Past the finish line in Carcassonne, cohorts of television crews and reporters were laying siege to the Jumbo-Visma bus, eager for reaction to a day of tribulations for the squad of race leader Jonas Vingegaard, who lost two teammates and then endured a crash in the finale of stage 15.
Every now and then, the drawbridge would be temporarily laid down and the microphones would surge forward as men like Christophe Laporte emerged to put words on their most trying day of the Tour de France.
Twenty metres down the street, it was all rather more tranquil outside the UAE Team Emirates bus. Tadej Pogačar had reached Carcassonne at the end of stage 15 safely in the peloton, still 2:22 down on Vingegaard in the overall standings. While the Slovenian was at the podium receiving the white jersey of best young rider, his general manager Mauro Gianetti was in a relaxed confab with staff members beneath the shade of a canopy.
UAE Team Emirates have endured their own setbacks on this Tour. They lost Vegard Stake Laengen and George Bennett to positive tests for COVID-19, and Pogačar was left strikingly isolated when Jumbo-Visma launched their successful, collective assault on his overall lead on stage 11 to the Col du Granon.
Now, six stages from the finish, Vingegaard’s supporting cast is suddenly as depleted as Pogačar’s, following Primoz Roglič’s abandon before the start and Steven Kruijswijk’s withdrawal after he dislocated his shoulder in a crash outside Revel on Sunday afternoon. They each have five teammates apiece left on the team bus as the Tour breaks for its third and final rest day.
Gianetti appeared less than convinced that the loss of two riders from Vingegaard’s team would significantly alter the scale of Pogačar’s task in the final week of the Tour. Vingegaard and Pogačar have been the race’s clear strongmen since their duel at La Planche des Belles Filles, and Gianetti maintained that their tête-a-tête would ultimately decide the race.
“I don’t think it changes the race a lot, because there’s a lot of climbing still to come. And when there’s a lot of climbing, it comes down in essence to who is the strongest among the leaders,” Gianetti told Cyclingnews.
“The battle will be between Pogačar and Vingegaard, and also Yates, Thomas, Bardet and Gaudu. Teammates are important, but the most important thing is the legs of the leaders.”
So far in this Tour, Vingegaard has had the better of his exchanges with Pogačar. The defending champion overhauled him…
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