Pogacar beats Vingegaard repeatedly
Tadej Pogacar takes more than three minutes lead into decisive Tour stages, but the man in yellow jersey doesn't think about resting. Instead, he attacks Jonas Vingegaard. Again and again. And it shows (a little).
Two seconds lead more or less: for Tadej Pogacar, a matter of principle. The Slovenian leader of the Tour de France didn't settle for managing his comfortable lead over title defender Jonas Vingegaard and saving corners for the heavy last Tour days at the "Alpine prelude" on Wednesday. The full-blooded racer with an attacking mindset fought instead for every meter.
"I went into the third week with good form. Why not try something? Why not put a little more pressure on Jonas?", asked the 25-year-old in Superdevoluy in the evening: "It was overall a good day." And indeed, a day of needle pricks. The 17th stage with the short and not too steep final climb to the small ski resort of Sestriere was considered not difficult enough to launch a real attack. The favorites, as expected, would at best touch each other.
But Pogacar laughed at expert opinions. While Olympic champion Richard Carapaz from Ecuador won the stage as an escapee, Pogacar attacked at the second last climb, the Col du Noyer, and left Vingegaard and the third-placed Belgian Remco Evenepoel behind. Both regained contact, but Evenepoel pulled away on the final climb.
On the finishing straight, Pogacar once again left his main rival Vingegaard behind. While Evenepoil managed to gain a ten-second lead over Pogacar and reduced his overall deficit from 5:19 minutes to 5:09 minutes, Pogacar took back those two seconds from Vingegaard. Visma-Team tried to cause trouble for Pogacar. "So I just tried again", said Pogacar.
That the Tour winner of 2020 and 2021 now leads by 3:11 minutes instead of the previous 3:09 minutes against Vingegaard, the Tour winner of 2022 and 2023, makes no big mathematical difference. But morally, it matters: Vingegaard goes into the final with the feeling of another, albeit small, defeat. And that doesn't help mentally in the least on the way to Nice to still achieve the miracle.
Despite holding a comfortable lead, Tadej Pogacar continues to prioritize attacking in cycling races, such as the Tour de France. During the 17th stage, he managed to gain a few seconds on Jonas Vingegaard, Tadej's main rival in the tournament.
