After ignoring the media a week ago, Jonas Vingegaard and his team Visma | Lease a Bike This time did not escape the traditional press conference occasionally this Lunci of the second day of rest of this Tour de France. In the park of the Château l'Hospitalet in Narbonne, the Danish, accompanied by its sports director Grischa Niermannwas able to show all his determination at the start of the 3rd and last week of the Tourconvinced that the race is not yet finished and that it can reverse a Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) for the moment dominating and without weakness. With 4 minutes and 13 seconds behind to catch up in six stages, the task promises to be almost impossible for the Slovenian dolphin, even if it intends to attack it and try it all to get a 3rd yellow jersey in Paris on Sunday.
“Tadej Pogacar has not yet shown weakness … but I have to attack”
“I always think I can win the Tour“He started by saying.”Of course, it seems very difficult, the gap is important, but I always think I can get there. Normally, I am at the best of my form in the third week. Of course, I'm not going to reveal my tactic to you. I mean, we have to attack, I'm more than 4 minutes behind. You have to try to do something. I feel better. Obviously, I had two bad days, and most of the gaps come from there. Normally, I don't have one. We are still examining the issue and we have not yet found an answer. I know it's not my level. The performance was so bad that I can do much better. It's a shame, but I can only look to the future. Apart from that, the differences are less large than last year. When we know that, we don't lose confidence. I have the feeling of improving my level, and if you stop believing it, it is sure that it will not happen“.
But it will necessarily go through a less good blow from the current yellow jersey. “”One day without, it can happen to anyone, even in Tadej the third week. To be honest, he looks very strong so far. I would not say that he has weaknesses, he is probably one of the most complete runners of the peloton, if not the most complete. So of course, he doesn't have many weaknesses. And if I found one, I wouldn't say ityes Jonas Vingegaardwho seems to have made the hole on the rest of his rivals behind him, even if he remains cautious. “”I must also think of the guys behind me, and we saw how good Florian Lipowitz was on the Dauphiné, so I'm not surprised that he is there. But I am also ready to sacrifice second place to aim for the first“.
“My image, I don't care, people can think what they want from me”
Go this Tuesday on the slopes of the legendary Mont Ventoux, an ascent “iconic” according to Awesomefor an arrival at the dry top which will necessarily be different from the last stage in the Pyrenees. Pogacar having revealed having been slightly ill with a small cold in recent days, does he plan to launch hostilities much earlier than expected to try to take advantage of it? “”I don't think. It is an extremely difficult climb. The pace will probably be raised from the foot. If someone is sick, we will also see him very early“He said.
Finally, the double winner of Tour was asked about a possible change in his attitude and his personality to improve his rather flat and reserved runner image. “”My image, I don't care, people can think what they want from me. It is true that in a certain sense, I have a little more fun now than before, but it is not something that I do deliberately to improve my image or other“He said.
