Pogachar started Tuesday's stage just 10 seconds behind Vingegaard's yellow jersey, believing he could steal victory from Vingegaard in the 22.4km time trial. However, a 1:38 deficit to Vinghegor on a course that included a short, steep climb on the Côte de Mancy put the third Tour title out of Pogachar's reach.
The most sobering aspect of this loss is that Pogachar's performance was by no means poor; he was second, 1:13 behind third-place Wout Van Aert (Jumbo Visma). The problem was that Vingegaard was an amazingly talented racer, averaging almost 2 km/h faster than Pogachar on the course.
Pogachar started the race two minutes earlier than Vingegaard, and in the early stages of the time trial, he used Van Aert's time as a guide, believing he would set a faster time. However, when word got out of Vingegaard's ferocious start, his afternoon, and the entire Tour, changed dramatically.
"I was really happy to have a time gap on Wout Van Aert and to be 20 seconds behind him on the first climb," Pogachar said from behind the podium. I was trying to ride well and I was closing the time gap to him, but Jonas lost time on me. But I tried my best to limit the time loss to the finish line. I gave it my all."
Pogachar was already 16 seconds ahead of Vingegaard at 7km, but the gap almost doubled on the valley road to the foot of the Côte de Domaincy. The Slovenian switched from his time trial bike to a road bike for the climb, but the equipment change did nothing to stop the time drain. Vingegaard was 1:05 ahead at the summit and extended his lead to 1:38 by the finish in Combru.
"To be honest, the second part wasn't my best feeling," said Vingegaard.
"To be honest, I wasn't feeling my best in the second part. But now we have a big gap. I wanted to be yellow today, but I guess that's how it is today. I hope I can use my good legs tomorrow like I did on Marie Blank's day (stage 5 - ed.), like I did the first week."In the overall standings, Pogachar is now 1:48 behind Vingegaard, and it is hard to shake off the feeling that the outstanding rider of his generation has faced the man with his number on his back many times in July. In the second half of the victorious 2021 Tour de France, Pogachar struggled to drop Vingegaard.
When Pogachar beat Vingegaard in Paris-Nice in March, it felt like a huge psychological blow, but he must have known that his rival in July's Jumbo-Visma was a different breed.
Pogachar recovered from a heavy defeat on stage 5 at the Col de Marie Blanc, but rather than dealing a decisive blow, he took seconds from Vingegaard after his stage win in Hautelet the next day. Vingegaard and the Jumbo-Visma team will not be easily beaten, even with Pogachar's defiant words about stage 17 (over the Col de la Rose to Courchevel) and stage 20 (what should be a breathless afternoon in the Vosges mountains).
"It's not over yet. I can promise it will be interesting, especially if it rains tomorrow," Pogachar said. We have two more stages, the hardest stages of the tour. Anything can happen and I think everyone has a bad day. As I said before, I hope today will be a Marie Blanquet-like stage for me. ......"
Of course, there is no cost to dreaming, but turning this situation around would be the strangest feat in a career in which Pogachar has performed miracles on an almost daily basis. 'I'm going to try to come up with a plan,' he said. It's not going to be easy to get two minutes," he said.
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