"I still feel like I'm improving and getting better" - Jonas Vingegaard quickly puts stage 17 time loss behind him at 2024 Tour de France

With the final weekend looming, Jonas Vingegaard's hopes of a third successive Tour de France title slipped marginally further away on stage 17 of the 2024 edition of the Grand Tour, as the Team Visma | Lease a Bike leader lost 2 further seconds to Tadej Pogacar and 12 seconds to Remco Evenepoel.

The key moment of the day came on the penultimate climb of the day. With Vingegaard isolated, Pogacar launched a brutal attack. Although the Dane initially looked as if he would be able the follow, he was quickly caught and passed by Remco Evenepoel with Vingegaard left shaking his head. On the descent however, thanks in part to Vingegaard picking up teammate Christophe Laporte, both Evenepoel and Pogacar were reeled back in by the Team Visma | Lease a Bike leader. In the finale though, Evenepoel attacked again, gaining time with Pogacar actually gapping his rival in the sprint.

When asked by ITV Sport post-stage if he had been expecting Pogacar's attack; "With how his team rode, no," answered Vingegaard honestly. "But, when Lidl-Trek did an attack I though it might be a possibility and yeah, he attacked. Whenever someone else is making it hard, you have to expect that he will go."

"I thought Tadej would close it (Evenepoel's attack ed.)," Vingegaard continues. "But then I had my teammates and I think I have to thank my team today, a lot actually. Over the top Christophe Laporte helped me but also later on they helped me a lot."

Now 3:11 down on Pogacar in the general classification, Vingegaard has just four days to pull off an incredible comeback. "I still feel like I'm improving and getting better," the Dane insists. "Today was maybe not my best day but every once in a while you have a bad day. If this my bad day then I'm happy."