Vingegaard and Visma | LaB bow their heads: "This is the best I have in me and he finishes a minute ahead of me"

"What happened? I gave the best performance of my life, I think," Vingegaard told me after the stage. "I'm very proud of that. Tadej was just better, so I have to congratulate him. I had hoped that I could beat him, but he really showed just how good he is. I can't be disappointed, quite the contrary. I rode one of the best rides of my life and he finishes one minute ahead of me. Whether I can get even better at the Tour? This is the best I have in me, I think." 

"If Tadej maintains this level, I should be satisfied with second place. Whether I can still win? That looks difficult now, but he can also have a bad day," said Vingegaard. "These are the days that suit me and I rode very well, but he was just better. It wasn't down to our plan either, I never doubted that. We did everything perfectly, more than perfectly even."

"The opponent is better than us at the moment. Everyone rode well, exactly as we planned. But it still turns out that Pogacar was too strong, again. Then it just stops. Jonas delivered a fantastic performance on the last climb," German team leader Grischa Niermann told the NOS afterwards.

Pogacar is now three minutes ahead of Vingegaard and seems unbeatable after the Pyrenees. "Tadej is just even stronger. We have to accept that. The plan was to tire him out today, but that didn't work out. The team did a great job, Jonas too. We should also be proud of each other. We took full control of the race, on the cols, in the valley. I'm proud of it."

He also took a moment to reflect on the competitor's performance. "He is unprecedentedly good. The Tour is not over yet, but we have to acknowledge that he seems better than Jonas. There are few leads, at least today. We just did a great job, this is it for now. Maybe he will weaken a bit because he already has the Giro in his legs, but it doesn't look like it," Niermann said.

Colleague Arthur van Dongen reached a similar conclusion talking to Sporza. "I don't want to call it a sledgehammer blow, because I also want to look at good things. The team rode incredibly well and they threw all the classification riders overboard, so I'm very proud of that. But we also have to be realistic: Jonas is good, but someone else in this Tour is super good."

"We have used this tactic before, so this was the best plan and we still stand by it," said the Dutchman. "But it is very simple: you are as strong as your opponent allows you to be. Tadej is the best rider in the world. The Tour isn't over yet, but we're not resigned to second place yet either. We won't do that until we get to Nice."

Wilco Kelderman also stopped by to address the NOS. "I think Pogacar is just better. We really did everything and tried to win the Tour with our plan. So if it then doesn't work out, we have to settle for that. It was a high and fast pace all day. We just rode really hard," Vingegaard's domestique analyzed.

"I felt really good, yesterday I held back and today I was able to do my job until the final climb, which was good. It is unfortunate that Jonasn't 100%, but it is also already great that he is here and that he is combative. He has also already won a stage. In the end I am satisfied with my own performance, it went according to plan," said Kelderman. 

Matteo Jorgenson launched Vingegaard for his attack. "We went for it with the team, we had this plan for a long time. We gave it our all, myself included. The fact that Tadej is so good doesn't surprise me. He is, of course, a rock solid racer. I believed in Jonas and his ability to crack Tadej, but we have to say hats off to him."