Jonas Vingegaard finished second on Friday for Visma | Lease a Bike in Mur-de-Bretagne – as the town is called – and it was a nice confidence boost for the Dane. Afterward, he even told his team at the bus that he saw areas for improvement on the punchy finish, where Tadej Pogacar took off with the victory. The peloton tackled the climb, packed with spectators, twice in the finale. On the first ascent, the yellow-and-black riders set a fierce pace. Simon Yates rode the two-kilometer climb at seven percent all-out, reducing the peloton to around fifty riders. A crash involving João Almeida on the descent to the finish then cut the group down even further.
Why did Yates lead the first climb for Vingegaard? "I had good legs and the team kept me well positioned all day, so that was the best option," said the GC contender, whose team’s tactic managed to cut the legs of many of the pure punchers.
On the second ascent of Mur-de-Bretagne, Visma | Lease a Bike hoped this would sap some of Pogacar’s explosiveness that way as well, but he still had plenty left to hold off his main rival and sprint to the stage win and the yellow jersey.
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Vingegaard: “I made a mistake at the end”
Vingegaard couldn’t beat Pogacar, but he did see room for improvement in himself. “Normally I’d say I don’t stand a chance in a sprint like that and should be happy with this result, but I think I came pretty close. I made a mistake at the end. The plan was to try to surprise him: to leave a small gap and then launch.”
“I left that gap, but then he actually surprised me,” said the Dane. “I thought I would be the one to start the sprint, but he just beat me to it. Maybe I could have caught him off guard if I had gone one or two seconds earlier.” However, Vingegaard doesn’t necessarily think that would have changed the outcome. “It’s hard to say if it would have made a difference. I don’t think so. He’s really fast in a sprint, but that’s definitely something I could have done better.”
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Gap between Pogacar and Vingegaard at 1 minute 17 seconds
After seven days, the gap between the two top favorites is 1 minute and 17 seconds, in favor of Pogacar. “It feels like we’ve already had seven GC days behind us, or at least six. It’s been a tough first week and I’m curious what that will mean for the third week. The Tour is really hard.”
That gap was mainly created in the time trial, but Vingegaard has already moved past that. “I had a bad day and that can happen. Normally, I don’t have days like that very often, so it wasn’t fun. But the last two days have already been better.”
While Joao Almeida of UAE Emirates-XRG lost ten minutes on Friday,
Matteo Jorgenson of Visma | Lease a Bike is still in a good position overall. “It’s great that Matteo is still close. He’s an incredibly strong rider, we see that every time. We have a really strong team overall and we’re ready to take the fight to the mountains.”