Tadej Pogačar had plenty of reasons to be pleased after he claimed his second successive stage win at the Critérium du Dauphiné to cement his hold on the leader’s yellow jersey ahead of the final stage. However, the UAE Team Emirate-XRG leader confessed that he wasn't happy with the tactics employed by his rival Visma-Lease a Bike team as they attempted to apply pressure on the descent from stage seven’s high point on the Col de la Croix de Fer.
“They attacked towards the top of La Croix de Fer, and then I think they wanted to drop me on the downhill. They went a little bit dangerous in the first couple of kilometres on the down, and I didn’t like that, but it’s modern cycling,” Pogačar said in his post-stage interview.
“Today we wanted to take control on the all of the climbs, but Visma tried with all the attacks,” Pogačar said of a stage where he ended up isolated against four Visma riders including main rival Jonas Vingegaard.
Although UAE teammate Pavel Sivakov did bridge back up to the yellow jersey group before the final climb to Valmeinier 1800 and did sterling work in supporting his leader there, Pogačar said he decided to attack when he again found himself up against Vingegaard and three of his teammates.
“When Pavel came back, he took control again and it was all fine. And on the last climb, Pavel said that he couldn’t do much more and he prepared me for the attack. And I just committed because I didn’t want any attacks from behind,” said the UAE team leader.
“It was sort of defence, not to get attacked by everyone from Visma,” he added. “I launched it and I maintained a good pace to the top. I was really happy that I could defend the jersey like this.”
Asked about Vingegaard, who finished just 14 seconds behind him, Pogačar said: “For sure, today Jonas was really strong. But I also didn’t want to go too deep. It was super hot and a long, long climb. So, luckily, I had enough time to ease up in the last kilometre a little bit and to recover.
“Of course, you look at the performances [of the other riders] and you know that in the Tour they can be even stronger. But we will be as well, as we’ll get two more climbers in the team.”
Speaking to ITV, Vingegaard said he was pleased with his performance, especially with a view to the Tour de France, which starts in three weeks’ time. “I tried to follow, just like yesterday. I had to slow down, but I think I still did a very, very good performance and can be happy with how I did today.
“I could see the numbers, and it was quite good numbers, to be honest. Again, today, Tadej was just better. So congrats to him.”
Pressed on his thoughts about his form with regard to the Tour, Vingegaard replied: “I hope that this race can help me get better, that I can hopefully be even better in the Tour than I am now.”
