Jonas Vingegaard may be more than four minutes behind the overall race leader Tadej Pogacar in the Tour de France this year, but the Dane still believes he can win.
As the race heads towards the endgame, with the summit finish on Mont Ventoux on Tuesday the prelude to a gruelling trawl through the Alps, the big question, however, is: does his team still believe?
“I do still think that I can win,” Vingegaard said during the Tour’s second rest day in Montpellier. “It looks very hard, but I still think I can do it.”
As Pogacar’s biggest rival, the Visma-Lease a Bike rider is obliged to believe. But after the stage to Carcassonne on Sunday, during which the double Tour champion was deserted by some of his teammates just when he needed them most, the task of overthrowing Pogacar looks doubly daunting.
“We have to try to do something,” he said, and insisted that he was willing to risk everything to win. “There needs to be a weakness somewhere on Tadej’s part. For now, we haven’t found it, but we’ll keep trying. I’m willing to sacrifice second place to go for first.”
If he is to achieve an unlikely coup, he will need more convincing support that he has received to date. The debacle on Sunday, during which Vingegaard was chasing back after a crash while others in his team drove the pace at the front, prompted much soul‑searching in Denmark.
Bjarne Riis, the first Dane to win the Tour in 1996, who subsequently confessed to doping, blasted Vingegaard’s teammates when speaking to the Danish newspaper BT. “Their racing style is completely hopeless,” he said.
“I don’t understand it at all. After Sunday’s stage, you have to wonder whether Jonas should look for another team. They clearly don’t see him as a priority. That’s disappointing to see.”
Echoing comments made by Vingegaard’s wife, and personal manager, Trine Vingegaard Hansen, before the Tour began, Riis said: “Wout Van Aert is clearly more interested in riding his own Tour than in helping Vingegaard.
“The management has promised Van Aert that he can do what he wants, and that is going to cause conflicts. Give Jonas some respect.”
A relaxed Pogacar, meanwhile, was enthusing about the happy atmosphere within his own team, saying: “I’m really enjoying this Tour. The group that we have here, the teammates and on the bus, at dinner, breakfast, it’s super nice. If I need to come to the Tour every year, I’ll just come for the boys and the atmosphere and nothing else.”
Pogacar is confident of final victory. “I mean, I have to be,” he said. But he remains respectful towards his Danish rival. “I’m pretty sure that Jonas can be confident as well, because he’s in really good shape. I need to keep focused, I need to keep eating well, sleeping well, and keep this mood that we have in this group, keep up the motivation.
“I think it’s going to be tough, but we are ready for a fight with everybody, especially with Jonas.”
Pogacar said he felt that this year’s route was designed to “scare” him and favour Vingegaard. “We’ve been to Hautacam and we are going to Mont Ventoux and Col de la Loze, where Jonas dropped me [in the past] all three times.
“I actually like all these climbs. I like Mont Ventoux, it’s super iconic, and Col de la Loze is one of the hardest climbs I’ve ever done in my career. I will not say that I’m looking for revenge – I just want to have better legs than in the past.”
