Tadej Pogačar put more distance between his closest rival and the rest of the field on two big mountain stages over the weekend in pursuit of his third Tour de France win in the last five years.
The Slovenian charged ahead of Jonas Vingegaard in the Pyrenees in southern France on both Saturday and Sunday, extending his lead to more than three minutes as the three-week tour heads into its final week. Monday was a rest day and the race will resume Tuesday. Instead of the traditional finish on the Champs Elysees, the race will end with a time trial this Sunday in Nice due to the Paris Olympics starting July 26.
“I would never imagine this outcome after the second week in the beginning so I’m super happy with my shape. Also, it was super hot and it was a really hard day. Usually, I always struggle with the heat and today, the team did a super good job cooling me down and it was an incredible day,” Pogačar said after Sunday’s Stage 15 up the Plateau de Beille, per Cycling News.
Pogačar hasn’t won the Tour since 2021 when he beat Vingegaard. The Dane bested him by 7 minutes, 29 seconds, overall last year and 2 minutes, 42 seconds in 2022. This year, though, Pogačar is poised to wear the yellow jersey to the end.
“Now it’s really looking good. I was already saying this when it was 1:14 and now it’s a really good, comfortable lead,” Pogačar said. “We just need to keep focused these last six days and keep this mentality.”
Vingegaard said after Stage 15 that he was proud of the way he and his Visma-Lease A Bike teammates rode.
“On the last climb I was feeling super strong, I think I did one of the best performances of my life. But Tadej was super strong — so I cannot really be disappointed,” he said, per Cycling News.
“I think there is still a chance (to win the Tour). The Tour de France is still not finished and sometimes in the past two years, Tadej has had a bad day. We have to hope that can still happen.”
How are the Americans doing in the Tour de France?
Matteo Jorgenson, who grew up in Boise, Idaho, has proved to be a valuable teammate to Vingegaard on the team over the first 15 stages of the Tour, though he apparently wasn’t sure where he was last week.
“POV you just woke up dazed and confused in a twin sized bed. You quickly check google maps to find out you are halfway down the Massif Central in France yet you could swear you were riding up the San Luca in Bologna, Italy like yesterday ?????!?” he posted on X.
Jorgenson hasn’t had any trouble finding his bearings on the road, stomping out a tempo for Vingegaard on the climbs and pulling him through a gravel section on Stage 9 to counter a Pogačar attack.
After winning Paris-Nice this year, the first American to do so since 2006, and Dwars door Vlaanderen and finishing second in the Critérium du Dauphiné earlier this year, Jorgenson was touted as a possible podium finisher in the Tour de France. He currently sits 12th overall, 20 minutes, 15 seconds behind Pogačar. While the podium doesn’t seem likely this year as he continues to support Vingegaard’s push for a third consecutive Tour victory, the team apparently sees him as a future Tour de France contender.
“Yeah, I have the feeling that it is going that way,” he told De Volkskrant, per cyclinguptodate.com. “But nobody has told me that explicitly.”
Neilson Powless who grew up in Roseville, California, and Sean Quinn, who was born in Los Angeles, both riding for the Education First-EasyPost team, are the other two Americans in the race. Both have gotten into breakaways during the past two weeks.
Powless suffered a small non-displaced fracture of his wrist last week but was cleared by the medical staff to ride, according to his team. He sits 56th overall, 2 hours, 30 minutes, 3 seconds behind the leader.
Quinn, riding his first Tour de France, has been chronicling the race behind the scenes for NBC Sports. He is in 82nd place, 2 hours, 56 minutes, 31 seconds behind.