Nothing will come of nothing. It's an aphorism from the very first scene of King Lear but also applicable to the current, very live Tour de France.
Jonas Vingegaard cannot simply do nothing and wait for Tadej Pogačar to keep riding away. The Visma-Lease a Bike rider has to attempt to challenge him, to take the fight to him, or it would be a Tour de France wasted. This isn't the Giro d'Italia, where UAE Team Emirates' Pogačar could simply ride away - although he still is, to an extent - but instead here, at the greatest race of all, there is a rider close to his level who is prepared to try and match him.
Visma-Lease a Bike's plan worked on Sunday's stage 15 to Plateau de Beille. Matteo Jorgenson pulled for the first 20 minutes of the climb, dropped Vingegaard off, and it became a duel between the Dane and Pogačar. The plan worked well, it just turned out Pogačar was stronger – over a minute stronger.
"I never doubted in our plan," Vingegaard said post-stage to ITV Sport. "We had a good plan and it’s been working for the last two years. We know I could handle a lot of fatigue, and I could also today, so yeah, I’m not disappointed and I don’t regret anything. We did the plan perfectly, and even better than the plan. He was just better, that’s how it is. Congrats.
"We talked about it [pre-race], Matteo had to do a 15/20 minute effort from the bottom, and that’s what he did. He did a better effort than we spoke about, all the guys did today, the team did super, super well. As I said, I can’t be disappointed at all."
It's interesting, this lack of disappointment. Of course, one can only do the best job possible, but it still must be disheartening for Vingegaard that he cannot match the man he has bettered at the last two Tours de France. The fact he is here at all, given the seriousness of the crash at Itzulia Basque Country in April, is incredible, but this situation must still be dispiriting.
At the Visma team bus, the mood was low - understandably so - but Vingegaard and his team conveyed a less negative state of mind than this. There are still six days left, of course, with four hard GC days to finish the Tour. However, 3:09 is a big margin to make up.
"We were coming to win the stage and to take back some time on GC, but it didn’t happen, and Pogačar took some time on Jonas," Visma DS Grischa Niermann said. "I’m super proud of the team, and Jonas did a super good job, but we had an opponent who was even stronger, so chapeau to Tadej, chapeau to UAE. They have a good margin now. We have to accept that, and for the moment we can only be happy and proud of the performance we put in.
"We will fight to the end, absolutely," he continued. "But right now, everyone sees that Tadej is the strongest in the race.
"I’m not disappointed, because the guys did a super, super good job. The last two years it was the other way round, but for now Pogačar is the strongest rider here. There is still a week to go."
The feeling is that Friday's stage to Isola 2000 will suit Vingegaard more, with the long Alpine climbs the Dane's preferred habitat; the Cime de la Bonnette at 2,802m, especially, could be a happy hunting ground for him. However, three minutes is a lot of time to make up, especially when Pogačar looks this good.
It should be noted that Vingegaard is so far ahead of everyone else in this race, bar his Slovenian nemesis. Over two minutes ahead of Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step), well over seven minutes clear of João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates), in fourth. There is just a Pogačar-shaped problem in the way of a third yellow jersey, which would be the most miraculous.
Visma-Lease a Bike know now that they have the second-best rider in the race, it is clear, but rather different to the last two editions. How they tackle this in the Alps will be very different.
"We also raced for stages before, the dream remains winning the Tour de France," Niermann added.
"Jonas is in the best shape he could hope for right now, after the crash and recovery. It’s super good, he takes a lot of time on everyone else, but Tadej is better."
Nothing will come of nothing. That has been, and has to be Visma's mantra now. It might just be handbrake-off time for the Dutch squad.
