'One of the hardest mountain stages' - Vingegaard launches late attacks
The third and final stage in the Pyrenees saw the Dane continue his newfound combative style in this Tour de France.
Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) tried multiple attacks in the finale of what he described as 'one of the hardest mountain stages' of his career, on stage 14 of the Tour de France to Superbagnères.
“Yeah, to be honest, it was a super hard day. Actually, it was five hours in the saddle and, yeah, a lot of altitude meters, and it was a super hard day," Vingegaard said to reporters after the finish.
In the end, he was unable to shake off the imperious Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), who remained glued to his wheel, and in fact, the explosivity of the yellow jersey created a 4-second gap between the duo as they came in just over a minute day on the stage winner Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers)
However, just like stage 13's mountain time trial, it was another strong day for the Dane, who has firmly established himself in second in the GC, 4:13 behind Pogačar but 3:40 ahead of Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) in third, and he reflected positively after a brutal stage in the Pyrenees.
"A bit like yesterday, I can be really happy with how my legs are feeling today," said Vingegaard. "In general, today was probably one of the hardest mountain stages I've ever done. It was a hard day, I think, for everyone. So to do that performance at the end of such a day is obviously nice," he added.
Once more, Visma | Lease a Bike raced aggressively throughout the stage, and beyond Vingegaard's attacks in the finale, both Simon Yates and Sepp Kuss featured in the day's breakaway, with Kuss particularly prominent up the road, and Vingegaard was asked about the team's strategy for the stage.
“Yeah, basically to go for the stage," he explained. "Actually, we wanted to try to win the stage with one of them. They couldn't follow Arensman in the front; he did a good job. He did a good performance on the last climb. So congratulations to him," Vingegaard added.
After UAE Team Emirates-XRG launched their team leader Pogačar from the bottom of the Hautacam climb on stage 12, proceedings were different on Saturday's stage 14.
The team paced a solid but slightly conservative tempo, by their standards, on the climb, and there was an attack from Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) that went clear before Vingegaard made his move. The Dane was asked about what he expected from his rival team and the thinking behind his attacks in the finale.
“Yeah. I mean, I actually expected Tadej to go on the last time, because, yeah, in the second last climb, they sped up like they wanted to go for the stage," said Vingegaard.
"And I thought then, in the last climb, he would try. And then when I realised that he probably will not try, then I just decided to do it myself," he added, with the race now through the Pyrenees and with a transition stage on Sunday before the second rest day.
