tour reporter
Tadej Pogacar experiences a serious slump on the queen stage of the Tour de France. The Tour de France 2023 has thus been decided in favor of Jonas Vingegaard. For Pogacar, meanwhile, there are very fundamental questions.
Around an hour and a half after struggling to reach the finish of the 17th stage, Tadej Pogacar still experienced a good moment that day, which he himself called “one of the worst days on my bike” designated. The fans from his homeland had stayed on the airfield above Courchevel, until her darling finally appeared behind the podium. Now they waved their Slovenian flags, clapped and shouted “Tadej, Tadej”. Pogacar waved, even a smile crossed his face.
Only one fall can take Vingegaard’s Tour victory
However, the affection of his followers alone will not be enough to comfort him through this day. Pogacar, the two-time Tour winner, has never experienced a defeat like that in Courchevel as a professional cyclist. Not even at her Tour de France last year when Team Jumbo-Visma took him on the stage to Col du Granon attacked until he finally had nothing left to oppose. Even that day he didn’t feel so bad, Pogacar explained.
Back then Jonas Vingegaard laid the foundation for his first tour victory. On the queen stage of the 2023 Tour to Courchevel, the Dane has finally made his second tour victory clear. Only a fall can now prevent him from cycling to Paris in the yellow jersey. “It’s not over yet”, Vingegaard emphasized. But in view of his lead in the overall classification of now 7:35 minutes over Pogacar, this should only be seen as a formal caution.
It’s over for Pogacar though. In Courchevel, the Slovene only gave minor goals for the remaining four stages: a stage win for his team on the last mountain stage next Saturday (07/22/23) in the Vosges. And securing the two podiums for him and his teammate Adam Yates, third overall. “That would be a good ending”said Pogacar. But of course that is only partially true.
“We’ll have to build it up”
Above all, Pogacar will have to process this defeat first. In any case, in Courchevel the characteristic rascal smile had finally disappeared from his face, which was instead ashen. In the past few days, when he first tried in vain to make up the missing seconds on Vingegaard and then on Tuesday was almost caught up by the Dane, who started two minutes behind him, it was much harder for him to smile.
“We’ll have to build it up”said Matxin Joxean Fernandez, the sporting director of Pogacar’s UAE team. It’s easy, when he wins, there’s applause and cheers. “But now we have to be there for him personally.” Even after the defeat in the time trial, it was mentally difficult for Pogacar, the Spaniard reported. But of course the plan was still to drive aggressively on the king’s stage and to attack the yellow jersey. “But Tadej already signaled on the second climb that he wasn’t doing so well today”said Fernández.
that was on Cormet de Roselendand the heaviest chunk, the 2,304 meter high and extremely steep one, especially towards the end Col de la Loze, was still ahead of them. From then on it was all about riding with Vingegaard and his team Jumbo-Visma, Fernandez explained. But that was Pogacar when driving through town Meribel around nine kilometers before the summit was no longer possible.
Pogacar crashes at the beginning of the stage
“I’ve eaten enough all day, but somehow nothing got into my legs, everything stayed in my stomach”, Pogacar tried to explain the drop in energy in his body. Only the support of his teammate Marc Soler saved him from falling further behind. “He drove me to the finish”said Pogacar. “Without him I probably would have even lost my place on the podium.”
A fall at the beginning of the stage may have had an impact on the Slovenian’s condition. Pogacar caught his front wheel on another driver’s wheel when he tried to swerve to the right. Slight abrasions on the left knee and left arm were the visible consequences of the rather violent impact. But for a professional cyclist who seems to be mentally challenged anyway, such a fall can have much more profound effects that are not recognizable.
Vingegaard shows Pogacar the limits
This also applies to the fundamental consequences of this defeat. After his two tour victories in 2020 and 2021, a new era seemed to be about to begin. Pogacar was already considered the “new cannibal” in reference to the five-time tour winner Eddy Merckx. And indeed, the Slovenian is a complete racing driver who not only wins in grand tours, but also in the classics. His impressive winning streak in spring proves that.
But at the Tour de France he had a rival in Jonas Vingegaard, who also made unexpected limits clear to Pogacar. And even if Pogacar, after his scaphoid fracture caused by a fall at the spring classic Liège-Bastogne-Liège and a six-week break from racing, may not have come to the tour in the best of shape. So he has to admit that the Dane has the advantage on the long climbs in the high mountains and still has the better team at his side. “Jonas is on another level”admitted UAE sporting director Fernandez in Courchevel.
Vingegaard counters skepticism
Observers have been puzzled as to what exactly is the reason for the Dane’s superiority, especially since the time trial on Tuesday, in which Vingegaard was not only so vastly superior to Pogacar. In cycling, such extraordinary achievements always arouse great skepticism. And the impressions of the previous day still had an effect in Courchevel.
There, Vingegaard was therefore increasingly confronted with questions as to how his dominance could be explained. He understands the skepticism, emphasized the Dane again and thinks it’s right. “But I wouldn’t take anything that I wouldn’t give to my daughter”said Vingegaard. “And I definitely wouldn’t give her drugs.”