{"id":50264,"date":"2026-07-04T19:09:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T19:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/50264\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T19:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T19:09:09","slug":"jonas-vingegaard-takes-yellow-against-rival-tadej-pogacars-in-barcelona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/50264\/","title":{"rendered":"Jonas Vingegaard takes yellow against rival Tadej Poga\u010dar\u2019s in Barcelona"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Slovenia’s Tadej Pogacar of UAE Team Emirates XRG crosses the finish line of the first stage of the Tour de France cycling race, a team time-trial over 19.6 kilometers with start and finish in Barcelona on Saturday.Thibault Camus\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Tadej Poga\u010dar started his quest for a record-equaling fifth Tour de France title when cycling\u2019s elite race kicked off in neighboring Spain on Saturday.<\/p>\n

But it was his top rival, Jonas Vingegaard, who grabbed the early advantage after an impressive effort by the Dane and his Visma-Lease a Bike team. <\/p>\n

Vingegaard helped clock the best time on the opening stage\u2019s 19.6-kilometre team time trial in Barcelona, grabbing a 12-second advantage over Poga\u010dar and his UAE Team Emirates-XRG.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is still a long Tour obviously, but is a perfect start,\u201d Vingegaard said. \u201cMy team did an amazing job today. They were so strong. I didn\u2019t have to do much, they just drove me all the way to the finish.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first of 21 stages took riders along the Mediterranean coast, past the city\u2019s famous Sagrada Familia basilica and finished with a short climb up a hill overlooking the popular tourist destination.<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar is the overall favourite thanks to his Tour victories in 2020, 2021, 2024 and 2025, as well as his strong form this year. <\/p>\n

The Slovenian sensation is aiming to join the select crowd of Belgian Eddy Merckx, Spaniard Miguel Indurain and Frenchmen Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault as the only riders to have won cycling\u2019s most prestigious race on five occasions.<\/p>\n

Vingegaard is once again his biggest challenger. The Dane took home the yellow jersey in 2022 and 2023 and is aiming to complete the men\u2019s Giro-Tour double. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard celebrates on the podium after wining the first stage of the Tour de France cycling race, a team time-trial over 19.6 kilometres on Saturday.Thibault Camus\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Vingegaard charged up the short but steep ascent to the finish line after being well set up by his teammates. Poga\u010dar\u2019s team was last off the staggered start and the star had a chance to better Vingegaard\u2019s mark, only to fall short.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo wear the yellow jersey again, after a few years without it, it is nice to experience it again,\u201d said Vingegaard, who embraced his teammates as they celebrated the stage win.<\/p>\n

This was the first team time trial included at the Tour since 2019.<\/p>\n

But it had an important tweak.<\/p>\n

At previous team time trials, the team\u2019s riders all received the time set by the fourth rider of the team to cross the finish line. That forced the team to stick together. This year, each rider was timed individually, meaning that the team could shed riders who had tired and finish with a leader on a solo run over the final stretch.<\/p>\n

Filippo Ganna of Netcompany INEOS Grenadiers had the second-best time, eight seconds off the winning pace. Juan Ayuso was fourth at 0:16, with Remco Evenepoel at 0:19.<\/p>\n

The three-week race will cross into the French Pyrenees on Stage 3. Stages 19 and 20 culminate at the famed Alpe d\u2019Huez climb in the Alps, which comes just 24 hours before the 21st and final stage ending on the Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es in Paris.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Slovenia’s Tadej Pogacar of UAE Team Emirates XRG crosses the finish line of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50265,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[6970,6961,92,6971,695,6956,6972,3937,6955,6966,6967,6963,6957,6954,371,859,197,6965,6960,6983,6958,6959,593,6962,1957,697,6973,2998,6978,6979,6981,6976,6980,6974,6977,804,6968,6969,24,6233,6975,2735,3043,357,6964,738,394,6982],"class_list":["post-50264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-barcelona","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-barcelona","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}