Tour de France
the jersey for king of the mountains — not bad for a rider who comes from a country whose highest point is barely 170 meters above sea level.
Vingegaard and Pogacar were clearly in a class of their own this year as their closest rival, Thomas, was reduced to being a mere spectator in the leaders’ fight.
Vingegaard delivered his decisive blow in the Pyrenees, posting a second stage win at the Hautacam ski resort.
There the Dane responded to a series of attacks from Pogacar and ultimately dropped the Slovenian in the last big mountain stage of this year’s race to increase his overall lead to more than three minutes.
Pogacar cracked about four kilometers (2 ½ miles) from the finish in the final ascent, with his hopes of winning a third consecutive title all but over. He fought until the very end but Vingegaard was again the strongest in Saturday’s individual time trial to effectively secure the title.
“The battle between me and Jonas for the yellow jersey has been very special,” Pogacar said. “I think we have some very interesting next two or three years ahead of us. Jonas has stepped up his game this year.”
The light-framed Vingegaard is not perhaps as naturally gifted as Pogacar, who has shown over the past couple of years that he is capable of winning Grand Tours and the most prestigious one-day classics as well.
But Vingegaard surely learns fast.
Vingegaard did not experience his first ascent before he was already 16. His climbing skills would not remain unnoticed for long, though.
After he posted a record time on the Coll de Rates climb during a training camp in Spain with his former team Coloquick, he joined Jumbo-visma in 2019 and rapidly improved. In his first Tour last year, he showed proper leadership skills after Roglic crashed out of the race, and followed up with a cold-blooded ride to victory this summer.
The growing rivalry between Pogacar and Vingegaard has brought new race scenarios that have delighted fans.
Both men were equipped with strong teams capable of controlling the race in the mountains, an essential element that was a trademark of the mighty Ineos teams in the past decade. But on many occasions, both Pogacar and Vingegaard were left just relying on themselves in high altitude, fighting each other on equal terms.
Pogacar also brought a sense of old-fashioned romanticism with his longrange attacks. At 23, the Uae-emirates Team has a bright future.
Vingegaard became the first Dane to win the Tour since Bjarne Riis achieved the feat in 1996 during a time when doping was widespread in cycling.
Following his retirement from cycling, Riis admitted in 2007 to using the bloodbooster EPO from 1993-98, including during his Tour victory.
Asked whether his team should be trusted, Vingegaard said he and his teammates “are totally clean, every one of us.”
“No one of us is taking anything illegal,” he added. “I think why we’re so good is the preparation that we do. We take altitude camps to the next step.”