'The Tour is not over' - Vingegaard defiant as Visma offensive falls flat

The toughest stage of the Tour de France promised a grand offensive from Jonas Vingegaard and his Visma | Lease a Bike team, and it duly arrived. But unlike two years ago, Tadej Pogacar stood firm on the Col de la Loze, and Vingegaard’s hopes of prising the yellow jersey from his grasp are fading with just one mountain stage remaining.

Vingegaard’s Visma squad took up the reins on the second climb, the Col de la Madeleine, in a bid to isolate Pogacar, and the Dane himself sprang into action with a fierce attack 5km from the summit. Pogacar followed, of course, and the pair bridged up to the early escapees before they reached the top.

At that point, with teammate Matteo Jorgenson for company, Vingegaard had a nominal advantage over his great rival, but they would call a temporary truce in the long valley ahead of the Col de la Loze, sitting up and waiting for their remaining teammates in the chasing group behind.

On the long final haul up the Col de la Loze, Visma set a brisk tempo, but this time they struggled to rid Pogacar of his UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammates. Vingegaard’s inevitable attack finally came 2km from the summit, but a seated Pogacar responded with ease. The world champion punched his way clear of Vingegaard in the final kilometre to take second place on the stage, putting nine seconds into his rival. 

In the overall standings, Vingegaard remains second overall, but he is now 4:26 behind Pogacar. 

“Today was a brutal day, five hours in the saddle, I’m not sure I have ever done such a hard stage in the Tour before,” Vingegaard said on crossing the line.

“I said it before the stage, this was a brutal stage. I felt good. The team felt good. We had big plans – obviously you could see – to try to go early, and we did.

“Unfortunately, I couldn’t take any time on Tadej, but the team did amazing today. I want to thank my teammates again today. Everyone was 100% behind the plan. It gives me so much motivation when I have a team like this behind me.”

There was probably little more to be done against this particular iteration of Pogacar, but it was still curious that Vingegaard allowed his teammate Jorgenson clip off the front in the valley before the Col de la Loze with stage winner Ben O’Connor (Jayco-Alula) and Einer Rubio (Movistar).

Vingegaard and Pogacar elected not to respond, meanwhile, when Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) then punched away from the yellow jersey group, preferring to wait for the chasers.

“We didn’t want to work together and then Lipowtiz went up the road,” Vingegaard said. “We waited for our teammates and then we started pacing again on the Col de la Loze.”

Unlike in 2023, Pogacar was utterly untroubled by Visma’s onslaught on the 26km haul to the line. Although Vingegaard has been largely able to match Pogacar in the mountains in the third week of the race, the Dane hasn’t taken so much as a second out of his great rival since the race left Lille. 

And yet, with one Alpine stage still to come, Vingegaard refused to concede that overall victory at this Tour is now beyond him.

“No, I think it looked like we were pretty equal today. He took a few seconds today. The Tour is not over,” Vingegaard said.

“Still?” he was asked.

“Still,” he said.