With a lot of anticipation for his “Angstberg”: Tadej Pogacar confidently goes to the finale of the Tour de France – even if the Slovenian leader has very bad experiences with main difficulty.
“The tour route was somehow chose this year to scare me,” said Pogacar with a view to the upcoming duels with his adversary Jonas Vingegaard.
“At the Col de la Loze, I have already lost bad against Jonas. Now I am not concerned with revenge, but just about having good legs. This is one of the hardest mountains I’ve ever driven, but I’m looking forward to it. I am very optimistic,” said the 26 -year -old about the stage on Thursday – previously the Mont Ventoux is coming up on Tuesday.
With a 4:13 minute lead over the Danes Vingegaard, he goes to the last tour week, the German promoted Florian Lipowitz was almost eight minutes ago. During the tour 2023, Vingegaard had taken the Slovenia on the stage over the approximately 2300 m high Alpine giants Col de la Loze and won the tour significantly.
“I believe that Jonas is confident again this time. He is also very strong, we saw that in the Pyrenees,” said Pogacar, who, according to his own statement, was a bit offended, but is now in top shape again: “We are equipped for the fight.”
Despite his clear deficit, Rival Vingegaard has not yet ticked off the tour win. “I still think I can win,” he said on Monday: “Tadej looks very strong. But the Ventoux is super hard from start to end. Four minutes are a lot, but I think I can make the difference.”