Jonas Vingegaard remained determined to see the glass as half full after stage 14 of the Tour de France despite seeing his dream of yellow in Paris fade even further away following yet another commanding performance by Tadej Pogačar.
Vingegaard lost another 44 seconds to the race leader, and although he remains in second overall, his margin of 4:30 prior to the final three major mountain stages and one time trial appears insurmountable.
On the crucial Col du Haag on Saturday, the Dane seemed powerless when Pogačar attacked. There was also apparently no way he could stop first Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) from reaching his back wheel, nor yet prevent Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) from following suit close to the summit, then blasting away to claim second.
Yet for all his fourth place only saw him gain four seconds on a resurgent Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Vingegaard did look very much at ease on the lower slopes of the Col du Haag.
A climb with seriously varying gradients, ranging from blisteringly steep pitches to gentler slopes to a short section of downhill, the Haag looked fiendishly tricky to calculate the strength needed to maintain a consistent level of performance. Yet Vingegaard not only did that, but his relentless application of the pressure in the first half was more than enough to put Del Toro up against the ropes - albeit prior to a late recovery, causing Evenepoel to be dropped and leave Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) struggling as well.
Not only that, but Visma-Lease a Bike could also count on Sepp Kuss to put in some sterling support work for the first time in this year's Tour on the climbs, a welcome development for Vingegaard after an oddly uneven performance by his squad following their team time trial stage 1 triumph.
“I’m happy with my performance today,” Vingegaard reflected afterwards in a short statement posted on his team website.. “It was certainly not a bad day. I learned a lot about myself today."
"My legs are at the level I wanted them to be. I’m happy with how we rode as a team today. We did a good job.”
His upbeat stance was echoed by sports director Marc Reef, who said, “Jonas rode a very strong climb. It was good to see that we had three riders in the breakaway and that Matteo [Jorgenson], Victor [Campenaerts] and Bruno [Armirail] showed that they are getting back to their best.
"Sepp put in a very strong effort on the final climb, after which Jonas accelerated. When Pogačar went, it was every man for himself, and Jonas, just like in the previous mountain stages, fought for everything he was worth.”
Reef pointed out that on Sunday's finish at Plateau de Salaison the Tour will end on a summit, rather than being followed by a section of plateau like on Saturday's finish at Le Markstein, and he hinted that might be more to his team leader's liking.
That remains to be seen, but Vingegaard's optimism at least appears to be undimmed, and his team's collective performance is now apparently on the up, too. Yet the battle for the podium remains a very fierce one, and if Saturday's stage made one thing clear, it is that Vingegaard still has to progress further if he wants to distance his rivals for second place overall.
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