And 4 for Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates XRG)! Despite a very good performance of Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma | Lease A Bike), it is once again the untouchable Slovenian which is essential on the time trial of the 13th stage of the Tour de France. On the terrible slopes of the Altiport de Peyragudes, the world champion relegated the Danish to more than 30 seconds, ensuring even more his domination of the day before, he who now has more than 4 'ahead of his rival in the general classification. The triple winner of Tour de France Also take advantage of this atypical and demanding time to raise the arms a 21st time on the July roads. After the arrival, the Slovenian let his joy burst after an extremely violent effort.
“It was a question since October … I wanted everything to be perfect”
Even if he had already tamed the Altiport de Peyragudes (in 2022), Tadej Pogacar was today confronted with a very different exercise from what he had known previously, which delights him and which comes to crown long months of work: “I am super happy. It was a big question since the beginning of October for me. I wanted everything to be perfect. And the team delivered it at the last moment so that everything was at the top. I started the day well, I did a good preparation. I really wanted to go there from start to finish. I tried to press the pedals as much as possible. I almost exploded at the end, but I saw time above. It pushed me because I saw that I was going to win. ” Slovenian was obviously stronger, but the choice of his bike may also play in the new force demonstration he produced this Friday: “The most important decision was to choose the right bike. We run most of the time on road bikes. I decided to be more comfortable, as I did the last 12 stages with the same bike. In the end, it worked well for me, the differences are important. More than 30 seconds on Jonas and much more on the others.
Rare, Tadej Pogacar left without an atrium, even if the strategy for this 12th step should not be extremely complex: “For the first time, I decided to leave without any headsets since the strategy was to give everything from start to finish. I just looked at the times to intermediaries, and at first I saw that I was 5 seconds in the green and it gave me motivation. The second intermediary was a little longer, and I saw that I had a good rhythm and that I was in time. In the last three kilometers, I took a deep breath, I decreased the power because I knew that the last slope was really difficult, but I wanted to get there with good legs. “
