After the rostrum ceremony at Le Lioran, Tadej Pogačar made the maillot jaune’s sponsor-mandated look on France TV’s Vélo Membership present, the place French nationwide coach Thomas Voeckler, moonlighting as a pundit in July, greeted him along with his common bonhomie.
Stage 11 of the Tour de France had been excessive on drama and Voeckler, in line with the enthusiastic tone of a programme the place probably the most stringent criticism lately has been reserved for environmental protesters, was readily available to hype up the day’s motion a bit additional.
“Tadej, you gained the Giro d’Italia actually simply however right here on the Tour, you’re in a decent race with Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel and Primož Roglič – does the competitor in you like being in this sort of powerful contest?” Voeckler requested.
Pogačar’s drained eyes informed Voeckler and the remainder of us all we actually wanted to find out about what sort of contest he most popular, however the Slovenian understood the drill. Right here, the default setting is ‘Vive le Tour,’ come what could.
“Yeah, it’s stunning to see,” Pogačar mentioned, probably silently wishing he had spent the afternoon on an Italian mountain go with solely overly keen tifosi for firm, as he had accomplished in Might. As an alternative, his transient spell of solitude within the Massif Central was interrupted by probably the most unwelcome companionship of all – Jonas Vingegaard’s.
This Tour is just not going to be a procession like Might’s Giro d’Italia. If Pogačar didn’t understand it already, he actually does now, after a stage the place he delivered an obvious knock-out blow just for his rival to bounce again off the canvas instantly after which declare the spherical for himself on factors. Pogačar-Vingegaard Half IV, just like the final two instalments of the duel, seems set to endure into the third week.
On the eve of the stage, UAE Group Emirates sports activities supervisor Matxin Joxean Fernandez had recommended this is able to be a day the place his group would experience defensively, however it’s uncertain anyone purchased the ruse. In any case, UAE’s technique was already clear by the point the race hit the arduous remaining 50km, once they started dialling the tempo as much as insufferable ranges of depth on the Col de Néronne.
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The regular torture amped up nonetheless additional on the Puy Mary, the place Adam Yates’ supersonic flip stripped Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel and Primoz Roglič of their remaining teammates. Males like Matteo Jorgenson, Mikel Landa and Jai Hindley had been emphatically distanced. Such sequences have turn into nearly routine within the period of the so-called ‘new biking,’ however harm like this – on a medium mountain stage – was nonetheless completely startling.
Assault
Like on the Galibier final week, Pogačar’s inevitable assault got here close to the highest of the climb, with a shade over 30km to race. Like on the Galibier, the Slovenian’s preliminary acceleration took him away from Vingegaard et al, and his energy noticed him prolong the benefit past half a minute on the descent that adopted. For a number of kilometres, it seemed as if he was within the technique of successful the Tour there after which.
“I simply needed to make a niche on Puy Mary, I do know this climb very well and the downhill was loads for pedalling,” Pogačar mentioned. “I used to be pondering I might go from there to the end, like on the Galibier.”
As an alternative of providing a repeat of the Galibier, this stage carried faint echoes of extra distant Tour moments. When Vingegaard caught Pogačar on the next Col de Pertus, it was onerous not to think about Eddy Merckx attacking in yellow on the Col d’Allos in 1975 solely to be handed by Bernard Thevenet at Pra Loup, or of Laurent Fignon overtaking Bernard Hinault on the street to l’Alpe d’Huez 9 years later.
In contrast to Merckx and Hinault, in fact, Pogačar averted the indignity of being dropped by Vingegaard, who acknowledged that he, too, was struggling on the ultimate climb of the Col de Font de Cère. That was indicated by the spectacular show of Remco Evenepoel, who restricted the harm to 25 seconds by day’s finish to stay second total, 1:08 off Pogačar.
Regardless of his obvious fatigue, nevertheless, Vingegaard seemed the extra snug of the 2 leaders within the remaining 15km, and that impression was borne out when he upset his rival within the two-up dash to say stage honours.
The outcomes sheet is commonly an unreliable narrator of a motorcycle race, and definitely at this early juncture in a Grand Tour. Though Vingegaard solely clawed again a second on Pogačar – he stays third total, now 1:14 off the yellow jersey – the psychological blow struck right here can’t be overestimated. The momentum of this race was all with Pogačar in week one, however it has tilted again in the direction of Vingegaard since Sunday’s trek throughout the gravel at Troyes.
It will have been one factor had Pogačar attacked and did not shake off Vingegaard right here; he might need satisfied himself afterwards that he was not less than within the technique of breaking his foe’s resistance. After shedding a 35-second result in Vingegaard on terrain like this, Pogačar will as a substitute be questioning himself.
Technically, Pogačar misplaced the stage by mere centimetres, however the true scale of the defeat was quite larger, not least due to the boldness Vingegaard may have drawn from his profitable solo pursuit. Any issues Vingegaard had about his restoration from his Itzulia Basque Nation crash will certainly have dissipated as soon as he caught sight of Pogačar’s rear wheel on the Pertus.
In his post-stage press convention, Pogačar tried to sofa his day as a draw. By his telling, he had scored early along with his rasping assault over the Puy Mary, just for Vingegaard to equalise within the finale. The time hole stays roughly what it was earlier than, and now they’ll do it over again within the Pyrenees on the weekend.
“I don’t see it’s a slight benefit to Jonas: at one level it was one man higher, then one other,” Pogačar mentioned. “We had been fairly equal however at totally different instances of the stage. As we speak was totally different racing to what we may have within the subsequent days. We are going to see within the massive mountains the way it will go.”
True, however Vingegaard will now be a lot surer of himself on the street to Pla d’Adet on Saturday, whereas Pogačar, for the primary time in his astonishing 2024 season, should reckon with an unfamiliar feeling: doubt.
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