The more Tadej Pogačar wins, the further Jonas Vingegaard slips back.
On stage 14 of the Tour de France, the defending champion increased his lead to 4:30 over Vingegaard, and there’s still a whole week of racing to go. The destination of the yellow jersey seems all but certain.
Vingegaard finished fourth on the stage to Le Markstein, 44 seconds adrift of Pogačar, but lost six seconds to his fellow podium contenders Isaac Del Toro and Paul Seixas. Four stages earlier, at Le Lioran, Vingegaard lost by the same amount of time to Pogačar, and also ceded time to five of his podium rivals.
In the past five editions of the Tour, with the exception of Pogačar in 2021 and the last two years, Vingegaard has always been a cut above the rest of the field; Not this Tour he’s not, though.
The Dane is no longer in a battle for yellow, but instead in a fight to remain in the top-three. After two-thirds of racing, he has 34 seconds on Remco Evenepoel in third, with Seixas a further 15 seconds back.
Yet rather than change tact and concentrate on securing a sixth successive top-two spot, Vingegaard and his Visma-Lease a Bike teammates are still adamant that the 29-year-old can challenge runaway leader Pogačar.
“It was not a bad stage,” Vingegaard said. “I got some answers about myself. My legs are where they want them to be, so I’m happy with what the team did today.”
His chief mountain domestique, Sepp Kuss, equally refused to be defeated. “Jonas did his best to hang on and limit the damage, but Pogačar was super strong today,” the American said.
“We’re still going with the mindset that we want to win. It may seem further and further away the more time he puts into us, but I think that’s the best mindset to have when it gets hard.
“When you start doubting yourself you have to have the mindset of trying to win. For the team and for Jonas himself, having won the Tour twice, that’s the mindset he needs to have.
“It was a hard day, but we gave it our best. We will keep fighting until the end.”
Vingegaard went into the Tour on the back of cruising to a convincing victory at the Giro d’Italia. He said in Italy and before the Tour started that he was in career-best shape, but in the Tour’s four mountain stages so far he has been unable to stick to Pogačar’s wheel when he has attacked. Rather than the gap between the pair closing, it has only increased.
Still, though, Visma are projecting optimism. “I think Jonas would have preferred to be with Pogačar,” Kuss recognised. “He’s riding super solid and not showing any weakness. But Jonas is super consistent, and will only get better.”
Stage 15 finishes up an even harder climb – the HC ascent of Plateau de Solaison. Rationality dictates that Pogačar will only add to his advantage. “It’s a brutal last climb [tomorrow],” Kuss said. “And after the efforts of today, it’ll be even more decisive I think.”
Maybe then Vingegaard will accept that he needs to focus on defending second.
