Pogacar wins first Pyrenees stage and widens gap on Jonas Wengergaard

He was the same Schlemire three days ago, and now Toad Pogacar has dealt him another heavy blow. Thanks to the help of his teammates, he won the stage on Saturday’s Pla d’Adet Pyrenees climb and beat his closest rival Jonas Vingegaard by 39 seconds. With the win, Pogacar now leads the overall classification by nearly two minutes – a “nice gap”, as Vingegaard’s sports director Merlin Zeman sarcastically pointed out afterwards.

The Pla d’Adet stage was the first of two particularly tough Pyrenean stages to end Week 2. Initially a large leading group formed including Mathieu van der Poel and well-known climbers such as Louis Meintjes and Ben Healy, but the group dwindled on the first major climb of the day, the Col du Tourmalet. The remaining group was accounted for on the final climb.

Force majeure has ended

By this time, Pogacar’s UAE team had a clear numerical advantage over Vingegaard’s Visma-Lease A Bike team: five to three. This advantage was used skillfully on the 10km climb to Pla d’Adet – something the UAE has not often been able to do in the past. Seven kilometres from the summit, Pogacar’s assistant Adam Yates attacked, and then Pogacar’s leader also left with less than five kilometres to the summit to meet up with his servant.

Wengergaard tried to follow him but immediately had to leave a gap. In the following kilometres, his yield grew larger and larger. 3 kilometres to go: 9 seconds. Two kilometres to go: 20 seconds. One kilometre: 24 seconds. At the finish line, the gap (including bonus seconds) was no less than 43 seconds. At the finish, Pogacar beat his chest: after the failed attempt on the Massif Central last Wednesday, he had now managed to leave his rivals some distance behind, which clearly relieved him.

It will be a tough job. The UAE has a very strong team

Jonas Vingegaard’s disappointment was palpable. Arriving at the team bus, he parked his bike on a rolling stool, shook his head, rode his bike, got back on the bus and waited for a while. When he reappeared, unlike usual, he spoke in pure platitudes. “Tomorrow is another day.” And: “It’s still possible to win the Tour.”

Merijn Zeeman, Vengerg’s sporting director, also had little excitement left on Wednesday. Pogacar, he said, “took a lot more time than we would have liked.” Zeeman said it wasn’t Vengerg’s fault: He had worked on the bus and his wattage was “at a very high level.” He couldn’t have gone any faster. ” Zeeman tried to muster courage. “Hopefully we can keep the excitement going until Nice.” But he also admitted it would be “a bad job.” “The UAE has a very strong team.”

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