Not since the final stage of the 2023 race has Tadej Pogačar been chasing Jonas Vingegaard at the Tour de France. He is now though.
Stage one of the 2026 edition, a 19.6km team time trial in the centre of Barcelona, ended with Vingegaard in the yellow jersey, his Visma-Lease a Bike team having produced a flawless performance. UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s Pogačar finished 12 seconds adrift.
The race is long – it’s just the start of what will be three punishing weeks – but the first blow has been landed by Vingegaard.
Not that Pogačar is too concerned. The 27-year-old, who is targeting a record-equalling fifth title, knows that his rival’s advantage is minimal. But psychologically it matters that Vingegaard is on top and he is in the unfamiliar position of being the hunter and not the hunted.
“No,” he said when asked if he was disappointed. “I’m really happy – we did a super good performance. Of course you always aim for the victory but I think we did a really good team time trial. We went all in and we got third place so it was really good. We can be proud of that.” Netcompany-Ineos‘s Filippo Ganna was sandwiched between the two favourites for yellow.
A positive for Pogačar was that he climbed the finishing 860m ascent three seconds quicker than Vingegaard, meaning he leads the mountains classification and will be dressed in the polka dot jersey on stage two.
It’s also a sign that his third place on the opening stage was more a reflection of the performance differences between his and Vingegaard’s team.
“Good news: I have climbing legs!” Pogačar laughed. “But it was quite short, the climb. The legs are good, the sensations are really good, so the shape should be here. I hope I can continue like this. We can be happy with today and be really motivated for the next few days.”
Stage two, which starts in Tarragona – the furthest south the Tour has ever visited – before arriving back in Barcelona and finishing on the same Montjuïc circuit, offers Pogačar an immediate chance to cut his deficit to Vingegaard.
“We will fight for the yellow in the coming days, maybe tomorrow, but tomorrow is a super hard, tricky stage so you never know,” Pogačar said.
“Tomorrow we will need to be as calm as possible because already before the final I think there will be a lot of stress so we have to be ready for that.”
There’s always a temptation to read too much into the results of a single stage out of 21, and the reality is Pogačar’s losses to Vingegaard are small enough that they can be recovered in one climb alone.
But Vingegaard being in yellow for the first time since he won the last of his two maillot jaunes is significant. For a change, it’s the Dane in the driving seat, and the Slovenian on the (relative) backfoot.
He’s already shown signs of frustration, too. “I’m also super happy the day is over,” he said. “It’s super hard to do this day because it’s long, you prepare just for these 20 minutes with the team and it’s really stressful. But I enjoyed it today. It’s been a long time since I’ve done a team time trial.”
Advantage Vingegaard, albeit a minor one.
