7.2W/Kg for 20 minutes - How Tadej Pogacar beat records and got revenge on Jonas Vingegaard in Combloux

In 2023, Jonas Vingegaard put in an historic time-trial into Combloux to gain massive amounts of time on Tadej Pogacar on what would be the beginning of the end for the Slovenian's chances of winning that race. Two years later, the Slovenian has got his revenge in one of the climbs that had taken a lot from him in the past, and set up power numbers that are amongst the best in modern cycling.

Having seen the stage and the gaps that have emerged as a result of his attack on the Côte de Domancy, it comes as little surprise. Although the stage was ridden at a fast pace, and the penultimate climb of the day ridden very hard (attacked by Visma even), the power numbers set on the final climb were still amongst the best that anyone could've forecasted.

UAE used Pavel Sivakov, Jhonatan Narváez and Tim Wellens to perform a hellish leadout at the base of Domancy, a pace so high that only Vingegaard himself could keep up with Pogacar. The tactic was used to perfection as then Pogacar was able to drop his rival shortly after taking off for himself. Whilst the attack was impressive, the World Champion's ability to maintain the rhythm all the way to the finish was perhaps even more impressive and he managed to gain over a minute just on the road to his closest competitor.

According to Lanterne Rouge, Pogacar rode a whopping 7.21W/Kg for 19:50 minutes in the 9-kilometer long climb, to race to victory - and put himself in position to win the Dauphiné as a whole. With no doubt these wattages were even higher on the climb to Domancy himself where he attacked and successfully managed to build a race-winning gap. This Saturday the riders take on much longer climbs where the effort will be very different, and perhaps Jonas Vingegaard could have a bigger saying in the fight for the stage win.