Tour de France Vingegaard and the unrest before the last week of the Tour
Tour defending champion Vingegaard (l.) gathered some strength on the rest day to pose a threat to rival Tadej Pogacar (r.). Photo
© Jerome Delay/AP
Cycling star Jonas Vingegaard is taking a breather during the Tour break. The defeats in the Pyrenees against rival Tadej Pogacar are hurting the defending champion. It’s not so easy to keep calm at first.
For Jonas Vingegaard, rest was not an option on the Tour de France’s rest day. Around the team hotel in the vineyards of southern France, cicadas were roaring and workers were making a lot of noise preparing a jazz festival in the courtyard of the luxury complex. This made the defending champion appreciate the time he spent with his family all the more. He was recharging his batteries before the last week of the Tour, in order to beat rival Tadej Pogacar after all.
“It’s so nice that they’re here and I can spend time with them,” said Vingegaard about the visit from his pregnant wife Trine and daughter Frida. “My family means everything to me,” added the 27-year-old. The exceptional rider found comfort in his loved ones, especially after his serious fall in April. “It was a hard time not only for me, but also for my family.”
Corona fears back on tour
As a precautionary measure, he answered questions from international journalists on Monday wearing a corona mask. Corona fears are back at the Tour de France. The organizers recently reintroduced the requirement for journalists to wear masks when dealing with the athletes. Some infected professional cyclists had to leave the tour. Many racing drivers are expected to continue despite corona.
After the press conference, Vingegaard posed with fans again without a mask and took a few selfies. His worries about the virus are currently of secondary importance. Instead, the athlete wants to pool all his strengths to prevent his rival Pogacar from winning the Giro and Tour twice.
After the dramatic injuries from the fall in the spring, his team would probably have liked to take the current second place in the overall rankings. Since Vingegaard’s emotional day victory against Pogacar last week, a third Tour triumph had at least become realistic – even if the Slovenian was still ahead of him.
Vingegaard: “We have to hope for a bad day”
But with the findings from the queen stage and the two painful defeats against Pogacar in the Pyrenees, defending the title became a distant prospect. Vingegaard arrived on the Plateau de Beille just under a minute after Pogacar and is just over three minutes behind his opponent in the yellow jersey in the overall ranking.
The Tour champion and his meticulously planning Visma team currently seem a little at a loss. They seem to be running out of antidotes in their exchange of blows with Pogacar. The plans currently seem to be based on “maybe” and “possibly”. “He seems very strong, but we have seen that he has had weak days in the past. Maybe he has that in the third week. You never know,” said Vingegaard.
“So we have to hope that he has a bad day. Of course, if he stays at this level, then it will be tough,” he added. Hoping for a drop in performance like last year seems hard to imagine at the moment. Back then, the exhausted Pogacar collapsed in the third week of the Tour.
Niermann: Pogacar “unbeatable” at the moment
Vingegaard and his team also felt a certain powerlessness after the queen stage. He himself was in a strong mood. “I probably delivered one of the best performances of my life. But Tadej was simply stronger,” complained the 27-year-old. His sports director Grischa Niermann shared this assessment. “At the moment, Tadej Pogacar seems unbeatable, but the final week is still ahead of us.”
Pogacar, meanwhile, appeared relaxed. “We’re coming to the race with a big smile and hope to bring it to a good end in the next few days.” Things are looking good at the moment. Vingegaard only has two tough stages left in the Alps and the final individual time trial in Nice on Sunday to stop the Slovenian from winning his third overall victory in the Tour de France.
In terms of the number of Tour victories, Pogacar could make it 3:2 on the Côte d’Azur. Vingegaard still has hope of preventing that. “I never break down mentally,” he made clear. He has not lost hope yet. “I’m not here to finish second. I will do everything I can to win,” said Vingegaard.
dpa
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