DISCUSSION Tour de France Stage 19 | Did Vingegaard try to sabotage Pogacar's victory?

The Tour de France is coming to an end, and stage 19 was the last high mountain stage of the race. While the yellow jersey battle was already decided, today’s stage could be crucial for securing the third overall position in the GC. The riders also competed for a prestigious win in a challenging high-altitude setting. Thymen Arensman was the winner of a shortened stage that covered just 93 km, but it was not without its difficulties. The stage had three climbs, two of which were of high category.

Soon after the stage started, a few riders tried to form the breakaway. Lenny Martinez, Roglic, and Valentin Paret Peintre were some of the most important riders in that front group. However, the peloton set an extremely high pace from the beginning, and they did not allow the gap to grow. Their objective was clear: fight for the stage win with Pogacar.

However, the Slovenian rider did not perform at his best today, and he was unable to drop Vingegaard, despite trying several times with his usual deadly attacks. The Dane rode very conservatively today. He didn’t test Pogacar a single time and was happy with just following the Slovenian’s wheel.

Many experts and fans have been surprised by the attitude of Pogacar and Vingegaard. Did they not want to win the stage, or did they not have the legs for it?

Once the stage finished, we asked some of our writers to share their thoughts and main takeaways about what happened today.

Just like yesterday with Ben O'Connor, today we were treated to another fantastic winner in Thymen Arensman. For the first time in Tour de France history, a Dutchman has won two mountain stages in a single edition. No Dutch champion has ever done that before. And yet this Arensman is making his Tour de France debut.

From now on, there’s no more room for a “bad week” in a Grand Tour or the panic that usually comes with it. He now knows — once and for all — that he can compete with the very best. Don’t forget: he attacked three times during today’s stage. And the third time was the right one. It took tactical insight and courage to try that. And he pulled it off magnificently. Pure class.

What, then, to say about the Pogacar–Vingegaard duel? Did you see how quickly Pogacar disappeared from both podiums? He looked tired and disappointed. Not in himself — that’s not his nature — but especially in the Dane. Together with Vingegaard, they were once again the strongest on the climb, and yet Vingegaard let Arensman be reeled in twice and allowed Pogacar to let him go on the third attack.

The Slovenian looked furious on the bike. He decided to gradually close the 35-second gap to Arensman himself, hoping that with 2 or 1 km to go, Vingegaard would bridge to the Ineos rider. But Vingegaard flat-out refused. It was our hero Lipowitz who took responsibility for the final 2 kilometers at the front when he saw that Onley was suddenly cracking.

No matter how you look at it, Pogacar’s calculation didn’t add up — but what about Vingegaard’s? Wasn’t he the one who claimed yesterday that the Tour wasn’t over yet? Wasn’t he the one without a single stage win? Why not lay all his cards on the table one more time?

Incomprehensible from the Visma rider, if you ask me. Thymen Arensman won’t care. And Florian Lipowitz couldn’t have hoped for a better outcome — following Pogacar’s pace like a powerful diesel engine. In the end, it was the more explosive Onley who cracked in exhaustion.

Lipowitz finished in a strong fourth place and now holds a lead of more than a minute over the Scot. Barring any mishaps, for the first time in 20 years, a German will stand on the Tour de France podium. German cycling is finally back on the map.

Tadej Pogacar has entered economy mode after the second week with Tour in the bag, and that sadly meant most of the thrill was gone. Battle for other spots in GC was also a letdown with Onley never actually threatening Lipowitz's position and for the rest of top-10, it was just about who has a bad day and who doesn't.

Gall was ultimately the one to show most consistency and deservedly moves up to 5th overall - a great result for the Austrian. Primoz Roglic continues to play tag with his domestique duties and I cannot understand why.

Yes, Lipowitz clearly had good legs today, but the Slovenian spent a grand total of 0 minutes working for his younger teammate, and rather buried himself with a suicide attack before La Plagne. Roglic might want to sit in front of his mirror at some point after this Tour and think about his future; whether he wants to continue to pursue a Grand Tour victory - it won't happen in presence of Pogacar and Vingegaard.

As much is clear. Personally, I'd love to see a stage hunter Roglic in years to come, but that's up to the rider himself to decide.  

Roglic tried his luck for the second day in a row and blew up. But Red Bull won the lottery, as Oscar Onley missed the train of favourites in the final kilometres and Florian Lipowitz now sees his place on the podium in Paris more secure. Pogacar and Vingegaard didn't attack each other on the final climb and did things at pace.

There's nothing to be done. The more than 4-minute lead gives Pogacar confidence and demoralises Vingegaard. The Dane had an obligation to attack and he never did. What was Pogacar going to attack for? Isn't he the race leader? But could he want to win the stage?

Of course he could. But I'll say it again, Vingegaard still hasn't raised his arms in the race, it should have been him who wanted to close the gap to the INEOS man, but he just followed the wheel. Thymen Aresman raised his arms for the second time with all due merit. What a tremendous effort, what a marvellous climb. For me, he´s the man of the day. Chapeau.

