{"id":292768,"date":"2025-07-26T07:59:19","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T07:59:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/292768\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T07:59:19","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T07:59:19","slug":"jonas-vingegaards-stubbornness-shows-rivalry-has-taken-its-toll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/292768\/","title":{"rendered":"Jonas Vingegaard\u2019s stubbornness shows rivalry has taken its toll"},"content":{"rendered":"

What do you imagine was going through Jonas Vingegaard\u2019s head as he climbed the final mountain in this year\u2019s Tour de France? He may well have been thinking that if it were not for the rider directly in front of him, he would now be on his way to a fifth \u00adconsecutive Tour victory. But Tadej \u00adPogacar has always been there, this giant who has beaten Vingegaard down time and time again. The wonder is he keeps getting back up.<\/p>\n

Vingegaard knows the narrative. On a stage reduced by 30 kilometres because of a cattle disease, Pogacar \u00addecided he wanted to win the 19th leg. From the moment they left Albertville, Pogacar\u2019s UAE foot soldiers went to the front of the peloton and rode at a tempo that ensures breakaways cannot get much of a lead.<\/p>\n

UAE\u2019s attentiveness tells every rider that the boss has decided. He is going to win at La Plagne. He has won only four stages so far, two less than last year, and time is running out. More than four minutes down on general \u00adclassification (GC), Vingegaard knows this is a deficit he cannot overturn but damn it, he is not feeling any \u00adenthusiasm for another slapping down. Why should he?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s been too many. Laval, Saint Lary Soulan, Luz Ardiden in 2021; La Planche des Belles Filles and Peyragudes in 2022; Cauterets and Le Markstein in 2023; Saint Lary Soulan, Plateau de Belle, Isola 2000, Col e la Couillole and Nice in 2024, Mur de Bretagne, Hautacam and Peyragues in this race. Fifteen in all, these are the Tour stages in which Pogacar has been first, Vingegaard second. Only three times has the result been the other way round.<\/p>\n

This year, the rivalry has not seemed real. At least not as wondrously \u00adbalanced as previously. Not to us on the roadside, not to Vingegaard and not to Pogacar himself. Inside the UAE team they have observed the shift. Pogacar does not speak as much about \u00adVingegaard and his Visma-Lease a Bike team as he once did, does not worry about what they are doing in this stage or that stage.<\/p>\n

Vingegaard senses this and though he would never say so, it stings. It is not that he does not admire the efficiency of the UAE team, the business-like way they reeled in Primoz Roglic who had initiated an early breakaway and, well down on GC, might have expected some latitude from his Slovenian compatriot. As Tim Wellens led the UAE boys up to and then past Roglic, he flicked his right hand in a way that made it seem he was apologising or, at least, saying it was nothing personal.<\/p>\n

\"Tour<\/p>\n

Vingegaard has not looked close to Pogacar this year<\/p>\n

SHUTTERSTOCK EDITORIAL<\/p>\n

It has been an unrelentingly tough race. Everyone is weary, ready for Paris and the weather turning cooler and rainy has not helped. When they got onto the early slopes of La Plagne, \u00adWellens and Jhonatan Narvaez \u00adincreased the tempo and thinned out the lead group. Ben O\u2019Connor, Lenny Martinez, Victor Campenaerts and \u00adAdam Yates were dropped.<\/p>\n

Like a fighter being gloved up, \u00adVingegaard removed his rain jacket. He was not doing this so that he can be slapped down again by Pogacar. Here, he had a plan. The speed at which \u00adWellens and Narvaez attacked was \u00adsuicidal. Soon they both dropped away. So did Vingegaard\u2019s team-mate, Simon Yates.<\/p>\n

There are important battles to be fought on this climb. Florian Lipowitz, the German in the Red Bull- Bora-Hangrohe team, has his eyes fixed on Oscar Onley who is directly in front of them. They have both ridden exceptionally for 18 days but the \u00ad22-second advantage is with Lipowitz who knows he could not let the Scot out of his sight. Otherwise he would lose his place on the third step of the podium.<\/p>\n

\"Oscar<\/p>\n

It looks as if Onley will have to settle for fourth place overall, a fantastic achievement<\/p>\n

CHRISTOPHE PETIT TESSON\/EPA<\/p>\n

Felix Gall is also in this select group, knowing that if he and his Decathlon team-mates Aurelien Paret-Peintre and Callum Scotson ride hard, they can make sure Gall stays sixth overall. All this is irrelevant to Vingegaard, who has figured a way to give himself a chance of beating Pogacar. Seven \u00adkilometres from the summit, Pogacar attacked. Vingegaard knew this was coming and was onto it, straightaway. Onley went with this acceleration. \u00adPogacar was not surprised that Vingegaard was there but was not pleased that his rival just wanted to sit on his wheel. So he slowed. They all slowed. Lipowitz soon caught up and before the end of the stage, forged ahead of the excellent \u00adOnley to secure his third-place finish in the overall standings. Onley should finish fourth, which is an outstanding effort from a 22-year-old.<\/p>\n

