Michael Valgren sees a frustrated Pogačar: 'Wants to put Vingegaard in a mental coffin'

After a week of racing, Tadej Pogacar has built up a substantial lead over his rivals, not least Jonas Vingegaard. The Slovenian is nearly three minutes ahead of his Danish rival. The real high mountains are still to come, but Michael Valgren thinks the world champion has a clear and ruthless goal in mind.

Tour de France stage 10 finishes Tuesday —July 14, a French national holiday—in Le Lioran. With nearly 4,000 meters of elevation gain but no truly long climbs, it seemed like the perfect day for the breakaway riders going into the stage, but Pogacar had already made it clear he wanted to win the stage. UAE Team Emirates-XRG has been dominant throughout the entire Tour and isn’t giving anything away.

There’s a reason for that, says Michael Valgren. Le Lioran was the last time Vingegaard beat Pogacar. The Slovenian had broken away but then slowed down. Vingegaard caught up at his own pace and managed to win the sprint. According to his compatriot Valgren, that’s just adding fuel to the fire for Pogacar. “In front of the media, Pogi acts happy and all that,” he explains to Domestique. “But I think he harbors a grudge against Jonas. He’d love nothing more than to put him in a coffin—at least mentally.”

And so the leader of UAE Team Emirates-XRG will go all out, says the Dane from EF Education-EasyPost. “I think they’re going to pull out all the stops to crush Jonas one more time, to completely break him mentally. It’s almost as if Pogacar is thinking, ‘This was the last time he beat me, but now I’m going to beat him even more convincingly.’” "That’s my biggest fear for tomorrow," he said on the rest day.

EF Education-EasyPost came to the Tour de France to win stages. With a fantastic team of attackers, the American squad has already come relatively close, but the victory has yet to materialize. “We need a stage win,” Valgren acknowledges. “That’s pretty clear. That’s why we’re here. At least one.” Teammate Alex Baudin finished fourth in the ninth stage, losing the sprint to Mathieu van der Poel.

Valgren’s teammate Ben Healy adds, “It’s crystal clear that we have a number of strong riders here in the Tour, and we’re seizing every opportunity we get. One of our goals for this race was to be part of every breakaway that makes it to the finish. So far, we’ve succeeded. I think it’s only a matter of time before one of us takes the win.”