"I thought it would be a matter of seconds" - Jens Voigt hoped to see more from Jonas Vingegaard
Cycling
Thus far, the 2026 Tour de France has been under full control of Tadej Pogacar's UAE Team Emirates - XRG. Except for the opening team time trial, the Emirati team has shown no sign of weakness as they comfortably grabbed three stages and the yellow jersey along the way.
In the meatime, we have seen three bunch sprints and two stages go to breakaway, but the main talking point according to former professional Jens Voigt has to be Tadej Pogacar's raid on Col du Tourmalet.
The Slovenian attacked away early after a launch from Isaac del Toro, but Vingegaard stayed within sight for many kilometers before he finally let Pogacar go under the top. From there, Pogacar's advantage exploded to over two and half minutes, setting the tone of general classification for the first rest day.
"The highlight of these first nine days is certainly this spectacular Pyrenean stage over the Tourmalet," said Voigt on Eurosport. "The early attack, the favorites, everyone chasing each other, everyone having to show their cards. That was definitely one of the highlights, one of the most interesting moments of the Tour so far."
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It should've been within seconds
Voigt, however, is less enthusiastic about the current balance of power at the top. In particular Jonas Vingegaard has not quite been at the level he had hoped for after his convincing Giro d'Italia victory. And neither has his team been of a great support with key man Matteo Jorgenson not quite up there in the first week.
"I had hoped and fully expected that Jonas would be on par with Tadej after this great, victorious and strong Giro d'Italia," explained Voigt.
"I didn't expect it to be two and a half minutes already. I thought it would be a matter of seconds, or that they would attack together and arrive together. I had hoped it would have been closer together."
Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar at the 2026 Tour de France
Attention shifts away from Pogacar
And so, the battle for second and especially third place seems to offer more excitement with close gaps and many hungry contenders.
At the moment, it is Pogacar's teammate Isaac del Toro who sits third overall but Remco Evenepoel, Juan Ayuso, Paul Seixas, Florian Lipowitz and even Lenny Martinez are within a minute of the young Mexican.
In addition, Vingegaard cannot grow too comfortable in his second position as his advantage over Del Toro is only 45 seconds ahead of second week. Already the tenth stage on Tuesday could see GC action with nearly 4.000 meters of climbing on the way to Le Lioran.
Ondrej ZhasilCycling Journalist
Ondřej Zhasil is a cycling journalist at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2023. He is based in Ostrava, the third-largest city in the Czech Republic, and covers professional cycling across the main UCI competitions, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España. A key focus of his work is startlist analysis and pre-race coverage, where he examines team selections, rider line-ups, and tactical scenarios ahead of major events.
Alongside WorldTour coverage, Ondřej has developed specific expertise in junior cycling and in racing across East Asia, including competitions in China and Japan. He also maintains a broad working knowledge of other disciplines and levels, including cyclocross, while continuing to expand his understanding of mountain bike racing.
Ondřej holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics, which supports his analytical, data-driven approach to performance and race analysis. In his reporting, he regularly uses ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available.
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- When Thomas gets the bullet from INEOS he can get a job as a comedian.
Senna196013-11-2026 - Right on. The more the merrier.Occam13-11-2026
- Remember, Del Toro struggled in this Tour. He is great, no doubt about that, but comparing him to a four time gt winner is absurd at this point. He has the potential. We'll have to see how he develops.awp13-11-2026
- what did Jonas gift and to whom? just curious, haven’t heard about this.mij13-11-2026
- You don't gift grand tours as it has come to light that Jonas has come to regret doing such.
Front24213-11-2026 - Exactly you said it urslf - he outclimbed del toro by 19 sec. 19SEC and you say hes alot better than del toro still lol? And can also do the same where del toro did that to jonas even and del toro dauphine numbers better than jonas all year so why this hard whats the issue its super easy stuff - del toro wasnt that before. Then factor in both their trajectory the last years and the answer is self explonatory like i said. Nothing against jonas like many do but the typing is no the wall and so stupidly easy as its so self explanatory now. Have a good daymiguel13-11-2026
- Dirty ex doperFront24213-11-2026
- As far as points go they need to take a page or ten out of the Astana playbook!Lozza13-11-2026
- Ah, seems he’s been busy elsewhere! 😆Lozza13-11-2026
- Where is he when you need him!? Wake up man! You’re missing an opportunity!Lozza13-11-2026
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