Vingegaard Hits Hard
Tadej Pogačar broke his wrist 74-days ago leading to speculation as to whether he could heal in time to gain the fitness needed to win the Tour de France. Perhaps had this Tour been more traditionally designed, with 8-10 flattish days preceding the first major mountain chains, the Slovenian could have ‘ridden himself into the race’ and been in fine form for the climbs. This year’s design, with major climbing from the start, required full fitness from the get-go and, as we saw yesterday, Pogačar is wanting. For the second year in a row, the Jumbo-Visma team played a tactically perfect game on a crucial mountain stage, delivering if not a KO, certainly a major body blow to the Wunderkind. One could see it in Pogačar’s eyes on the podium at the Young Jersey presentation, a sort of unbelieving, haunted look. His perky, always on the move efforts in Spain, mirrored by those of his UAE team, had us all believing that the great champion was back in full force. Perhaps it was his freshness after so much time away, but for the devastatingly deep efforts of the Tour, freshness will only get you so far, and it all came crashing down for him on the final slopes of the Col du Marie Blanque.
The race, as previewed, exploded from the start. Polka Dot Jersey holder, American Neilson Powless made every move, except the one that counted, and he could only watch as a 36-man group, sparked by Wout van Aert, sped up the road taking the jersey away from him. There were three Jumbo-Visma in the break, two UAE, all up there with the idea of being in place to help once the climbers ignited from behind. Of note however, was the presence of last year’s Giro d’Italia winner Australia’s Jai Hindley, sitting in 7th overall, only 22” from the lead. With him were two powerful Bora-hansgrohe teammates, Patrick Konrad and Emanuel Buchmann, making this a full-force raid on the race. Alarm bells for any podium contenders should have been ringing in the chasing peloton, but only the UAE seemed to hear them, and it was left up to Pogačar’s team to chase for the entire day.
Up front, Van Aert was incredible, constantly going off the front forcing the big group to ever harder efforts - efforts that were beginning to kill the desperately chasing UAE team. With 33-k to the finish, Van Aert was the virtual Yellow Jersey, Hindley second and Buchmann third. They hit the final Col du Marie Blanque, 9-k long but one that ramps up steeper and steeper the higher it goes, hitting 13% or more in places. Hindley went on the attack with the virtual Polka Dot jersey, Felix Gall - someone to avoid following on a downhill it should be noted - before dropping the Austrian, taking the 8” bonus at the top of the climb, and plunging, expertly, down the other side towards a solo victory and the Yellow Jersey.
Van Aert was finally dropped from the front group, drifted back, made contact with a chase group of favorites, put in one final massive accelerating effort that stripped Jonas Vingegaard, Sepp Kuss (both Jumbo-Visma) and Tadej Pogačar away from everyone else. Kuss, Sepp Kuss. Boy oh boy does he do what he does and do it well. The Coloradian went ballistic on the climb, put in an effort for Vingagaard that asphyxiated Pogačar, sending his Danish leader up the road at record breaking speeds. It was truly amazing to witness the power and speed that Vingegaard can put out on a climb. He caught three of the riders in front, Buchmann, Giulio Ciaconne (Lidi-Trek) and Gall, pulled like an ox with them sitting on, but was unable to close much ground at all on the charging Hindley, who became the 8th Australian Yellow Jersey hold, and the 15th stage winner.
Vingegaard is now second on GC, 0:47” behind, Ciccone third at 1’03” and Buchmann 4th, in a great day for that team, at 1’11”. Tadej Pogačar, despite absorbing all those body blows, finished 8th on the day and is now sitting in 6th overall, 1’40” down. The Slovenian doesn’t fold when things go wrong, sign of a true champion.
Today, with the 17.1-kilometer col du Tourmalet, the highest point of this Tour, will be telling. Is Pogačar cooked? Or can he survive to fight another day. We are only on Stage 6. It will be fascinating to watch.