After two days of attacking, time gains and losses in the Pyrenees, Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) were able to enjoy a quiet day at the Tour de France on the long flat ride to Bordeaux. The duo, separated by 25 seconds in the overall standings, played GC mind games rather than launching any major attacks on Friday.
As Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) caught and passed Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan) in sight of the finish line, ending the Manxman’s hopes of taking a record 35th stage win, Vingegaard finished 22nd, carefully protected by Jumbo-Visma teammate Christophe Laporte. Only Wout van Aert was absent after sitting up in the final kilometres. He finished 148th at 3:05 and so slipped to 16:05 in the general classification, enough time to allow a go in the expected attacks in the finale of stage 8 to Limoges on Saturday.
Pogačar, meanwhile, was positioned just behind Vingegaard, protected in the fast finale by his road captain Matteo Trentin.
Pogačar joined Vingegaard in the podium area to pull on the best young rider’s white jersey for another day. He enjoyed his now usual one-minute dip in the UAE Team Emirates ice-bath to lower his core body temperature.
“It was nice until we went full gas in the final 40km, it was a pretty good day,” Pogačar said, clearly happy for the trio of Simon Guglielmi (Arkéa-Samsic), Nans Peters (AG2R-Citroën) and Pierre Latour (TotalEnergies) to hang off the front at that point in the race.
Vingegaard agreed. With temperatures touching 33 Celsius in the southwest of France, he started the stage with an ice-vest covering his new yellow jersey and warmed down post-stage with another one, as his press officer Ard Bierens held up a large portable fan.
“Today was very hectic in the end and so I think all the GC riders extended the three-kilometre rule before the corners. I think it made it a lot safer,” he said, thanking the UCI judges and the rider’s CPA association who agreed to the change where the overall classification times are taken in case of an accident, at 3.5km to go instead of 3km.
Vingegaard distanced Pogačar on stage 5 to Laruns and took the yellow jersey on stage 6 to Cauterets even though he lost time to Pogačar, who won the stage. Vingegaard took the GC lead after he and Pogačar distanced Jai Hindley over the Col du Tourmalet, and he insisted he is happy to have it, despite all the extra attention and obligations.
“I think…
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