“He wins everywhere, and it’s a big fight to make it as hard as possible for him. We are still the best at that.” Anyone who hears the words of Merijn Zeeman, the sporting director of Jumbo-Visma, about Tadej Pogacar of competitor UAE Team Emirates on Sunday afternoon would think that his team lost the yellow jersey to the Slovenian that day.
Nevertheless, the Danish leader Jonas Vingegaard of Jumbo-Visma is still the classification leader as the peloton prepares for a rest day in Clermont-Ferrand after the first nine stages. It went at a Sunday pace for a long time on Sunday, and an early group of escapees was able to build up a lead of more than sixteen minutes. The American Matteo Jorgenson, who had started solo at about 40 kilometers, could almost see the finish line on the famous Puy de Dôme, but was overtaken by Michael Woods at 500 meters. The Canadian of Israel Premier Tech was the winner of a stage for the first time after 75 stages and seven previous top ten placings.
Fifteen minutes later, the GC riders tackled the last part of the climb, winding around the flanks of the extinct volcano, with average gradients of 11 and 12. Again it was between Vingegaard and Pogacar. When the Slovenian accelerated a mile from the top, the Dane continued to ride a few meters behind him, as if on a rubber band, for dozens of meters. You almost wanted to give him a push, Vingegaard was that close to getting back into the wheel of his competitor. But he couldn’t go any faster, and Pogacar could.
At the finish the gap was eight seconds, Vingegaard’s lead in the standings has shrunk to seventeen counts. “I am very happy that Jonas took so much time earlier this week, but I think the lead is getting very small,” says Zeeman at the team bus, in the summer heat that can be felt even in the shadow of the Puy de Dôme . “If Pogacar continues this line and collects something every time, it will be very difficult for us.”
This is how the psychological games between the two top favorites began. “We have made moral and mathematical gains again today,” says team manager Mauro Gianetti at the UAE bus. “We are confident, but Pogacar is increasingly playing the role of favourite,” says Zeeman a few meters away, in an attempt to shift the pressure and responsibility towards the UAE. “Thank you,” says Gianetti with a smile when he hears that. “I agree with that.”
‘Sayonara’
It is clear that the two riders stand out far above the rest. Behind Pogacar, the Australian Jai Hindley of Bora-Hansgrohe is third at more than two and a half minutes, the number ten Romain Bardet of DSM-Firmenech is already almost seven minutes behind. “They passed me at eight times my speed, so I thought: ‘Sayonara’”, says Simon Yates, the number six in the rankings (at 4.44 minutes) with a sense of exaggeration. And Hindley says only: “I just let them go and rode up at my own pace.”
Sunday’s stage brought an end to a particularly entertaining Tour week. The twin brothers Adam and Simon Yates rode to the finish together in the opening stage, Jasper Philipsen proved to be by far the strongest of the impressive field of sprinters. With three mountain stages it was an exceptionally tough opening week, for all non-classification riders it was a search for opportunities.
You saw it on Saturday, during the stage to Limoges. In another edition that might have been an opportunity for a long flight to be successful, now the sprinter teams thought: ‘No way, we have to take this chance’. And so it went, even though the roads went up and down the last tens of kilometers, between fast men like Philipsen, Dylan Groenewegen, Wout van Aert and Mads Pedersen. The latter won.
But it was mainly a week in which Vingegaard and Pogacar dealt their first blows. Vingegaard opened the ball with a big blow on the Marie Blanque in the Pyrenees, Pogacar gradually did something back, first on the Cauterets-Cambasque and on Sunday on the Puy de Dôme.
Protected nature area
In the run-up to the Tour, this was by far the most talked about stage, because of that finish on top of the Puy de Dôme. A highlight in the course for Tour organizer ASO, a controversial finish for conservationists and scientists. It was a lot about the question of whether the circus around the Tour de France, one of the most polluting sporting events in the world, belonged on a mountain that is a protected natural area on the Unesco World Heritage List.
But once the day of the stage itself arrives, the ASO gets its way. The critical voices seem to have disappeared, the glorious cycling history is paramount, a lifeline to which cycling likes to return. It starts on Sunday morning when Tour director Christian Prudhomme lays flowers at the grave of Raymond Poulidor, the still very popular rider in France who often finished second (and third) but never managed to win the Tour.
The Tour starts on Sunday in his honor in Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat, the town where Poulidor died in 2019. At the team presentation, his grandson Mathieu van der Poel is presented with an old bicycle from his grandfather. In the rigged by the ASO Village Depart special cycling shirts are sold with the headlines about the 1964 stage in which Poulidor and Jacques Anquetil fought for victory on the flanks of the Puy de Dôme.
The Tour will remain in the protected nature reserve for a while. After the rest day, the riders will be shot away on Tuesday from the Vulcania amusement park, at the foot of the Puy de Dôme. Then there will be an even heavier week if possible. After two transition stages and a flat stage for the sprinters, a triptych of mountain stages in the Alps awaits from Friday.
“I’m looking forward to it,” says UAE boss Gianetti when asked about his expectations. “Of course we prefer to be first, but everything is still open.” His counterpart at Jumbo-Visma sees opportunities for both riders. “There will be another stage like today, to the Grand Colombier. Something like that suits Pogacar very well,” says Zeeman. “But Jonas is better again in the exhausting stages, so I find it difficult to predict.”
What the two team leaders agree on in any case: it will be another great and exciting fight in the next two weeks.
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper on July 10, 2023.