tour reporter
Jonas Vingegaard has the best day of his cycling life at the time trial. Neither his competitor Pogacar, his team nor he can explain the performance. The Dane knows, however, that such achievements provoke skepticism.
Shortly after the tremor, this tremor that the Tour de France 2023 probably in favor of Jonas Vingegaard decided, Tadej Pogacar sat on the roller with his time trial jersey open to kick the lactate out of his legs. But actually he was busy trying to understand what had just happened to him in this time trial on the 16th stage. The Slovenian seemed helpless, just like his girlfriend Urska Zigart, who was standing next to him and is also a professional cyclist.
Pogacar almost two kilometers per hour slower
Pogacar didn’t have an explanation later either, after picking up the white jersey of the best young professional on the podium with a wry smile. Pogacar said he didn’t feel really good in the second part, but there was still a gap “a bit of a shock”.
He had 1’38 minutes longer for the 22.4 kilometers between passy and Combloux needed. It was not much missing and Vingegaard would have overtaken the competitor who started two minutes before him. The Dane was almost two kilometers an hour faster on average. An almost surreal difference, because Pogacar hadn’t collapsed, but was going faster than all the other drivers except for the man in the yellow jersey. His lead over stage third, Vingegaard’s teammates Wout van Aertan excellent time trialist, had been 1’13 minutes.
Vingegaard: “The best day of my life on the bike”
“From Another Star” was Vingegaard’s performance in the time trial, said the sports director of the German World Tour teams Bora-hansgrohe, Rolf Aldag. Until now, it had been thought that Pogacar and Vingegaard were from another planet, superior to normal earthlings. And now this. “I probably had the best day of my life on the bike”said Vingegaard. But even he couldn’t quite explain why he had been so superior. “I was surprised myself that we were so far ahead”, he confessed. In between he thought his bike computer was broken.
Yes, Vingegaard tackled this fight against the clock with determination, showed great willingness to take risks right from the first two corners and sped down the descent from the first climb so that even his sport director Grischa Niermann in the car behind was happy when “Jonas arrived safely downstairs” was. All of that could have explained seconds apart. Even the 15 seconds it took Pogacar to switch from a time trial bike to a normal bike, which Vingegaard skipped, was not a sufficient explanation for the enormous gap on the Dane.
A performance that arouses skepticism
Nobody – not even Vingegaard’s team – had expected such a gap between the two favourites, who had been battling each other for seconds. “We thought that the time trial would be very, very close”said Niermann: “So we certainly didn’t think we’d get a minute or more out of here.”
One performance like these, always arouses skepticism in cycling, with its long history of performance manipulation. And Vingegaard will now have to deal with it more. Already on Sunday (07/16/23) after the 15th stage, the Dane was asked if he understood that his and his rival’s performance was viewed critically because they broke all speed records on the climbs. “I understand the skepticism”, Vingegaard had explained. He even welcomes them so that cycling doesn’t go back to how it used to be. “But I can only say for myself: I don’t take anything.”
Pogacar will not surrender without a fight
Either way, Vinegegaard is now approaching his second tour win. Realistically speaking, he now only has to defend his lead of 1’48 minutes in the overall classification on two of the last five stages – on the last difficult Alpine stage on Wednesday, which was on the way between Saint Gervais Mont Blanc after Courchevel over the “Roof of the Tour”, the 2,304 meter high Col de la Loze, go. And next Saturday in the Vosges.
Pogacar, Vingegaard and his team-mates are certain, will not go down without a fight, although he will have to mentally digest the blow in the time trial. “He will certainly attack”said Vineggaard in Combloux, which he might be right about. Pogacar didn’t travel to France to finish second.
“The tour is not over yet”, Pogacar explained after the time trial. Anyone can have a bad day. In addition, after the 5th stage in the Pyrenees, when he lost more than a minute to Vingegaard, he fought back the next day. “Especially if it rains tomorrow, it will be interesting”, he explained. Thunderstorms are forecast for Wednesday afternoon in the Courchevel area.