Tadej Pogacar predicted a “big battle” in the Alps and warned that Jonas Vingegaard “will not give up” after the Dane launched his first real attack of the Tour de France on Stage 14.Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) made his move on the final climb to Superbagneres with 4km remaining, but Pogacar responded before outsprinting his rival at the finish to extend his lead to 4’13″ in the general classification.
“Jonas tried today. I was expecting him to try earlier on the climb, but he attacked about 4km to go,” Pogacar said.
“I could respond well, but I didn’t have that firepower in me to counter-attack and give it all to the finish. So I committed to control the stage until the very last 200 metres and then did the sprint for second place.”
Asked by TNT Sports if this was the strongest Vingegaard he had faced, he replied: “We have not had many mountains yet. We had Hautacam, the time trial [and today].
“Out of these three days, I think he was very strong today. He will not give up, he will keep attacking when we reach the Alps. We have a big battle next week.”
Vingegaard produced another solid ride to back up his mountain time trial on Friday, finishing third on the stage but again losing time to Pogacar.
“A bit like yesterday, I can be really happy with how my legs were feeling,” Vingegaard told TNT Sports.
“Today was probably one of the hardest mountain stages I’ve ever done. It was a hard day for everyone. To do that performance at the end of such a day is obviously nice.”
He added: “I expected Tadej to go on the last climb. Then when I realised he probably wouldn’t try, I just decided to do it myself.”
‘I decided to do it myself’ – Vingegaard surprised Pogacar did not attack on Stage 14
Video credit: TNT Sports
Sunday’s easier stage offers a brief reprieve before a second rest day, after which the Tour hits Mont Ventoux and the start of a savage final week.
The Olympic and world time trial champion had already endured a nightmare in the Pyrenees – being dropped on multiple climbs on Thursday and overtaken by his two-minute man Vingegaard in Friday’s TT – and cracked again on Saturday as UAE lifted the pace.
Evenepoel had described his time trial as a “really bad performance”, and there was to be no recovery on Stage 14 as he slid out of GC contention for good.
His withdrawal elevated Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) to third overall. The German produced another standout ride on Saturday and sits 1’25” clear of Britain’s surprise package Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL) in fourth.
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