Tadej Pogacar was anticipated to assault in the Tour de France‘s first mountain stage, but it was defending champion Jonas Vingegaard who struck first, leaving the Slovenian frightened and hoping he’ll regain his finest kind earlier than it’s too late.
Pogacar, who attacked a number of instances in the first two hilly levels, misplaced greater than a minute to Vingegaard in the fifth stage on Wednesday after his preparations have been hampered by a fractured wrist in late April.
Vingegaard’s brutal acceleration close to the high of the Col de Marie Blanque was an excessive amount of for Pogacar, who needed to dig deep to restrict the harm.
Jai Hindley gained the stage and took the total chief’s yellow jersey from Adam Yates, with Vingegaard transferring as much as second, 53 seconds forward of sixth-placed Pogacar.
The Slovenian regarded surprised at the end line after he and his crew have been caught unexpectedly.
“Tadej, what do we do?,” certainly one of his crew mates mentioned on the crew radio as a group of 36 riders, together with Hindley, broke away early in the stage.
UAE Team Emirates managed the tempo however Pogacar was with out a crew mate when Vingegaard made his transfer.
“It’s a big blow, it’s the first mountain stage,” Pogacar mentioned. “I didn’t necessarily have a very difficult day, Jonas just went really fast on the climb. I lost my legs a bit in the last kilometer, but I actually feel pretty good. I hope for a better feeling in the coming days when it goes full throttle.”
With a harder mountain trek via the Col d’Aspin and Col du Tourmalet on Thursday, the two-time Tour champion can be frightened that he would possibly get hit once more.
Damage management and hoping to peak in the last week in the Alps appear to be Pogacar’s finest hope of regaining the title he misplaced to Vingegaard final 12 months.
“Vingegaard was very, very impressive and very good game by Hindley… In the first two stages near Bilbao on the short climbs, Tadej was fine but today it’s a bit different,” UAE Emirates crew supervisor Mauro Gianetti informed reporters.
“Fortunately we had an advantage from the first two stages (after Pogacar picked up bonus seconds). We lost time but we’re still in the game.”
“Vingegaard is super good but Tadej was not good enough to be with Jonas. Hindley won the Giro d’Italia, we had said that the battle is not only between Tadej and Vingegaard and we have to expect other contenders and we see that Hindley is a big contender.”
Pogacar was specializing in Vingegaard, however when it was time to react, the Slovenian’s head dropped.
“We were hoping he would be in good condition but we knew since Liege-Bastogne-Liege (where Pogacar broke his wrist) it would be difficult to be at 100%,” mentioned Gianetti. “We fought in the first days and took yellow. We’re just 50 (53) seconds behind Vingegaard and it’s only the fifth stage. The Tour is still long.”
Pogacar, nonetheless, hinted there was not a lot he may do for now.
“I hope we’ll have better legs than Jonas in the last week,” he mentioned.
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