Now what? Tadej Pogačar threw everything he had left at Jonas Vingegaard on stage 17 of the Tour de France, the race’s second in the Pyrenees, but four bonus seconds was a scant return for his and his depleted team’s efforts on the road to Peyragudes.
True, Pogačar outsprinted Vingegaard at the summit to claim his third stage win of his Tour, but even though he celebrated with his usual vigour on crossing the line, it was hard to shake off the feeling that this amounted to a consolation prize. His path to a third successive overall victory remains as forbidding now as it did before the day began. He remains second overall, 2:18 behind Vingegaard.
“Tomorrow is a harder day, and we can try again tomorrow,” Pogačar insisted after the podium ceremony, but he knows he has almost exhausted his supply of tomorrows on this Tour. Thursday’s haul over the Col d’Aubisque, Col de Spandelles and Hautacam represents his last chance to bend this race to his will.
Pogačar will draw solace from the fact that, for the first time in this race, his UAE Team Emirates squad was stronger than Vingegaard’s Jumbo-Visma cohort, and on a day when they were reduced to just four riders. After an ill Marc Soler finished outside the time limit on Tuesday, an injured Rafal Majka withdrew before the start.
In their absence, a most surprising Mikkel Bjerg and a most resolute Brandon McNulty stepped up to the mark, shredding the yellow jersey group on the penultimate ascent of the Col de Val Louron-Azet and leaving Vingegaard bereft of teammates with almost 25km still to race.
Pogačar’s overarching problem at this Tour remains intractable, however. Vingegaard parked himself on the Slovenian’s wheel once UAE Team Emirates began their forcing, and he was still there when McNulty’s inexorable tempo had burnt off everybody else. McNulty led Pogačar and Vingegaard over the top of Val Louron-Azet and all the way up to Peyragudes before the best two riders in the race sprinted for the stage victory.
“I think the fact today is that the mood is higher, even though we are down to four guys,” Pogačar said. “I think that’s changed the dynamic now. We are really optimistic and motivated for tomorrow’s stage. Brandon and Mikkel were really good. We can try really hard and try to take the time back. Today we saw we were stronger.”
Hautacam
In his televised interviews behind the podium and again in…
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