A heavy defeat for Pogacar: Vingegaard with a demonstration of power in the time trial
DPA
· 18.07.2023
With a demonstration of power on Mont Blanc, Jonas Vingegaard has taken a huge step towards successfully defending his Tour de France title.
At the start of the decisive week at the Tour de France 2023, the Dane inflicted a heavy defeat on his great rival Tadej Pogacar in the individual time trial on stage 16 and defended the yellow jersey impressively. In the battle against the clock on Tuesday in Combloux, Vingegaard was an incredible 1:38 minutes faster than Pogacar over just 22.4 kilometres, increasing the gap to the Slovenian from ten seconds to 1:48 minutes. Vingegaard has been wearing the yellow jersey since the sixth stage.
Tour de France 2023: Jonas Vingegaard on victory in the time trial
"I felt great. That was the best time trial I've ever ridden. I'm very proud of what I've achieved," said Vingegaard. His team manager Richard Plugge did not want to talk about a preliminary decision yet: "The Tour is only decided when the bus with Pogacar leaves for Slovenia."
Pogacar was disappointed: "I had nothing more to offer today. It was no longer my best day." Nevertheless, he wants to attack again: "It's not over yet."
He will also have to do this on the very difficult queen stage on Wednesday, which leads to the 2304 metre high Col de la Loze and should already give a foretaste of the eventual overall winner.
Aldag raves about Vingegaard
In the only battle against the clock at this year's Tour of France, Vingegaard rode at an express pace on the final steep climb in the Alps. Pogacar was not bad at all and had a big lead over third-placed Wout van Aert (Belgium). "That was extremely impressive. The time trial was out of this world," enthused sports director Rolf Aldag from the German Bora-Hansgrohe team. The best German was Nikias Arndt.
The 22.4-kilometre route between Passy and Combloux in the Alps was not designed as an ordinary time trial anyway. The first few kilometres were flat, but the final 2.5 kilometres were challenging with an average gradient of 9.4 per cent.
"That wasn't a time trial for me with the two climbs. It was a tough time trial," said Nils Politt in an interview with ARD. The rider from Cologne presented himself in his black, red and gold jersey, which he had received a few weeks ago as German time trial champion. He was not satisfied: "The legs didn't feel good after the rest day," Politt added.
John Degenkolb crashed
Things didn't go so smoothly for John Degenkolb either. He crashed on the very first bend, but the 34-year-old carried on. "It was obviously a bit slippery. Apart from a few grazes, I didn't hurt myself much," he said.
In the time trial, as usual, the rule was: the best at the moment comes at the end. So Pogacar started on his time trial machine at 16:58, Vingegaard started at 17:00. The Dane shot off the ramp as fast as an arrow and set a tremendous pace. At the second time check, he was 31 seconds ahead of Pogacar. 5.6 kilometres before the finish, the Slovenian switched from the time trial machine to the mountain bike, which cost him valuable time. The two exceptional riders had been engaged in a great and above all evenly matched duel. The gap before the time trial was just ten seconds.
Before the Tour, Pogacar was still struggling with the consequences of a scaphoid fracture. It is still not completely over, but he will take care of it after the tour, he explained and emphasised: "The legs are good, that's the most important thing."
Queen's stage imminent
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