Jonas Vingegaard can only be disappointed. Visma-Lease a Bike had a plan for stage six of the Tour de France that would, if successful, have given Vingegaard the advantage over Tadej Pogačar after the first proper mountain day.
The Dutch team’s strategy centred on getting a team-mate(s) – in particular Victor Campenaerts – in the breakaway to act as a satellite rider for later on in the day once Vingegaard was still climbing or had crested the Col du Tourmalet.
No such thing materialised. UAE Team Emirates-XRG, with the help of other teams, shut everything down. This was to be their day. It was to be another exhibition by Pogačar.
Vingegaard put up a respectable fight on the Tourmalet, reaching the summit 31 seconds adrift of the defending champion, but on the descent he lost 41 seconds to Pogačar.
Then, on the long, shallow 18.7km climb to Gavarnie-Gèdre, he shipped a further 80 seconds, to eventually cross the line in second a whopping 2:38 adrift of Pogačar. It was his biggest single day loss to his rival since stage 8 of the 2021 Tour. This year’s race, in all probability, is already lost.
“I’m disappointed, I have to be, but sometimes that’s life and I cannot change it,” Vingegaard said at the finish, just moments after being consoled by Pogačar’s team manager, Mauro Gianetti.
There dejection and frustration was felt throughout Visma-Lease a Bike. “The game plan was to put one or two guys in the break,” said Vingegaard’s team-mate Matteo Jorgenson. “I was surprised to see sprinter teams chasing Victor for the intermediate sprint.
“That changed a lot of the stage because then the first 50km they did the work for UAE. From there we entered the hilly zone and it was much easier to control. I think that’s where our plan went a little bit wrong in that we just didn’t get a guy in the break.”
Plan B had to be enacted: stick with Pogačar’s inevitable attack on the Tourmalet. But teed up by Isaac del Toro, once Pogačar went, Vingegaard was distanced. He kept the gap at around 10 seconds for a few kilometres but then the Slovenian powered away and Vingegaard laboured.
“They put a big attack in on the Tourmalet and I couldn’t follow,” the Dane said. “I had to settle into my own pace. Over the top I was not that far away, but on a downhill like this, it’s not suited to me.”
Visma’s head of racing, Marc Reef, was similarly downbeat. “On the Tourmalet, when Pogačar attacked, Jonas rode at his own pace and managed to keep the gap within around 10 seconds for quite some time.
“However, with about 2km to the summit, he had to ease his pace slightly. From there, he fought all the way to the finish line, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough to keep the gap any smaller.
“Today’s result is indeed disappointing, but we saw a Jonas who fought all the way to the finish line and did everything he could to limit the gap to Pogačar while also holding off the group chasing behind him, which he managed to do well.”
That is the one consolation for Vingegaard, though it is a minor one: he was the best of the rest. The other podium candidates all finished between 20 and 30 seconds in arrears of him.
The reigning Giro d’Italia champion, however, was determined he is still here to win, not come second. “It was a very tough day, not the day I wanted but that’s how it is sometimes,” he said, and added: “I still believe in myself, I still believe my legs will get better throughout the race, so the fight is not over,”