On La Plagne the rider keenest to attack was the Dutch rider with the Ineos Grenadiers, Thymen Arensman. \u00adPogacar countered, Vingegaard \u00adfollowed. They rejoined Arensman and then they all slowed. Arensman tried again, Pogacar made the effort to close him down. Vingegaard follows. His refusal to contribute to the pace-setting irked Pogacar.<\/p>\n

Arensman sensed the bad vibe and went again. This time Pogacar sat still. Vingegaard is stubborn. If he pulls at the front, Pogacar will probably beat him again. He can take anything but that. Arensman\u2019s lead was 25 seconds. Only three kilometres left. Pogacar rode at the front but there was an \u00adinsouciance in the way he pedalled: if we catch Arensman, fine; if we don\u2019t, that\u2019s alright too.<\/p>\n

Pogacar can be the most stubborn man. Vingegaard, though, may be even more stubborn. So he did not move from Pogacar\u2019s back wheel. Arensman was 100m ahead of them, one acceleration from Pogacar was all it would take.<\/p>\n

\"CYCLING-TDF-2025-STAGE<\/p>\n

The Tour leaders Vingegaard and Pogacar pass some cattle at the bottom of Col du Pre \u2014 the stage had been shortened short by 35km due to diseased cows on the Col des Saisies, cutting two out of the five major climbs<\/p>\n

MARCO BERTORELLO\/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

Pogacar thought that winning this did not matter that much. After the way Vingegaard rode, he preferred Arensman to win. And Vingegaard kept thinking \u00adPogacar would close down Arensman and they would fight it out. Like they always do. But Vingegaard got it wrong. Arensman held by two seconds as Vingegaard outsprinted his great rival to take second place. This is the worst, most useless second place of his career. After they cross the finish line, \u00adVingegaard congratulated Pogacar on a Tour victory that should be \u00adconfirmed on Sunday evening in Paris.<\/p>\n

Someone asked Pogacar if he was tired or a little bored coming to the end of this three-week race. \u201cOh I\u2019m \u00adobviously tired,\u201d he said. \u201cAlso, it\u2019s not been easy \u2014 people attacking me from left and right from day one to the end.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe priority is the Yellow Jersey. So yeah, I was counting down the kilometers because, yeah, I was going with my pace and hoping that nobody will attack from behind and that\u2019s it.\u201d <\/p>\n

In the end, victory went to the right man. Arensman attacked and attacked again. He and Pogacar go back a long way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the first time I really met \u00adTadej or saw Tadej was Tour de l\u2019Avenir in 2018, where we were first and second on GC,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then I already saw he\u2019s a really special bike rider, a really big talent. At that moment, I was the first-year U23 or second-year U23, but I didn\u2019t really expect that he would be this good. But it was really nice to, as 18 and 19-year-olds in the Tour de l\u2019Avenir, and now here in the Tour de France.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the torturous ride to La Plagne, Vingegaard had a chance to get a rare victory over his great rival. He just was not prepared to seize it. That is what five years of competing with this guy does to a man.<\/p>\n

Stage 19 result1<\/b> Thymen Arensman (Neth) Ineos Grenadiers 2hr 46min 6sec 2 <\/b>Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Team Visma-Lease a Bike at 2sec 3 <\/b>Tadej Pogacar (Slovenia) UAE Team Emirates XRG same time4 <\/b>Florian Lipowitz (Ger) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe at 6sec5 <\/b>Oscar Onley (GB) Team Picnic PostNL at 47 6 <\/b>Felix Gall (Austria) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale at 1:347 <\/b>Tobias Johannessen (Nor) Uno-X Mobility at 1:41 8 <\/b>Ben Healy (Ire) EF Education-EasyPost at 2:19 9 <\/b>Valentin Paret-Peintre (Fra) Soudal Quick-Step at 3:47 10 <\/b>Simon Yates (GB) Team Visma-Lease a Bike at 3:54General classification1 <\/b>Tadej Pogacar (Slovenia) UAE Team Emirates XRG 69hr 41min 46sec 2<\/b>. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Team Visma-Lease a Bike at 4min 24sec 3<\/b> Florian Lipowitz (Ger) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe at 11:094<\/b> Oscar Onley (GB) Team Picnic PostNL at 12:12 5<\/b> Felix Gall (Austria) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale at 17:126<\/b> Tobias Johannessen (Nor) Uno-X Mobility at 20:14 7<\/b> Kevin Vauquelin (Fra) Arkea-B&B Hotels at 22:35 8<\/b> Ben Healy (Ire) EF Education-EasyPost at 28:02 9<\/b> Ben O\u2019Connor (Australia) Team Jayco AlUla at 34:34 10<\/b> Jordan Jegat (Fra) TotalEnergies at 38:42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What do you imagine was going through Jonas Vingegaard\u2019s head as he climbed the final mountain in this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292769,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-292768","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114918481938978461","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}