Once more, a hybrid time trial at the Tour de France threw up a surprisingly large gap between the top two in the overall standings. UAE Team Emirates have been here before with Tadej Pogačar, but this time around it was more of a sombre
experience.
Three years ago, Pogačar turned a tight Tour de France on its head by bounding up La Planche des Belles Filles to snatch yellow from Primoz Roglič at the last. On Tuesday, Jumbo-Visma returned the favour as Jonas Vingegaard delivered a time trial of shocking intensity to gain a decisive advantage in what had been a Tour of such fine margins to this point.
Vingegaard was in a class entirely of his own on the rolling 22.4km course from Passy to Combloux, and it was clear almost from his opening pedal strokes that this afternoon would be an exercise in damage limitation for Pogačar.
At the first check after 7km, Vingegaard was already 16 seconds ahead and he pressed his advantage home on the valley road through Sallanches, almost doubling his lead to 31 seconds by the 16km mark.
Vingegaard proceeded to make inexorably light work of the Côte de Domancy, tacking another 34 seconds onto his buffer on that climb alone, before stopping the clock in Combloux some 1:38 quicker than Pogačar. Nobody else finished within 2:51 of the Dane, who produced a performance from a different stratosphere.
Andrej Hauptman was the man guiding Pogačar around the course, and when he emerged from the UAE Team Emirates car afterwards, he reckoned that his rider could have done nothing more on this course. Pogačar was, after all, over a minute better than everybody else, but he still covered the ground almost 2kph slower than Vingegaard.
"Tadej did a really great time trial, but Jonas today was amazing. I think we have to say congrats to Jonas," said Hauptman, who insisted that Pogačar's performance was entirely in line with UAE's expectations beforehand. "Tadej did close to our calculations. We know that Jonas is really strong, but our plan was to be closer with him."
Outside the UAE Team Emirates bus, general manager Mauro Gianetti confessed that he had a sinking feeling once he saw Vingegaard eke out an early advantage on Pogačar, and those concerns were borne out over the remainder of the course. Like Hauptman, he believed Pogačar had performed at something close to his best. Vingegaard, it seems, had simply exceeded all of their calculations.
"We were not expecting so big a gap today," Gianetti said. "I think Tadej did a very good time trial, he came second with more than one minute over Van Aert, which I think is amazing in such a short time trial. But the reality is what it is: Jonas did an incredible time trial. It was impressive.
"After the first time check we saw it was 15 seconds, wow. That was a good signal for Vingegaard, but not for us. Every rider now knows the number he can do or not do, so we were not expecting that."
In an echo of La Planche des Belles Filles three years ago, Pogačar opted to switch from his time trial machine to a road bike for the climb of the Côte de Domancy, but the lighter equipment did nothing to offset the heavy losses. Vingegaard, who remained on his time trial bike throughout, made his biggest gains on that very portion of the course.
"We made all the tests beforehand and it was clear for us that it was an advantage to change the bike for Tadej and not change the bike for Adam Yates, for example. It's an individual thing and it was clear from the beginning," Gianetti said. "We lost 10 seconds in the bike change, which we expected, but we lost another 1:30, too. So the difference today wasn't in the change of bike, the difference was in the power."
Yates into third
In the overall standings, Pogačar is now 1:48 behind Vingegaard, while his teammate Adam Yates has moved ahead of Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos) and into third place, albeit some 8:52 down.
Although there are still opportunities to turn the tide before Paris, notably on the Col de la Loze on Wednesday and in the Vosges on Saturday, one wonders if UAE Team Emirates might now turn their attention towards securing the bottom two steps of the podium and the haul of UCI points that comes with them.
"With this situation, it's maybe important to have two guys on the podium, but to try to win the Tour is still the first priority," Gianetti said. "Tadej is a guy who likes to try things, and why not."
Pogačar absorbed a heavy blow earlier in this Tour, of course, when he dropped Vingegaard at Cauterets on stage 6 a day after losing almost a minute to the Dane on the Col de Marie Blanque.
Since then, the margins had remained tight between the two favourites, with neither man able to distance the other by more than a smattering of seconds. Pogačar now needs to conjure up a way to recoup almost two minutes, starting with the mammoth stage 17 over the Col de la Loze to Courchevel.
"Of course, everything is possible, there is still one week," Gianetti said. "It's not easy. Realistically, it's complicated, but when you have one week in front of you, you need to go, you need to dream, you need to believe and work for this."
Belief is surely in limited supply, however, after Vingegaard's exhibition here.
