaknesses, and yeah, if I found one, I would also not sit here and say it," said Vingegaard, paying respect to his rival.

"The biggest improvement both [Tadej] and I made is actually from two years ago until last year, and then from there it still went up a little bit, but it seems like the biggest improvement was made from 2023 to 2024," Vingegaard answered, when asked about where he thinks his rival has improved.

"I mean, I have had two bad days, and when you have, you are going to lose time. Anyone can have a bad day, and it can also happen to Tadej in the third week," Vingegaard added.

Grischa Niermann, Head of Racing at Visma | Lease a Bike, also stated that his team will continue to fight for the yellow jersey, but acknowledged the difficulty of the task if Pogačar remains in his current omnipotent fashion.

"It’s four minutes, you don’t make it up with an attack in the last 500 metres of a mountain stage, but for that to happen, there needs to be a weakness of Tadej somewhere, until now he didn’t show that, but for sure, we will try and we will have a few big stages to come and we will try to go for it."

"The Tour isn’t over until Paris," Niermann added.