This time, he gave up. Drained of his strength, Jonas Vingegaard broke down in the arms of his partner at Isola 2000 on Friday, stripped of his crown by Tadej Pogacar’s new coup de grâce, two days before the end of the Tour.
“I always said from the beginning that it would be crazy if I could be in the fight for victory with a month and a half of preparation, I did it for two and a half weeks and now the fight for victory is over,” said the Dane.
“But the battle for second place is not over,” he hastened to add, clinging to his place as runner-up to the Slovenian, as if he wanted at all costs to avoid the emergence of a third Belgian thief in the fierce duel that the two men have been engaged in since 2021.
Barring an accident, Jonas Vingegaard will not win a third consecutive Tour de France, caught out by the level of an extraordinary rival and by a preparation truncated by his terrible fall in April during the Tour of the Basque Country.
“Perfect plan”
“I came to this Tour knowing it would be difficult, we knew it was a possibility so I was mentally ready for it,” assured the two-time defending winner.
However, he wanted to believe it, and his Visma-Lease a bike team followed him in his ambition to make the day crazy on the bare slopes of the Cime de la Bonnette, where the air becomes thin and the race can tip into the irrational.
“The plan was to have me or Wilco [Kelderman] or both ideally in the breakaway to be in front for Jonas, he wanted to try something from afar if he had had good feelings”, explained his lieutenant Matteo Jorgenson, who left very early in a breakaway where Kelderman and Christophe Laporte accompanied him.
A “perfect” and “aggressive” plan according to sporting director Grischa Niermann, accustomed to these long-term tactics aimed at suffocating opponents, in particular Pogacar, to leave them without resources when it comes to concluding.
The ghosts of Granon could also have started to prowl around Pogacar. In 2022, the Slovenian, wearing the yellow jersey, had exploded, pushed to the limit by the battering rams of the ex-Jumbo.
But the Dutch team had other assets to bring to the table, with Roglic in the second man role and an aerial Vingegaard.
Pragmatism
This time, his puny legs did not respond as he wanted, while Nils Politt, head rider of the UAE team, crushed his pedals as if to smooth out the climb to the highest road in France.
So rather than engage in a losing battle, “Vingo” let his team know that the big maneuvers would not take place.
“Halfway through the stage I had to change my mindset […]instead of attacking, I decided to follow,” he emphasizes, pragmatically, with the calm of someone who is able to choose his battles.
“When you have the legs I have at the moment, you have to adapt and race for second place,” said the Visma leader, consoled at length by his wife Trine once he arrived at Isola 2000.
“We had the dream of winning the Tour with Jonas, but we have to be realistic. Pogacar is too strong, Jonas is the second best rider, and we are proud of him,” said his boss Grischa Niermann.
PHOTO MARCO BERTORELLO, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar
A second place that remains to be validated, while Remco Evenepoel is 1 min 58 s behind Vingegaard. The young Belgian wolf showed his teeth on the slopes of Isola 2000, trying to unhook the Dane, who remained glued to his wheel until the finish line.
And Vingegaard admits his tactics should be no different on Saturday on the steep roads that will take the peloton up to the Col de la Couillole, before a crucial time trial on Sunday. “I will have to do my best to keep my second place, tomorrow I think I will continue to try to follow Remco.”