‘Today we saw a different Jonas’ – Tadej Pogacar edges first clash with Vingegaard at Dauphiné

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) was victorious on the opening stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné after a blockbuster finale which saw the world champion win a group sprint ahead of Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike), Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step).

It was not the finish to the stage that many were anticipating, and when asked by reporters post-finish what he expected out of the day, Pogačar said, “No, it’s not what we imagined, but here we are in yellow the first day. pretty solid, pretty happy.”

There were signs that the race could be set to explode in the finale as Pogačar followed moves from Ben Healy and Archie Ryan (EF Education- EasyPost) on the second of three ascents of the short but steep Côte de Buffon. When asked what he initially thought about the climb’s significance on the stage when ascending it for the first time, Pogačar said, “I just knew it was going to be crazy going into the final climb.”

“The parcours in between was not too hard to be a real GC day, but on the final climb we went all out, and there was a lot of attacking on the top,” Pogačar said.

Vingegaard launched a strong attack over the summit of the final ascent of the climb, and Pogačar was asked post-stage if he was surprised to see the Dane attack.

“Today we saw a different Jonas, a little bit, I think,” Pogačar said, “[Visma | Lease a Bike] were attacking with other riders, Matteo and two more guys. I covered all of them, and then Jonas launched one big one. Of course, I had to go over my limit a little bit there to catch his wheel. I think he wanted to race," said the world champion.

In his post-race interview, Vingegaard himself stated that he was hesitant to cooperate with his rivals on a flat stage as he felt he would have the least to gain. This is something that Pogačar acknowledged, but he also appreciated seeing aggressive racing from his rivals.

“There was then a little bit of hesitation from him to rotate, but I think he really wanted to go to the finish line today, and it was good to see nice action in the final from Jonas and Remco,” Pogačar said.

The world champion also acknowledged the strength of Van der Poel and the way he was able to beat the Dutchman by keeping cool in the tense finale.

“It was a shame for Mathieu, he was definitely the fastest in the end but I knew I could play the card a little, I didn’t need to arrive five seconds before the bunch with Jonas and Remco on the wheel anyway, I just had to think to beat the three GC guys with me in the finish line,” Pogačar said.

“[With] 1.5 kilometres to go, I knew we had a chance for [the] sprint," Pogačar said. "It’s going to be close, I knew it was not worth it to spend the bullets to try to keep the breakaway alive, Pogačar said. "I tried to follow the wheels, take the good wheel for the sprint. In the end, I managed to do that. A bit of luck, a bit of everything, and I’m happy for the victory”