Vingegaard still drives in yellow
Pogacar strikes back impressively with an explosive start
07/06/2023, 5:25 p.m
The world’s two best professional cyclists engage in an enthralling slugfest on the Tourmalet stage of the Tour de France. Until Tadej Pogacar suddenly pulls away brilliantly, Jonas Vingegaard almost leaves – and reports back impressively. There is consolation for the Dane in the form of the yellow jersey.
Tadej Pogacar rolled across the finish line in a deep bow, then clapped his hands on rival Jonas Vingegaard after an epic duel – and France’s leader Emmanuel Macron applauded enthusiastically. With a brilliant attack, the Slovenian challenger won the first mountain finish of the Tour de France and made Vingegaard shake. The defending champions snatched the yellow jersey from Bora captain Jai Hindley.
“You need balls for this attack. Jonas’ show yesterday was incredible. If he had repeated that today, I could have packed my things and gone home. The form is improving every day, it will be a big fight,” said the relieved Pogacar, who dedicated the victory to his fiancée Urska Zigart, who fell the day before in the women’s Giro, but ultimately still lightly.
The day before, UAE captain Pogacar had lost more than a minute to Vingegaard. This time he attacked shortly before the finish after 144.9 kilometers at an altitude of 1355 meters in Cauterets-Cambasque, won 24 seconds ahead of the Danish jumbo star and joked after his tenth tour stage win: “I’m coming, Mark!” What was meant was Mark Cavendish, a record winner with 34 successes.
Disillusionment at Bora-hansgrohe
In the overall standings, however, 26-year-old Vingegaard is now 25 seconds ahead of two-time champion Pogacar – a duel for the history books is looming. Vingegaard knows that. “I’m very happy to be back in yellow. He was very strong in the last climb, he deserved the win today,” said last year’s winner.
The German team Bora-hansgrohe, on the other hand, experienced a sobering day after the fantastic start in the Pyrenees on Wednesday with a yellow card and victory for Hindley and fourth place for Buchmann. “I enjoyed the day in yellow, did my best. But then the lights went out and they were just better,” said Hindley.
He finished sixth, 2:39 minutes behind, and fell back to third place in the overall standings (+1:39 minutes). Buchmann, who with self-sacrificing work on the final climb ensured damage limitation in favor of Hindley, was even further behind and lost fourth place overall and is now 15th (+6:32). As in 2018, when Peter Sagan was replaced after a stage, the second luck in yellow ended for the German team after just 24 hours. At least Hindley can still hope for the podium in Paris.
In the obligatory early breakaway group, Vingegaard’s jumbo team had housed his all-purpose weapon, Wout Van Aert. Bora-hansgrohe at the head of the field allowed the escapees a maximum of five minutes ahead, saving energy for the brutal mountain trilogy with Aspet, Tourmalet and Cambasque. Sport director Rolf Aldag announced that “the boys will kill themselves” for yellow, although he admitted that the mountain strength of Jumbo and UAE was above the Bora level.
At the Tourmalet, Aldag found himself bitterly confirmed: when Vingegaard got serious with two helpers, Buchmann and Hindley could not follow. Shortly before the crest it was only the “Vingo-Pogi duel” – the Dane still had Van Aert in front of him as a remnant of the escape group and thus valuable support on the final climb. But Pogacar was the strongest there – Vingegaard remained yellow after all.