"Knowing where he comes from, he can reach a very high level" - Jan Bakelants is optimistic about Jonas Vingegaard's form

Tadej Pogacar managed to deal a first blow to Jonas Vingegaard in the fourth stage of the Tour de France on Tuesday, but the Danish title defender of Visma | Lease a Bike is not far from the Slovenian and we can look forwards to a great battle over next three weeks.

In his regular column for Het Laatste Nieuws, Jan Bakelants looks into what happened in the final kilometers of stage 4 and what we can expect from Pogacar and Vingegaard in coming stages. "As he did last year and as he did again on Sunday in Bologna on the San Luca, Jonas Vingegaard also bit into Tadej Pogacar 's wheel on the Galibier. But more than Sunday, this stage was a real mental boost for Vingegaard."

"In the stage over the Galibier it was especially important for Jonas Vingegaard and Visma | Lease a Bike not to lose time on Pogacar. Maybe he blowed himself a bit in the last few hundred meters. And that he paid for in those parts of the descent where he had to pedal. Even then this is a success for Vingegaard. Knowing where he comes from, he can reach a very high level."

The first mountain stage confirmed what many already thought. UAE Emirates is by far the strongest team at the moment. "As far as UAE is concerned, we were left a bit hungry until yesterday," Bakelants believes. "It was unclear what role Ayuso and Almeida would play. That became clear on the Galibier. And so you see once again what a fantastic team UAE has bought together. With that, they can smoke out everything and everyone."

Uphill, there is little to be said against their superiority and number, but Bakelants does not want to draw hasty conclusions yet. "It is far from over and it is early to draw conclusions. But Pogacar and his team dotted the i's on Tuesday. In stage nineteen we will have a similar stage. The Cime de la Bonette is higher than the Galibier and it may be even warmer there. I expect UAE to be aggressive there too."