'I'm not Superman' - Pogacar resists Vingegaard's Ventoux attacks

Nothing, it seems, can shake Tadej Pogačar on this Tour de France. For perhaps the first time since Lille, Visma | Lease a Bike’s tactical plan was executed to perfection on stage 16, and Jonas Vingegaard delivered his best display of the race to date by unleashing a volley of attacks on the slopes of Mont Ventoux. 

Yet by day’s end, Pogačar had added a symbolic two seconds to his overall advantage after he withstood Vingegaard’s onslaught and then sprinted clear of his rival on the final kick to the summit.

Although Pogačar fell short of stage victory, which was claimed by early escapee Valentin Paret-Peintre, he did manage to shatter the longstanding record for the climb, putting a minute into Iban Mayo’s 2004 mark. The idea had seemed outlandish beforehand given the wind conditions on Tuesday, but no miracle appears to be beyond the 2025 iteration of Pogačar.

When the Tour last came this way in 2021, a dominant Pogačar showed a rare sign of weakness when he was dropped by Vingegaard near the summit. This time out, he responded to all Vingegaard’s attacks, though his own counter-attack with 1.5km to go was also snuffed out by the Dane. A collector’s item in Pogačar’s current imperial phase.

“Today Jonas really tried and today they worked very well as a team together,” Pogačar said of Visma, a squad he had criticised pointedly throughout this Tour.

“They really paced the climb super well, but luckily, I didn’t have the same legs as in 2021. I’m happy with today. It was a good performance from my side, and I defended the yellow jersey like I decided in the morning.”

When Pogačar put two minutes into Vingegaard at Hautacam on Friday, the Tour looked to be over as a contest. The Slovenian has increased his overall lead in the days since, stretching it to 4:15, but Vingegaard and Visma’s defiant display here suggests that the final week might yet prove to be a bike race rather than a mere coronation.

“There were some points, of course, where I was suffering,” Pogačar said. “But I think today was just one climb, one effort. It was more or less full gas from the bottom to the finish line. I think the next days will be more and more tiring for the body.”

Pogačar knows there are more arduous days ahead, and Vingegaard will be buoyed by the promise of stage 18 to the Col de la Loze, where he sealed overall victory in 2023. Visma’s numerical superiority to UAE Team Emirates-XRG on Mont Ventoux will also be a boost to Vingegaard’s morale, though the race will ultimately be a head-to-head joust between the two grandees.

“I think we race until Paris, and we’ll see who will be the winner,” Pogačar said. “Today was one proper hard day after the rest day for me. It’s one box ticked, and we go with good motivation for the next days.”

At the start in Montpellier, there was an expectation that UAE would seek to control affairs to allow Pogačar to claim a prestigious stage victory, but instead the break hit the foot of the Ventoux with more than six minutes in hand on the yellow jersey group after a frantic afternoon of racing. 

Pogačar had teammates Marc Soler and Pavel Sivakov in the move, but their assistance was limited on the final climb, whereas Vingegaard benefitted from strong turns from companions Victor Campenaerts and Tiesj Benoot when they dropped back.

“If we had to ride on the climb, we could ride with Adam [Yates] and Tim [Wellens] and then Marc and Pavel from the breakaway,” said Pogačar.

Instead, it was Visma who dictated the terms, with Vingegaard launching his first attack some 9km from the summit – an eternity on the Ventoux. Vingegaard and Pogačar’s slugging match brought them within sight of the escapees in the final kilometre, but the stage win would remain beyond their grasp.

“No, I’m definitely not Superman,” Pogačar said. “I was born in Ljubljana, not Krypton or wherever Superman was born. Today was an epic climb. We brought down the gap quite fast, we saw the winners with 800m to go, but even for Superman, I think it wouldn’t be possible to catch them there. Chapeau to Paret-Peintre.”

Like at Plateau de Beille a year ago, Pogačar surpassed a seemingly untouchable climbing record on the slopes of Mont Ventoux, a feat all the more remarkable because Iban Mayo – whose career was ended by a doping ban – set his mark in a mountain time trial rather than at the end of a hard-fought road stage.

“I don’t think we could ride much faster than today,” Pogačar said when asked if he had reached the limit of what was possible on the climb. “Jonas and his team did very good pacing with two guys in front, so I think for today, this was the limit for how fast we could ride, more or less, because they had good pacing from the bottom. 

“First, there was a fight for position, then the pacing, then Jonas had Tiesj and Victor waiting for him up the climb. The pacing was executed really perfectly, and on aero bikes, we go pretty fast today, so that maybe gave us a few seconds to go faster.”