Vingegaard refuses to give up after Pogačar’s Tourmalet hammer blow: "The battle is far from over"

The duel that never really became a duel: that is probably the best way to describe the battle between Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard on stage six of the Tour de France. The Dane from Visma | Lease a Bike could not hold the wheel of his Slovenian rival and had to concede 2.40 minutes at the finish, but he is not ready to abandon hope just yet.

Everyone knew it was coming: Pogačar’s attack on the Col du Tourmalet. Vingegaard was leading at the front, but when the Slovenian launched with Isaac Del Toro as his springboard, he did not even try to jump straight onto the wheel. Vingegaard stuck to the chosen tactic, riding his own pace, and at one point even came back to within ten seconds. But in the end, he cracked.

“It was a really hard day. Obviously, it was not the day I had hoped for, but sometimes that’s how it goes in cycling,” Vingegaard sighed at the finish. “They made a big attack on the Tourmalet and I could not follow. I had to ride at my own pace.”

“At the top, I actually wasn’t even that far behind, but yes, on a descent like that, it is not really to my advantage,” Vingegaard admitted. The Danish climber also acknowledged that he did not hit his best numbers in the Pyrenees. “It was not my best day, but well, it is what it is.”

“Of course I’m disappointed, that’s part of it. But sometimes life is like that, and I can’t change anything about it now,” he said at the finish. Still, Vingegaard made it clear that this Tour de France is not over for him. “No, I still believe in myself. I believe that my legs will get better throughout the race, so the battle is definitely far from over.”

Author: David Bavin-Hobbs - [email protected]