It’s true that Pogačar overtook Vingegaard on the summit to take his third stage win of his tour, but although he celebrated with his usual vigor when he crossed the line, it was hard to shake the feeling that this amounted to a prize consolation. His path to a third consecutive overall victory remains as prohibitive now as it was before the day began. He remains second overall, 2:18 behind Vingegaard. “Tomorrow is a more difficult day and we can try again tomorrow,” insisted Pogačar after the podium ceremony, but he knows he has almost exhausted his reserves for tomorrow in this Tour. Thursday’s trip over Col d’Aubisque, Col de Spandelles and Hautacam represents his last chance to bend this race to his will. Pogačar will take solace in the fact that, for the first time in this race, his UAE team was stronger than Vingegaard’s Jumbo-Visma team, and on a day when they were down to just four riders. After an ill Marc Soler finished outside the time limit on Tuesday, an injured Rafal Majka withdrew before kick-off. In their absence, a very surprising Mikkel Bjerg and a more determined Brandon McNulty stepped up to the plate, destroying the yellow jersey group on the penultimate climb of the Col de Val Louron-Azet and leaving Vingegaard without teammates with almost 25km to race. . However, Pogačar’s main problem on this tour remains intractable. Vingegaard was stationed at the Slovenian’s helm when the United Arab Emirates team got going, and he was still there when McNulty’s relentless pace had fired up everyone else. McNulty led Pogačar and Vingegaard over the top of Val Louron-Azet and into Peyragudes before the top two riders sprinted for the stage win. “I think the fact today is that the mood is higher, even though we are four men,” Pogačar said. “I think that has changed the momentum now. We are really optimistic and motivated for tomorrow’s stage. Brandon and Mikkel were very good. We can try very hard and try to get the time back. Today we saw that we were stronger. “
You will not tell me
Brandon McNulty leads Pogacar and Vingegaard on the Peyragudes climb (Image: Getty Images Sport) In his televised interviews behind the podium and again at the short stage winner’s conference for the written press, Pogačar repeatedly returned to two themes, namely the strength of his team and his confidence ahead of the third and most demanding installment of the triptych of the Pyrenean stages on Thursday. . “It wasn’t just Brandon, it was also Mikkel and Hirschi. Mikkel rode like a mountaineer today. He set such a good pace on the climbs, it was incredible,” said Pogačar. “I felt so good with that pace, I felt confident, and I know he felt confident too. Brandon did an amazing job, he was so good today. “We’ve had so much bad luck the last few days, something always went wrong. I think if everything was normal we would be the strongest team every day, but these things happen in cycling. Tomorrow, we will give is everything.” But while Bjerg and McNulty outdid themselves on Wednesday, Pogačar was again unable to put Vingegaard in any real trouble. Before the final sprint, Pogačar’s only acceleration came in the final meters of the Hourquette d’Anzican. It was hard to tell whether Pogačar was chasing king of the mountains points or trying to get Vingegaard on edge before the descent, but it did suggest a lack of confidence in his ability to drop the yellow jersey on the final climb. So it turned out. Vingegaard was as relentless here as he was on Alpe d’Huez, Mende and Mur de Péguère. Even without Sepp Kuss and Wout van Aert at his side on the last two climbs, Vingegaard never looked in danger. “Vingegaard is strong. We knew that. It’s not new,” said Emirates United Arab Emirates manager Mauro Gianetti, who knows Thursday’s final at Hautacam better than most given Saunier’s team’s infamous display Duval on the climb in 2008, just before they left the race. due to Riccardo Riccò’s positive test for EPO. “You have to be realistic and it’s a significant gap,” Gianetti said of Pogačar’s deficit. “But in the Tour, you have to keep believing until the end. We will need a lot of courage and a lot of things.” Pogačar, for his part, tried to strike an optimistic note about his prospects. “I think he plays to be really strong and not to crack,” he said. “But I think today if I had Rafal Majka, Marc Soler and George Bennett, as well as Brandon and Mikkel, we could have maybe had a harder race and we could have broken Jonas, but tomorrow is another day to try”. In fact, Pogačar knows that the assumptions about his depleted team are controversial. The second half of this match was a straight contest between the two strongest men in the match and Pogačar has to drop Vingegaard. It’s that simple and that complicated. “We will try tomorrow, because the harder the race, the better,” Pogačar said. “We’ll see tomorrow if he has weaknesses.”
