PLATEAU DE BEILLE, France (Velo) – Jonas Vingegaard and Visma-Lease a Bike threw their best at Tour de France leader Tadej Pogačar on the road to Plateau de Beille.
On stage 15 Sunday, the maillot jaune took it all and returned it – with interest.
The squad drove the pace over the Col du Peyresourde, Col de Menté, Col de Portet d’Aspet and Col d’Agnes.
By the time the Dane accelerated with 10.5km to go, early on the hors categorie hurter to the summit finish at Plateau de Beille, their rivals wilted in the Pyrenean heat – all except the race leader, the one the Dutch squad was trying to unship and unsettle.
Vingegaard hardly looked behind once as he drove the pace in another mano-a-mano in this rivalry to savor. Polka-dot jersey versus maillot jaune. Defending two-time champion versus two-time champion.
However, Pogačar hit the after-burners to distance Vingegaard with five kilometers left and added 72 seconds – 1:08 on the day, four bonus seconds on the line – to his lead. His stage 14 one-two move with Adam Yates was just a starter to this irresistible main course, on a day in which the Slovenian put three minutes into all but Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel.
Post-race, Vingegaard was far from downcast. “I’m not disappointed and I don’t regret anything. We did the plan perfectly, and even better than the plan. He was just better, that’s how it is,” Vingegaard told ITV Cycling and other media.
“I never doubted in our plan. We had a good plan and it’s been working for the last two years. We know I could handle a lot of fatigue, and I could also today.”
No surprises for Vingegaard helper Jorgenson
Matteo Jorgenson was integral in disintegrating the lead group on the final climb of Plateau de Beille. Recovering from a puncture with 20km to go, he set a fierce tempo, he dropped key rivals, including João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates).
When the Idahoan peeled off, Vingegaard surged and dropped all but one rider: Pogačar, the one that mattered most.
“We talked about it: Matteo had to do a 15-20 minute effort from the bottom, and that’s what he did. He did a better effort than we spoke about, all the guys did today. As I said, I can’t be disappointed at all,” Vingegaard said.
Jorgenson fell out of the top 10 overall into twelfth, losing over nine minutes after giving his all in front to break up a group of climbing kings on a grueling day of 5,000 meters of elevation.
“Tadej is a super good rider, I’m not surprised [what he did],” the American said afterwards. “I believed in Jonas today, I believed we could crack Pogačar. But he is one of the best riders in the world, so chapeau to him.”
With his impressive climbing display, Pogačar extended his GC advantage to 3:09 over Vingegaard, who could at least take solace in putting 1:43 into third-placed Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step), increasing his buffer.
Visma pays tribute to Pogačar power
The Dane and those around him came here to make it three Tours in a row, even with question marks over his preparation, given his damaging crash at Itzulia Basque Country.
Visma-Lease a Bike riders pushed the pace, aiming to win the stage and take back GC day on a diabolical day with over 5,000 meters of elevation.
“They have a good margin now,” Visma-Lease a Bike coach Grischa Niermann said after the race. “We have to accept that, and for the moment we can only be happy and proud of the performance we put in.”
“We will fight to the end, absolutely. But right now, everyone sees that Tadej is the strongest in the race.
View this post on Instagram
“Tadej has showed that the last days too. We are not surprised, we hoped for a different outcome, but that’s not the case.”
Pogačar is confident with his buffer, but nothing is decided yet. Three testing stages in the Alps lie in wait, with mountain-top finishes at Isola 2000 and the Col de la Couillole and the race-ending 33km hilly TT around Nice – all the kind of territory where an off-day loses a stack of minutes, not second.