Today was the day that Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) at last threw in the towel, conceding defeat and accepting what many have believed inevitable since the Pyrenees — that there was nothing to be done about preventing Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) from reclaiming his Tour de France crown. If defeat wasn’t already beyond reasonable doubt, it certainly was the moment Pogačar launched yet another attack halfway up the final climb of Isola 2000. By the time Vingegaard reached the top, he had conceded another 1:52 to his rival, falling to a 5:03 behind him on GC.
It was a defeat he found hard to take. The defending champion looked a broken man at the finish, in tears while he hugged his wife. Usually so cool and calm, and rarely one to show emotion, the sight of him seeming so inconsolable came as a shock, and revealed just how badly he wanted to win this Tour de France.
He and Visma-Lease a Bike had begun the day still carrying the hope of turning the race upside down. Stage 19 was this year’s high altitude stage, which in recent years has been the territory where Pogačar has most suffered — first in 2022, when he lost the yellow jersey and almost three minutes to Vingegaard on the 2,400m Col du Granon; then last year, up the Col de la Loze (2,300m), where he cracked completely to lose almost six minutes. With all three of today’s three climbs peaking at over 2,000m (including one, the Cime de la Bonette, that at 2,800m is the highest point of the whole race) Visma-Lease a Bike sensed an opportunity, and were clearly targeting these high summits as a chance to try and at least put the yellow jersey under pressure.
In the early phase of the stage, their plan seemed to be coming into fruition. They managed to get multiple riders in a breakaway at the start of the day, and, though Christophe Laporte and Wout van Aert couldn’t keep up with the pace once they started climbing the first mountain, Matteo Jorgenson and Wilco Keldmernan were at the front of the race building a lead. UAE Team Emirates chased hard, clearly uncomfortable with letting two such strong climbers up the road to potentially help Vingegaard later in the stage. But after a long chase, they eventually had to give up the ghost, and accept the situation.
Visma-Lease a Bike’s plan seemed to be for Vingegaard to attack at some point, in the optimistic hope of getting a gap on Pogačar, and then using Jorgenson and Kelderman to pace him upon bridging up to them. The Dane confirmed as much in a post-stage interview: “The reason we had Matteo [Jorgenson] and WIlco [Kelderman] up the road [was] as satellite riders, if I wanted to go.”
It was a bold, ambitious plan from a man who was willing to take a risk to try and win the Tour; but it was also one that required legs that Vingegaard simply didn’t have. Given its high altitude, and the fact that the long downhill that followed it would have been ideal terrain to receive a boost from being paced by teammates, the Bonnette seemed like the optimum place for Vingegaard to make his move. But as he revealed after the stage, this ended up being the moment the plan changed, and he conceded that it would be impossible to drop Pogačar.
“I wasn’t on a good day,” he explained, “and halfway through the stage I had to switch my mindset from trying to go for the win.”
“Instead of attacking I tried to follow instead. Then we gave a chance to Matteo, and he did an incredible job. Unfortunately, he was caught in the end, but that’s how it is.”
Typically, Pogačar was the man who denied Jorgenson the victory. Despite having done so much work throughout the stage leading the group, the American was the last survivor from the break, leaving Simon Yates (Jayco-Alula) and Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) for dust when he attacked 13.5k from the finish. At that time he had a lead of over 3:30 on Pogačar and the yellow jersey group; but as we know by now, the Slovenian can eat that up in no time. And indeed, after attacking 8.7km from the finish, he one-by-one caught and passed each original members of the break, eventually reaching Jorgenson with 2km to go to solo to the finish.
A stage victory would have been a consolation for Visma-Lease a Bike, something they could at least toast at dinner tonight while mourning the loss of their Tour title. But Pogačar’s supremacy will instead leave them despondent. You could sense there was an edge of revenge for the Slovenian in the way he made a point of getting out the saddle and accelerating while passing Jorgenson. Here he was getting his own back on the team who had made him suffer so much the previous two years, and denied him the yellow jersey both times. In his post-victory interview, as he explained how he recognized that Visma-Lease Bike switched tactics to go for the stage instead, he looked half sheepish, half smug, as he acknowledged how he denied them that, too.
As for Vingegaard, his focus now turns from trying to win to defending second-place. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal–Quick-Step) managed to finish alongside him today at the finish atop Isola, meaning still only 1:58 separates the two riders. And Vingegaard will surely be aware of the threat posed by the world time trial champion on Sunday’s finale against the clock in Nice. In the previous time trial to Gevrey-Chambertin on stage seven, Vingegaard lost 37 seconds to the Belgian; he could stand to lose significantly more in Nice, given this route is 12km longer, and the fact that while Vingegaard is clearly tiring, Evenepoel appears on the ascendancy. With another big day in the mountains to come before then tomorrow, second place is very much in play.
“I will try to follow Remco, and focus more on that,” Vigegaard confirmed. “I know I said before that I wanted to race for victory, but when you have the legs that I have you have to settle.” Vingegaard’s dreams of winning yellow are over for good, but we can still expect him to fight to the end to try and defend second place.