I am a big fan of Tadej Pogacar. Not only is he the cyclist that has made me enjoy not only the most the-cycling since I have the-right to remember (not only with Alberto Contador), but he is also one of my favorite sportsmen in the history of the whole sport.

As a fan of his, I can come to think that he is not human. But in this final Tour de France we are seeing the most human Pogacar of the last 2 years. Even for him, the race is getting long and he is suffering and tired. A fit Pogacar would have added 3 more stage wins.

I don't believe he has changed his mentality these days and lost the overweening ambition he usually has. I firmly believe he has Mark Cavendish's record in mind. And I don't feel like he's missed an opportunity again, I just get the feeling that he couldn't.

Congratulations to Thymen Arensman who made the most of it and is one of the beautiful stories of this Tour de France with two stage wins. For his part, Jonas Vingegaard said he was willing to risk his second place to try to win and today it was clear that he only wanted the stage win, something he won't get in this Tour either.

As for the rest of the Top 10, congratulations to Florian Lipowitz because he will be on the podium in Paris and that seemed an unthinkable result for him a few weeks ago. Congratulations to Oscar Onley who has been uncovered and is confirmed as one of the big names to follow for the 3 weeks races in the present and future.

Congratulations to Felix Gall who confirms what a great rider he is and is getting closer and closer to a podium in a Grand Tour. Congratulations to Tobias Halland Johannessen for confirming 4 years after winning the Tour du Porvenir. And finally, thanks to Primoz Roglic for these last two days to put some emotion trying a breakaway even if it made him lose his Top 5 in the general classification.

As soon as the peloton started the Col du Pre (the first climb of the day), it was evident that UAE wanted to win the stage. Tim Wellens was setting such a hard pace that half of Visma’s squad was dropped in the very first kilometers of the climb. Jorgenson, Benoot, Van Aert, and Affini had to give up very early. The breakaway never had more than 2 minutes of a lead over the peloton, and an attack from Pogacar seemed to be inevitable and imminent when they arrived at the last climb.

Pogacar attacked, that’s true, but was he in control of the race? The Slovenian was eager to catch Arensman and climb to the top of the mountain alone to win the stage, but he was limited by Vingegaard. I believe Jonas had no hopes of winning the race at this point, and he had just one objective in mind: to prevent Pogacar from obtaining his 5th stage win.

The physical battle has become a mental battle. Vingegaard has accepted the defeat in this Tour and is now looking at the next competition against Pogacar: the Vuelta a España. The Slovenian has repeated many times that he wants to win as many stages as possible. After being deprived of victory by three breakaways, winning today had become an obsession.

Jonas knew it, and he wanted to make Pogacar feel that he is not as superior as he used to be during the first and second weeks, which is why it was so important for him to prevent Pogacar’s victory.

The Dane left all the responsibility to Pogacar (he was always at his wheel), and he didn’t try to attack Pogacar one single time. He knew that any slight acceleration would bring them closer to Arensman, and Pogacar is usually the fastest one when sprinting, so this scenario was not favourable to Vingegaard. Instead, he resisted Tadej’s attacks, and he even outsprinted him at the finish line.

The third week has shown us a different side of both Pogacar and Vingegaard. Jonas has clearly improved, as he has never been dropped by Pogacar, while the Slovenian appears to have slightly decreased his exceptional level. This leaves us with two riders at an extremely similar level (although I think Pogacar was still better).

Looking ahead to the Vuelta a España (which will be in just a month), Vingegaard has realized that Pogacar is human, and there are some ways in which he could beat him. If he keeps this upward trend, we could see a very interesting battle between them quite soon.

Regarding the rest of the peloton, two names stand out today. Arensman confirmed that he is in excellent shape. He rode again very intelligently, and this time his victory did not come from the breakaway, but from the peloton, which is incredible. After Ganna’s withdrawal and Carlos’ poor performance, Ineos’ Tour de France was not looking promising at all, but the Dutchman came to the team’s rescue. Bravo to him.

The second name is Red Bull Bora. This team’s tactics have driven me crazy during the whole Tour! I must say that I disagreed with most of their tactical decisions, especially at the beginning of the race, but I was surprised to see them placing two riders inside the top-5. However, today they have ruined much of the work they had done.

Even if Lipowitz has secured the third spot, Roglic has fallen from 5th to… 8th. Today, he lost more than 12 minutes. I don’t know if he was empty or if he just stopped caring once he knew he was not going to win the stage. Even so, even for a rider like Roglic, I think a top 5 finish is still very valuable, especially given that the Slovenian has only achieved this twice in his Tour career.

Besides that, I have almost never seen him work directly for Lipowitz. The most flagrant case was yesterday. Why didn’t Roglic wait for Lipowitz, who was fighting for the most important goal of the team?

If Evenepoel ends up signing for Red Bull Bora, it will be interesting to see how the team will be structured and how they will decide to ride. But one thing is clear: if Lipowitz continues to progress like this, he might soon become the undisputed leader of the team.