What must Pogacar do to beat Vingegaard? "Can't wait for the Pyrenees"

• Tour Another Danish win, Pedersen

• Classifications This is the Tour

Eight stages, nine days, two minutes and 22 seconds apart and two giants ready to duel in the sun, as the heat also demands its share of prominence in this Tour of unleashed passions.

Back in the Alps - on the way to Saint Etienne, another Dane prevailed, the third in four days,

-, a question flies over in the caravan of the

, an enigma that only asphalt can solve.

How can

back?

Where and when to hurt

and his unapproachable Jumbo Visma?

Pogacar and Vingegaard, Vingegaard and Pogacar, like

, like

, like

.

A rivalry like no one remembered.

The Slovenian does not stop challenging, in deed and word, confident that the Granon was just a bad day, that he is still the strongest, that he wants above all things to boast of that which so few can, three runs Tours.

There is no time to lose, because no one imagines that the leader could give up too much in the final time trial in Rocamadour.

«Jonas is also a great time trialist, aerodynamically, one of the best.

I think one minute would be enough for him then, ”says one of those who know him best, his compatriot

, two-time mountain winner on the Tour.

The one who was one of

's great rivals believes that, if Pogacar wants to recover the yellow, he cannot wait.

«The end of Mende (today), is very hard [three kilometers at 10.2%].

He must attack, he has to try.

He would need at least 30 seconds there and it is not easy », he reflects, forceful:« If he achieves them, it will be a very even battle until Paris.

If Jonas survives, then it's going to be very difficult for Tadej."

But Pogacar, who does not bite his tongue, this time does not see it clearly.

Or maybe he doesn't want to reveal his cards.

"I've never climbed Mende Airfield, but I did see the climb on video and I thought it was cool.

It will be an interesting stage, although I am not sure that it will be a day for the men in the general classification », he said yesterday.

Mount Jalabert

The widespread feeling is that the leader of the UAE cannot let a single opportunity pass.

And in the long days in the Pyrenees next week, the Alpe d'Huez script can be repeated, with the dominance of the Jumbo.

"It can't wait there," says

specialist

, who is also looking at Mende, at Monte Jalabert - so named because the Frenchman was the first to win on the Cote de la Croix Neuve, in 1995 -, there where so many Spaniards put their name:

(2005),

(2010) and the last of all,

(2018).

“It is a very tough arrival and he has an opportunity.

Because Pogacar is more explosive.

On the long climbs, Vingegaard is at his level.

And in the time trial on Saturday, I think that a minute ahead may be enough for him », he explains.

Jonas himself is aware of the danger of this elevation in the county of Gévaudan of concentrated hardness, preceded by up to four third category climbs, one of those mid-mountain trap stages.

"I'm not the best on those short climbs, but I'll do my best.

We'll see », he admitted yesterday at the finish line, aware of his duality: his teammates, with

in the first person, will do everything possible against the lonely Pogacar, but in the end it will have to be a hand in hand that resolves all.

«Everyone talks about the days to come, like Mende or Rodez, and Tadej can use them.

As soon as he comes up a hill, he will attack.

Because he has to.

But I think everything will be decided in the Pyrenees”, explains

, another of the best climbers who never saw the Tour when he was

.

«He also has to attack from afar, because it is two minutes and it is a difficult distance to recover.

He has to try it at Peyragudes and Hautacam, of course.

Together with Mende, they are the three key stages of what remains”, concludes Rasmussen.

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