Bjarne Riis has been watching and commenting on the current edition of the Tour de France. The Danish pundit, former winner of the Tour in the 90’s, saw a very strong Tadej Pogacar on the summit finish of stage 14 and believes the yellow jersey held himself back.The day saw almost 5000 meters of climbing including the Col du Tourmalet, Peyresourde and a 17-kilometer long climb to the finish in Superbagnères where UAE held a constant pace throughout the climb, instead of attacking as they had two days prior. Jonas Vingegaard then tested Pogacar to see how much of it could be bluff or not.
Pogacar also did attack, but it can’t be said with full certainty if he went all-out or if it was also a test for the Dane. Vingegaard led the way to the finish where then in a final sprint, the Slovenian took another four seconds on the road against his rival.
“First of all, I want to say it was great that Jonas dared and tried several attacks. He’s certainly trying. But it’s also clear that Pogacar is too good right now. He probably could have dropped him if he wanted to,” Riis said in an analysis for BT.
It’s also possible that Pogacar had realized Thymen Arensman was very distant and the stage win was quite unlikely, so decided to remain conservative in the face of what could be an unnecessary effort. “There’s a difference between racing after you’ve won a stage and then choosing not to try. Maybe Pogacar thought it was better not to try when he didn’t have the legs. That’s a possibility, but I don’t believe it. If I’m wrong, that’s fine with Jonas. But I want to see it first before I believe it”.
Overall however, even though Pogacar said he didn’t have the legs to go all the way solo, Riis believes there wasn’t really difficulty for the race leader and that he was riding within his limits. “I didn’t see Pogacar under pressure. I think he could have pulled away from Jonas at any moment. You also saw how frustrated Jonas was at the end, and how strongly Pogacar accelerated. Jonas was practically standing still compared to him.”