"He's criticizing my team more than me" - Is Jonas Vingegaard getting tired of Tadej Pogacar's statements?

The Tour de France has come alight this week with massive gaps opening between the overall classification contenders. But the words before and after stages are causing just as much comotion, as Tadej Pogacar's digs on Team Visma | Lease a Bike's tactics have provoked a reaction including from Jonas Vingegaard himself.

After the Dane crashed early in the day, the team didn't pull back three riders (Wout van Aert, Victor Campenaerts and Matteo Jorgenson) who were trying to get in the day's - predictably winning - breakaway. There didn't seem to be too much urgency taking into consideration virtually every GC rider was with Vingegaard, whilst Tadej Pogacar was in a front group.

Pogacar tried to slow down the pace, and later commented on the fact that the Visma riders kept attacking whilst their leader was behind the peloton. In particular, the words "if I were in Jonas's position, I wouldn't be the happiest at the dinner table tonight" have fallen badly in the team camp, and seen as an attempt to disrupt the flow of Visma.

Vingegaard gave an extensive interview with Denmark's TV2 last Sunday night and responded to Pogacar's comments. ”I think he's criticizing my team more than me. I was alone for a moment after the crash, and I think the sports directors should have sent one or two riders back from the breakaway group. But we'll talk about that later".

He didn't want to give responsibilities to any certain rider or person, and did admit it could've potentially gone different, but simultaneously was not fond of the yellow jersey's comments. Earlier in the race, following the ascent to the Mur-de-Bretagne on stage 7, Pogacar had already commented on the possible lack of coherency between Vingegaard and Matteo Jorgenson on the final climb, on the same day as he pushed the American in a slight odd situation at a refueling area.

On stage 15 Pogacar also directly covered the attacks of Matteo Jorgenson, hinting at a possible personal feud. Vingegaard concluded: ”It's the responsibility of the sports directors, so the conversations with them will be most valuable. If I don't get back into the peloton with three teammates, you have to make a decision".