Tour de France 2024: Pogačar thwarts Vingegaard’s counterattack at the Tour de France

There was a lot of movement in the starting village of the queen stage of this Tour de France in Loudenvielle. All 22 teams had set up the so-called roles. Almost all of the remaining 154 professionals warmed up on the training equipment. That seemed paradoxical. Because the thermometer had already climbed over the 30 degree mark. Many drivers also wore ice vests to lower their body temperature. “But you have to warm up your legs so that your muscles work,” explained Arthur von Dongen, sporting director of the Visma-Lease-a-Bike team, to “nd”. Warming up was so important because the usual rolling in was no longer necessary that day. Instead, the route led straight uphill, with the climb to the Col de Peyresourde. Only the Belgian Wout van Aert changed the warm-up program slightly. He evaded the role regime and preferred to do a few laps in the press parking lot.

Whatever the professionals thought: Keeping your legs relaxed was the athlete’s first obligation, for climbers and sprinters alike. »You have to make sure that you get going straight away, find a good rhythm and also a good group. Because it’s entirely possible that we’ll be left behind right from the start and then have to complete the stage within the time limit,” said veteran John Degenkolb, describing the main task for heavier riders like him. And the first sprinters actually lost touch at Peyresourde.

Setting the tone at the front of the day’s breakaway were former Giro d’Italia winners Richard Carapaz from Ecuador and Jai Hindley. The Australian should achieve at least one more stage win for Red Bull-Bora after the German team had previously lost its overall victory candidate Primož Roglič to a crash. “Now everyone is going for stage victory over the escape groups,” said performance director Rolf Aldag as the new motto. Hindley initially had several helpers at his side in the group.

Behind him, Team Visma took the reins for its captain and defending champion Jonas Vingegaard. Parking lot warm-up driver van Aert kept the pace high on the flat stretches between the peaks. “We have to try to make up time on Tadej Pogačar today,” said his sporting director van Dongen as a task. Because the stage the day before was all about the Slovenian rival. With a tactical feat, Pogačar sent helper Adam Yates ahead of him in the final kilometers to Pla d’Adet. He waited about 20 seconds in front of the peloton until the Slovenian himself started. Not even Vingegaard could follow, instead Pogačar rode up to Yates, recovered in his slipstream and gained 39 seconds on his Danish rival Vingegaard in the final kilometers. It was an important victory, especially for morale. The Dane had defeated the Slovenian in the mountain sprint in the Massif Central.

The signs were therefore pointing to a counterattack by Vingegaard. The defending champion first had van Aert set a high speed on the flats, then the Dutchman Wilco Kelderman and the American Matteo Jorgenson on the climbs. Jorgenson in particular decimated the increasingly smaller field of favorites up to the finish on the Plateau de Beille.

Eleven kilometers from the finish, the captain himself finally attacked, overtook Hindley and Carapaz, took the lead and left everyone behind – except for Pogačar. And when he had sufficiently studied his rival on Vingegaard’s rear wheel, he launched his attack that brought victory five kilometers from the summit. The Dane, who had hoped that his opponent would collapse again on a long final climb as in previous years, instead lost more than a minute himself. The Slovenian therefore emerges as the clear winner from the second week. The double of the Giro and the Tour de France is becoming more and more likely.