Vingegaard admits sprint mistake after finishing second to Pogacar

Some defeats land a little more softly than others. The Mûr-de-Bretagne finale to stage 7 of the Tour de France was always likely to favour Tadej Pogačar, but Jonas Vingegaard could draw encouragement from his second place behind the Slovenian.

Vingegaard was the only rider to finish in the same time as Pogačar, who delivered a devastating sprint on the final false flat. But although he conceded four seconds in time bonuses to his rival, Vingegaard was content to break even with Pogačar in real time on a finale like this.

Indeed, Vingegaard confessed to Danish broadcaster TV2 afterwards that he had made a slight error in the sprint by dropping off Pogačar’s wheel slightly in anticipation of launching his own effort.

“Normally I would say I don't have a chance in a sprint like that, but I actually think I came close,” Vingegaard said. “I made a mistake at the end. The plan was to try to surprise him a little and leave kind of a little gap for him.

“But then he surprised me. I thought I was going to start my sprint, but he there got ahead of me a little. It's hard to say whether it would have changed anything, but I don't think it would have. He's really fast in a sprint.”

Pogačar’s stage win was enough to lift him back into the yellow jersey of overall leader after Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) was distanced on the final haul up Mûr-de-Bretagne. Vingegaard rises a spot to fourth overall, now 1:17 behind Pogačar.

After Vingegaard suffered a heavy setback in the Caen time trial on Wednesday, it was hard to shake off the sense that the Dane and his team needed a confidence-boosting display here. 

“In these circumstances, Jonas’s second place was the best possible result,” Visma-Lease a Bike directeur sportif Grischa Niermann told Sporza. “It was clear that it would be very difficult to beat Pogačar here, but I think we did well.”

“Pogačar was too strong in the sprint. Chapeau and congratulations. This gives us confidence, but we have a lot of time to make up. We'll keep fighting every day.”

In keeping with the theme of the opening week of this Tour, Visma | Lease a Bike looked to bring the fight to Pogačar once again as the race crossed into Brittany, though Wout van Aert’s primary reason for attacking repeatedly in the opening hour of racing was to try to get in a stage-winning break.

It was quickly apparent, however, that his old rival Van der Poel had struck an informal alliance with Pogačar, as UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Alpecin-Deceunick combined to shut down the moves.

“I tried to be in the break once again because I though only UAE would chase, but then I saw Alpecin came to help them, so it started to be hard to get in a break,” said Van Aert.

By the finale, it was clear that the GC group would contest the stage victory and Visma | Lease a Bike were prominent in the final 30km, setting a fierce tempo in an apparent bid to burn off some of Pogačar’s teammates before the finale.

Pogačar would be without João Almeida’s assistance on the final climb after the Portuguese rider crashed hard with 5km to go, but Jhonatan Narváez still popped up to provide a decisive lead-out for the world champion. No matter, there was satisfaction in the Visma camp with their day’s work and its outcome.

“This finish definitely favours Tadej, so to give Jonas a better chance, the finale had to be tough,” Van Aert said of their approach. “That went well, but Tadej turned out to be the strongest. But this has been the story of the first week: the GC riders are fighting it out, and that’s great to see.”