Tour de France Becomes a ‘Big, Big Battle’ Between Pogacar and Vingegaard
Everyone expected this year’s Tour de France to be a two-cyclist race between the defending champion, Jonas Vingegaard of Denmark, and the 2020 and 2021 winner, Tadej Pogacar of Slovenia. And everyone expected the first true test for them to come on Days 5 and 6 in the Pyrenees mountains.
Wednesday was Vingegaard’s day, but Thursday was Pogacar’s, and the Tour looks as if it could be a ding-dong battle between them for the next two weeks.
First blood went to Vingegaard on Wednesday. Jai Hindley of Australia won the stage and, temporarily, the leader’s yellow jersey, but the real battle took place a little farther back down the road. Vingegaard powered away from Pogacar with a mile to go to the summit of the Col de Marie Blanque and turned an 11-second overall deficit to his rival at the start of the day into a 53-second advantage.
Thursday brought an even more punishing stage, with climbs up the famed Col d’Aspin and Col du Tourmalet and, crucially, an uphill finish to Cauterets-Cambasque.
Source: The New York Times
