"Bonus seconds are going to be very important" says Jumbo-Visma's Grischa Niermann

Just 10 seconds separate the arch-rivals Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard after 14 stages of a highly entertaining battle for the Maillot Jaune at the 2023 Tour de France.

With such a tight time gap in the general classification, Jumbo-Visma's Grischa Niermann admits that bonus seconds look set to play a massive role in the final story of the race. “There are still a few tough stages and a tough time trial coming up. Only we have no guarantee that Pogačar is less. That is why we are going to steer our own course,” he says in a post-stage interview with Wielerflits. “It may be that minutes will still be thrown if someone cracks, but at the moment it seems that bonus seconds are going to be very important."

For the third straight year, the battle between Pogacar and Vingegaard has been incredibly entertaining. The duel between the pair is turning into one of the all-time Tour de France rivalries and as Niermann himself says, is still all to play for.

“We wanted to make the race hard and we did that. The hoped-for result was that Pogačar would lose fifteen minutes, but unfortunately that did not work out. Pogačar is in great shape, but so are we. He is in super form and that makes for a battle at a very, very high level," he explains. “I told him (Vingegaard e.d) to fight back and I was hopeful that he would succeed. It is very good that he can do that and eventually goes over the top with Pogačar.”