On the 12th stage of the 112nd Tour de France, Tadej Pogacar had the muscles playing, Jonas Vingegaard caught a good ten kilometers before the finish on the wrong foot. Visma team boss Grischa Niermann has not yet given up hope for the overall victory for the tour of the France.
“I haven’t seen anything yet and not spoken to Jonas, but I don’t think that was Jonas’ best performance today. He led something towards the end,” Grischa Niemann analyzed the first Pyrenees stage of this year’s Tour de France that Tadej Pogacar used for a demonstration of power.
The Slovenian detached himself from the group of favorites about twelve kilometers before the finish line, attacked inimitable and distanced his opponent Jonas Vingegaard quickly. As unleashed unleashed, Pogacar stormed towards the goal and celebrated his 20th tour stage victory with a distance of 2:10 minutes on the Danes.
Tour de France: “Heavy Defeat” for Vingegaard
“This is of course a difficult defeat, because we had hoped for more. But Jonas has still become second. This is not the end of the world, but today Tadej has shown who the best driver is, and that will be difficult to change in the next few weeks,” Niemann confessed with “ITV cycling”.
Visma had actually planned to be able to attack the big favorite for the overall victory at the Tour de France. “Our plan was to make the race as hard as possible. We did that, but unfortunately Matteo (Jorgenson, editor’s note) was left behind early,” said the 49-year-old.
Video: tour after “power demonstration” already decided?
“From then on we reduced the pace a bit, but the goal was still that Jonas should attack on the Hautacam,” Niemann announced the planned plan: “Pogacar then proved to be a clearest driver.” Before the mountain time trial on Friday, Vingegaard is now 3 minutes and 31 seconds behind Pogacar.