Pogǎcar takes another 53 seconds from Vingegaard
On teammates, no worries. Slovenian wins solo on Tour de France stage 14
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Today, Jonas Vingegaard (Visma Lease-a-Bike) has his dream Tour de France scenario. It still ended in failure and a demoralizing loss of 52 more seconds to Tadej Pogǎcar (UAE Team Emirates).
On the Col de Haag, Vingegaard must have thought “At last! Good fortune is smiling on me. The Cycling Gods are throwing me a nice, juicy bone.”
Pogacar was alone, all by himself, isolated, no team in sight. No Brandon McNulty, no Adam Yates, No Isaac Del Toro. It was almost a bizarre sight.
Vingegaard’s mind was probably spinning — “Maybe, just maybe I can get some time back. Even it it’s just 30 seconds, give me some hope, some reason to remain optimistic.”
When the GC group had shrunk to six elite climbers, Vingegaard still had Sepp Kuss leading him up the mountain. A golden opportunity. The maillot jaune is out-numbered.
Well, no, that’s not what happened.
In the end, Tadej Pogǎcar didn’t need his backup band. He went solo with two kilometers to the summit. Initially, Vingegaard held the gap between 10 and 20 seconds but then it stretched to 30 seconds. And once Pogacar hit the short descent and the roll to the finish, he took another chuck of seconds.
At the finish line, the damage was 43 seconds plus a 10 second time bonus. Four mountain stages, four victories for the super-star Pogacar, zero for the Dane. The GC deficit is now a whopping 4:30.
In a post-stage interview, Visma’s Sepp Kuss said “We did a super job, not more that we could do. It’s such a steep final climb —it just comes down to the legs. You just have to go head to head with the strongest guy which is Pogǎcar.” Tough to win when you do a “super job” and still drop 53 seconds.
Adding insult to injury, Del Toro recovered enough to catch back and sit on Vingegaard’s wheel, then steal the bonus seconds for second place. Another one-two finish for UAE.
Then there’s the looming challenge of French wonderkid Paul Seixas (Decathlon-CMA-CGM). He out-sprinted Vingegaard for third and moves up to 5th on GC. He’s only 15 seconds from Evenepoel in 3rd and the Belgian will struggle in the long, grinding Alps climbs. Seixas is 50 seconds from Vineggard so what happens if the Visma captain has a jour sans?
Perhaps worse, what if Pogǎcar, confident in his total dominance and overwhelming team strength, gave Yates and McNulty a day off? He knew he didn’t need them to win and preferred to keep them fresh for the Alps.
In a word, yikes.
Today on stage 14 to Le Markstein-Fellering, Vingegaard had the perfect scenario to mount a challenge to Pogacar and generate positive momentum heading into the Alps.
That’s the thing about dreams. You wake up and suddenly they’re gone.