Tour de France: A time trial to separate the inseparable Vingegaard and Pogacar: "I only think about being by their side"

2023-07-17 00:08:09

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Saint-Gervais

Updated Monday, July 17, 2023 – 00:08

The leader and the challenger, who talk about “game”, leave the alpine triptych in just 10 seconds, appeal to Tuesday’s time trial and Wednesday’s queen stage as decisive.

Pogacar and Vingegaard, in Saint Gervais.EFE

In the flurry of sensations that this Tour de France is, of small battles won, of inertia that comes and goes, several conclusions can be established at this point, all under an asterisk. To the triptych that promised to blow up the race between Jonas Vingegaard with 17 seconds difference, forged in the first contact with the mountain, the Pyrenean day of Laruns. And he comes out with 10, barely scratches. What’s more, in the Alps he added a second to his precious little mattress. And all – thanks to the bonuses. A resistance to also undermine the morale of the applicant Tadej Pogacarwho has been chasing yellow since he lost it more than a year ago in the Granon disaster.

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The harassment is such that Pogi stops short on the climbs, something never seen before: he invites his rival to act, he looks at him out of the corner of his eye, something that changes a script that has not just made him succeed. We are watching each other all the time, for my part I only think about being by his side, it is my goal. I was fine, maybe I should attack, but we are in a kind of game between the two of us and when it jumped Adam Yates I thought there was no point in going out, admits Vingegaard bluntly after the climb to Saint Gervais, with the temper of a veteran, who allowed himself the luxury of overtaking Tadej at the finish line and setting the fastest time on the climb to Saint Gervais. He beat the previous record by more than a minute (17:58), in possession of bookman (19:02) from the 2019 Dauphin. I tried to attack, but I could see that Jonas was doing it very well, so I didn’t waste too much energy, the Slovenian then justifies, who soon thinks about what is to come, that he doesn’t it is little.

Rest Monday in the Alps will also be a day of strategies, with a lot of tactical work by both teams. Because in all the Tours that were decided by meager advantages, the fight against the clock was definitive. Who does not remember the Greg Lemond and Laurent Fignon on the Champs Elysees in 1989 or that of Alberto counter defending against Cadel Evans and his partner Levi Leipheimer in 2007 in Angouleme. Or the most recent, that of Pogacar and Primoz Roglic on the Planche des Belles-Filles. The 22.4 kilometers on Tuesday between Passy and Combloux are a trap, with even a wall of almost three kilometers at 9%, in which the administration of forces even the chosen bicycle can be essential. And Vingegaard will start last: It’s short but I like short time trials. It’s hard to find the rhythm and I like it when there are a lot of rhythm changes.

There will be differences in the time trial, plus the next day’s stage, with one of the toughest ascents in the world (the immense Col de la Loze), will also be decisive. And then the twentieth…, admits Pogacar, who does not despair and looks for the positive side: Ten seconds? By now he expected to be further behind. And that he has studied the route thoroughly, there is no loose detail, and today he will go through it again.