Pogačar takes yellow jersey from Vingegaard
In a show of team strength, UAE hammers Visma in Tour de France stage 3
Tadej Pogačar waited unto the final 500 meters to launch his vicious sprint. It had the desired effect: instant gap that Jonas Vingegaard could not close. Au revoir yellow.
The Slovenian crossed the finish line just two second ahead of the maillot jaune but it was just enough to take over the jersey.
As Vingegaard would be the first to admit, those explosive efforts aren’t his forte. Pogačar simply has a fast-twitch sprint up a mountain that nobody can match.
It does naturally raise the question of whether Vingegaard was feeling a bit of his recent Giro d’Italia victory in the legs. Coming into last year’s Tour de France, Visma detailed that he’d been working on his explosiveness in hopes of matching Pogačar’s accelerations. And to a point, he did seem to gain a new burst.
However, Visma and their sports science people went with a new strategy for this edition of the Tour. One that centered around Vingegaard building his form in the Giro. Their belief is that with a Giro in the legs, he’d actually be stronger in Le Tour.
So, no speedy snap in the legs, more diesel power to slowly grind down Pogačar in the Pyrenees and Alps. That’s the plan anyway, as much as any plan really works against the four-time Tour champion.
What appears concerning after today’s stage to Les Angeles, is not only Pogačar’s incredible speed but the overall team strength comparative to Visma. In the final few kilometers, he had Isaac Del Toro, Adam Yates and Brandon McNulty all hammering the pace.
While Vingegaard’s super climber Sepp Kuss put in a short appearance at the front, once warp speed was reached, the Dane was on his own. And in the end, he hung tough but UAE is a juggernaut and the Tour is only three days old. Scary stuff.
UAE Team Emirates XRG and Tadej Pogačar treated the 160 kilometer ride from Granollers up to Les Angeles like it was smash-mouth football, an MMA grudge match, a barroom brawl on wheels. They dictated the pace, shredded the peloton and put Visma under constant stress.
Last year it was Visma attempting to wear down UAE. This time around, it’s Pogačar and company doing the damage. Oh, and it’s really, really hot outside.