{"id":679651,"date":"2026-07-08T03:10:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T03:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/679651\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T03:10:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T03:10:17","slug":"vingegaard-the-moral-winner-after-pogacars-tour-de-france-stages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/679651\/","title":{"rendered":"Vingegaard the moral winner after Pogacar’s Tour de France stages"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jonas Vingegaard<\/a> got off to a great start in the Tour de France<\/a>, but still took a bit of a beating from his main rival, Tadej Pogacar, in Stages 2 and 3. In two explosive finishes, the Slovenian from UAE Emirates-XRG proved stronger<\/a> than the Dane from Visma | Lease a Bike<\/a>. But that\u2019s not a concern for the Dutch team, as Pogacar\u2019s explosive form may already be behind him.The battle for seconds between Vingegaard and Pogacar was intriguing in the early stages. Visma | Lease a Bike won the team time trial, 12 seconds ahead of UAE. A day later, the team from the Emirates struck back<\/a>, with Pogacar breaking away from Vingegaard and having enough in reserve to let his teammate Isaac del Toro take the stage win. By doing so, Vingegaard managed to stay in contention\u2014and keep the yellow jersey.<\/p>\n

In the third stage, UAE Emirates-XRG really flexed its muscles by controlling a breakaway-oriented stage and thus paving the way for Pogacar on the final climb. Pogi was dominant, claiming the stage win, 10 bonus seconds, and a 2-second lead over Vingegaard in the overall standings. This put both riders level on time in the general classification, with Pogacar holding a slight edge for the yellow jersey.<\/p>\n

The world champion gave up that jersey to a breakaway rider in Stage 4, knowing that Stage 5 would offer the first opportunity for sprinters in Pau. This means that after Tuesday, Pogacar can head straight to the team bus on Wednesday as well, without any media obligations. After all, he was no longer wearing yellow, green, polka dots, or white after the fourth stage.<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo<\/p>\n

\"tadej-pogacar-tour-de-france\"\/<\/p>\n

Tadej Pogacar<\/p>\n

Visma | Lease a\u00a0bike looks ahead after pogacar’s attacks<\/p>\n

The action in the first few days didn\u2019t cost Vingegaard any time on Pogacar, thanks to the team time trial. Team director Marc Reef was therefore able to look back with satisfaction on the fourth day. Because: \u201cIt wasn\u2019t a matter of waiting and seeing in Stage 3, was it? We have to be honest\u2014these kinds of finishes are Pogacar\u2019s territory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Explosive, punchy… Vingegaard was still keeping pace in that regard in 2025, but he did make a slightly weaker impression on days 2 and 3. \u201cIt\u2019s always been that way. Pogacar is good on longer climbs, but he\u2019s even better at those explosive bursts. He wins group sprints and is one of the few general classification riders who can do that. You have to be honest about that, and what Jonas is doing is really impressive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vingegaard finished second in the third stage and thus also finished in the same time on day two. \u201cHe was still the best of the bunch and edged out Seixas and Carapaz by a hair. He\u2019s doing very well, and we can see that in him. He\u2019s feeling good after the Giro d\u2019Italia, has had a good preparation leading up to the Tour, and we\u2019re pleased with what we\u2019re seeing,\u201d said Reef.<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo<\/p>\n

\"tadej-pogacar-jonas-vingegaard\"\/<\/p>\n

Vingegaard fell just short of Pogacar in a thrilling finish<\/p>\n

Vingegaard is in top form ahead of his showdown\u00a0with Pogacar<\/p>\n

The satisfaction at Visma | Lease a Bike is no surprise, because while last year\u2019s first ten days consisted almost exclusively of uphill sprints, things will be different in 2026. Stage 6 even features a true mountain stage in the Pyrenees, with the Col d\u2019Aspin and Tourmalet. \u201cLast year, it was necessary to be more explosive, especially at the start. There were a lot of those kinds of stages back then, similar to what we\u2019re seeing now on days 2 and 3.\u201d<\/p>\n

“This is a different Tour de France<\/a>, where you\u2019ve only seen those kinds of stages on those specific days,” says Reef, who has therefore prepared Vingegaard very thoroughly for the longer climbs in the first, second, and especially third weeks. “He\u2019s prepared differently. You can see that several general classification contenders are in top form; that\u2019s also necessary to be able to compete.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jonas Vingegaard got off to a great start in the Tour de France, but still took a bit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":679652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,9046,101,135345,56,54,55,45702],"class_list":["post-679651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-jonas-vingegaard","tag-sports","tag-tour-de-france-2026","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-visma-lease-a-bike"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=679651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}