Libourne (France) (AFP)

He certainly did not win the Tour, but he has already won the respect of a former double winner: the Dane Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo), runner-up to Tadej Pogacar after nineteen stages, surprised his world on the 108th Great Loop.

"I have a lot of admiration for him, he's the only one who really dared to attack Pogacar head-on, in Ventoux," said Bernard Thévenet.

"This is the only time when Pogacar showed a small sign of weakness", adds the winner of the Tours de France 1975 and 1977.

Since his exploit on the 'Mont Chauve', annihilated by the return of Pogacar and Richard Carapaz (Ineos) in the descent, Vingegaard has confirmed his good dispositions to the point of surprising even the yellow and black hierarchy, the colors of Jumbo.

"We expected him to reach a very good level, not to be in the top five after two weeks!"

exclaims Mathieu Heijboer, performance manager of the Dutch team.

- "This was not planned" -

Fourth out of the Alps, the progression of the Scandinavian runner was relentless.

He climbed on the podium on the day of his brilliance on the Ventoux (11th stage).

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Rigoberto Uran's failures on Wednesday and Thursday in the Pyrenees, combined with Vingegaard's fierce resistance to Pogacar's assaults, made him runner-up to the Slovenian.

With nearly six minutes behind the outgoing winner in the race for the yellow jersey, it is difficult to imagine the improvised leader of the Jumbo rising one step further from here on the Champs-Élysées.

But for the one who was only to be a lieutenant of Primoz Roglic, who gave up after falling, and would not even have seen France without the withdrawal of Tom Dumoulin at the end of April, the Tour has already been successful.

"It was not planned that Jonas will play the general classification. He is young and a lot of things can happen", affirmed before the Pyrenees Mathieu Heijboer, anxious to reduce the pressure on his makeshift leader.

Considering the way in which Vingegaard accompanied and even briefly attacked Pogacar in the Pyrenees, its leaders can be reassured.

The last possible obstacle on the road to Paris is the time trial on Saturday (30.8 km between Libourne and Saint-Emilion).

Third in the first 'stopwatch' of the Tour, over a similar distance, Vingegaard can a priori see it coming, especially as his first pursuer Richard Carapaz is hardly a specialist in the exercise.

"It looks good now to get on the podium in Paris," admitted the Dane Thursday after the last stage in the Pyrenees.

"But we have already seen in this Tour that things can turn out differently ..."

- "An incredible performance" -

The leader of the Jumbo has good reason to be wary, he whose outbreak was delayed by injuries.

In addition to a serious crash at the Tour of the Fjords, he experienced several muscle problems in his younger years.

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"We work every day to strengthen his physique," "the main reason" for the irregularity he showed before the 2021 Tour, said Mathieu Heijboer.

"You don't make a runner regular in six months", emphasizes the performance manager.

"Our goal is to make him a better, tougher runner."

Fortunately, work does not frighten Vingegaard.

When he was recruited by Jumbo, "he had to get up very early. He was working in the fishing industry from 5 am to noon and continued with his training," recalls Mathieu Heijboer.

Rather than thinking about the next steps in his progression, his contemporary Mikkel Honoré (Deceuninck) recalls that "this is his first Tour de France".

In this context, his compatriot marvels, "playing the podium is already an incredible performance!"

© 2021 AFP