Tour de France 2024: Italy or France: Tadej Pogačar wins everywhere

Denmark’s footballers have been eliminated from the European Championships. Another Dane also suffered a setback at the Tour de France. Jonas Vingegaard classified the outcome of the first mountain stage over the Col du Galibier on Tuesday as “1-0 for Pogačar”. Tadej Pogačar had evaded him in the middle of the slopes of the Alps, which were spotted white with residual snow, and had gained half a minute on all competitors. »The 1-0 is okay. It could also have been 3-0. And I would have accepted that too,” said the Dane, who also played football in his childhood, using kicker slang. In fact, Pogačar was once again clearly the best in open terrain.

The fact that his lead was ultimately only 37 seconds over Vingegaard – and 35 seconds over the other favorites Remco Evenepoel and Primož Roglič – was mainly due to the strong headwind on the stage. That alone kept Pogačar in check. »I couldn’t run away sooner. It wouldn’t have made any sense because the wind was too strong,” said the Slovenian. The stronger the headwind, the more force an attacker in cycling has to use to open a gap to the competitors, who can take turns in the lead.

So Pogačar, who wants to win the Tour of Italy and France in the same year, had to wait a long time. But it wasn’t hesitation, it was lurking. Shortly before the top of the pass, when he feared that he wouldn’t be able to implement his attack plan due to the weather, he finally started and quickly opened up a gap. Roglič and Evenepoel immediately fell back. Vingegaard was able to hold on to Pogačar’s rear wheel for the longest time. The scenes of the second stage seemed to repeat themselves. At that time, only Vingegaard was able to follow the Slovenian’s first attack. This time the Dane also let up in the last few meters up to Galibier.

Pogačar, Tour winner in 2020 and 2021, started the descent to the destination Valloire with a slight lead. Vingegaard, winner in the following two years, lost further seconds downhill. »I often train here. This knowledge of the route helped me on the descent. It was like a home game,” said Pogačar, who was completely satisfied in the evening: “I wanted to hit hard today. And I think I succeeded.”

He’s still a long way from winning the Tour de France. “In the end, minutes, not seconds, decide,” said compatriot Primož Roglič. The tableau – Roglič is 1:14 minutes behind, Vingegaard 50 seconds, Evenepoel 45 – reflects the balance of power perfectly. Pogačar is currently in a class of his own. He also has the strongest helpers who “pulled” him almost all the way up the Galibier to the new record time of 20:48 minutes: Juan Ayuso and Joao Almeida are now even among the top ten in the overall ranking.

Among the other favorites, Vingegaard has to be ranked slightly better than Evenepoel and Roglič based on his performances so far. But he is no longer on Pogačar’s level either. Only the next two weeks will show whether this is due to the long-term consequences of his fall on the Tour of the Basque Country or whether the Slovenian has improved again thanks to his special double training for the stresses of two major tours.

Vingegaard is initially glad that things didn’t get worse. “I expected to be two minutes behind in the first week,” he said, and hopes to get in better shape by the end of the tour. However, that would be unusual. The time it took to rebuild his injured body probably wasn’t enough to lay the foundation for a three-week maximum load. “If Vingegaard wins this Tour, I will no longer understand my sport,” said five-time Tour winner Bernard Hinault, given these circumstances.

After a few flat stages, the time trial on Friday offers Vingegaard, Evenepoel and Roglič the first opportunity to equalize. The man in yellow could also increase the score to 2-0.