Tadej Pogacar hangs Vingegaard

Tadej Pogacar patted his chest proudly after dealing a heavy blow to his rival Jonas Vingegaard amidst the meter-high snow walls on the Alpine giant Col du Galibier. The two-time Tour champion took a big step towards his third overall victory with a gala performance in the duel of the giants at the 111th Tour de France.

Pogacar overtook the Dane for the first time on Tuesday at an altitude of 2,642 metres and took the yellow jersey from Olympic champion Richard Carapaz (Ecuador) after a breathtaking descent in Valloire.

Pogacar took the day’s victory on the fourth stage alone, with a 35-second lead over young star Remco Evenepoel. Vingegaard, who finished fifth, lost even more seconds and is now well behind. Thanks to the bonus seconds, Pogacar now has a lead of 45 seconds over Evenepoel and 50 seconds over Vingegaard in the overall rankings.

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“I’m super happy, that was the plan and we executed it well. It was a dream stage for me. I wanted to hit hard today, I trained a lot for that,” said the 25-year-old.

And on top of that, it seems clear: On the mountain, Vingegaard seems to be the only rider who can challenge Pogacar for victory. Only the Dane was able to offer some resistance to the exceptional talent’s explosive mountain sprints. Compatriot Primoz Roglic from the German Red Bull team had no chance on the mountain, but like time trial world champion Evenepoel, he limited the damage thanks to a strong descent.

What a great duel on the first high mountain stage that led back to France. As if unleashed, Pogacar seized the initiative 823 meters from the summit, but Vingegaard made life difficult for him on the 139.6-kilometer stage from Pinerolo to Valloire.

Contrasting program for the professionals

At some point, however, the resistance was broken. When he reached the top, the Slovenian had not only gained a seven-second lead, but also a further eight bonus seconds. And on the rapid descent at 90 km/h, Pogacar continued to increase his lead.

The stage was set on the 23-kilometer-long, 5.1 percent-steep climb to the Galibier. The day before, snow clearing vehicles had cleared the pass road of snow. It had snowed on the mythical mountain, which was first included in the Tour program in 1911, just a month ago.

The Galibier was only opened to public transport on June 23rd. What a contrast for the professional cyclists, who had to contend with temperatures of 35 degrees at the start of the Tour in Italy at the weekend.

Here Jonas Vingegaard (left) is still there. A short time later Tadej Pogacar leaves him standing.AP

And Pogacar’s outstanding UAE team set a hellish pace on the ramps. Well-known stars such as former Tour winners Geraint Thomas (Great Britain) and Egan Bernal (Colombia) and all of Vingegaard’s helpers were left behind early on.

Already on the descent from the Col de Montgenèvre, the penultimate climb, Pogacar had let his UAE armada pick up the pace, so that a large gap quickly opened up in the peloton. Vingegaard – unlike Primoz Roglic – was not surprised by the sudden attack, and calm quickly returned.

“The pressure is not on me,” Vingegaard said before the duel. For the 27-year-old, who suffered several broken ribs, a bruised lung and a pneumothorax during the Tour of the Basque Country in the spring, the main thing is not to let Pogacar get away. On Sunday, Vingegaard had already brilliantly parried Pogacar’s attacks in the first showdown up to San Luca.

On the first Alpine stage, a 17-strong breakaway group dominated the action. This included the Cologne time trial champion Nils Politt from the Pogacar team. However, this was only because he was able to help his captain after the first two mountain classifications of the day.

After the exertions in the high mountains, the sprinters can once again hope for a mass finish on Wednesday (from 1:20 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Tour de France on sportschau.de and Eurosport) on the fifth stage over 177.4 kilometers from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Saint-Vulbas. Only two easier climbs of the fourth category have to be mastered.