Tour battle to explode in final week: Pogacar

Gruissan, France: Tadej Pogacar on Monday predicted fireworks in the final week of the Tour de France as defending champion Jonas Vingegaard prepares to launch a desperate attack for the title.
The 2020 and 2021 champion Pogacar leads the two-time defending champion Vingegaard by three minutes and nine seconds with six stages to go, three of which are potential game changers.
The 25-year-old Slovenian won two mountain stages last weekend but sits just over three minutes ahead of his Danish rival, and doubtless the 7min 29sec lead Pogacar let slip away in week three last year must be weighing on his mind.
“I think there will be more fireworks this week so we will have to remain focused,” said Pogacar when asked about Vingegaard’s assertion earlier on Monday that the game was far from over.
“They are certainly planning something, maybe Friday or maybe Saturday, but not both,” he predicted.
Pogacar is right to fear Friday due to the sheer altitude, as the Tour climbs to a rare 2,800 metres, and the high temperatures forecast.
But he was full of fight when asked about the day’s stage.
“I like the Bonnette, I went up there last August, and I like the descent of the Isola,” said Pogacar.
Saturday’s stage 20 will be just as fearsome in terms of the amount of climbing and the heat expected.
“On Saturday the course is around where I live, so it’ll be very much a home stage for me,” he said.
Finally, Sunday’s time-trial has a whiff of the 2023 time-trial about it - where Pogacar also wilted.
“Jonas said he won’t go home without a fight, I’ll need as many of my riders around me as possible,” said Pogacar, who will race alone Sunday with the race circumstances currently unknown and the outcome far from decided.
“Cycling is evolving so much, I must say,” Pogačar said. “Six years ago, when I came to this team, and I don’t want to speak bad about the team, it was totally different. If I compare this year to my first year in Vuelta, it was almost amateur. Back then, I thought everything was professional, but we moved on really fast. Every team pushes each other with technology, with nutrition, with training plans, with altitude camps. Especially Visma and UAE, and Ineos and Trek and QuickStep, we push each other to reach new limits.
“Yesterday, we witnessed the fastest-ever climbing and we should be seeing something like this every year because everybody is focusing so much on the details – every single gram of the food, every single watt you can save on the bike. We are going super fast. For me, it’s really impressive to see how things changed in the last six years of my professional career.”
Who is saying what
“I haven’t won it yet, and I won’t believe I’ve won it until I cross the line in the lead at Nice on the final day. But I think I finally cracked him.”
Race leader Tadej Pogacar on his 3min 9sec over defending champion Jonas Vingegaard.
“Maybe some people don’t understand our tactics but that’s their problem.”
Vingegaard scoffing at Pogacar’s assertion that he was scared.“You got the feeling they wanted a mano-a-mano like the good old days, so that later they could fight it out between themselves.”
Bernard Thevenet, who dethroned his nemesis Eddy Merckx as Tour champion in 1975, was the first to propose an increasingly popular theory that Pogacar and Vingegaard conspired to distance Remco Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic.
“Everybody knows the first two guys are on another level. It’s been relentless from kilometre zero but I haven’t panicked and just rode my own rhythm,”
Third-placed Remco Evenepoel.“Maybe the European teams may take more Africans. For now I’m the only one and I wish there were more black riders in the peloton.”
Eritrea’s Biniam Girmay after winning his third Tour de France stage on Thursday.