Nils Politt looks back on Tour de France: "We didn't know exactly how good Vingegaard would be, but we knew that Tadej was incredibly good"

Nils Politt is racing the Olympic Games today and is an outsider for the gold medal but his work has been most noteworthy at the Tour de France where he spent large kilometers working for Tadej Pogacar who took the win in Nice. The UAE Team Emirates rider has talked about the Slovenian's rivalry with Jonas Vingegaard.

"In recent years, Tadej was often alone in the mountains, which is why we decided to take all our best climbers to the Tour," Politt said in the Schlag & Fertig podcast. "That was not allowed to happen again, we wanted to put Vingegaard under pressure this time. In the final week over the Col de Bonette we went so hard that Visma | Lease a Bike had to call back a man from the leading group, because Vingegaard was alone. We were still five." The tactic indeed worked for UAE who had the superior advantage on the climbs, and even Politt was up there in the final week revealing stupendous form.

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By all means it was a virtually perfect race for the team that conquered it's second Grand Tour of the season, with the same rider. Pogacar had a Grand Tour in the legs before the Grand Depart but he looked just as strong as the team could've hoped for. "We didn't know exactly how good Vingegaard would be, but we knew that Tadej was incredibly good. He had a super preparation, with only ten racing days before the Giro."

"He was extremely fit at the start of the Tour. We wanted to put pressure on Vingegaard on the fourth day over the Galibier, just like on day two over the San Luca. How fit is he and what can he do? It turned out that he was very fit and that we were going for an exciting Tour," Politt continued. "That was great, because I've heard the stories from the Giro too, where Tadej just rode away and won ten minutes before the second."

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He talks about the famous stage 11 to Le Lioran where Pogacar dropped Vingegaard but the Dane caught him again and outsprinted him to the line. "Tadej looked good at first and he wanted to gain time. In the end, that didn't work out. In such a tough stage, you have to take in 120 carbohydrates per hour and he didn't do that," the German reveals. "The engine then failed a bit, you could see that in the sprint. Normally he is much more explosive."

Ultimately however that didn't end the team's pursuit of victory, which was sealed in the high mountains later on. Politt also points out a possible flaw in Jonas Vingegaard's armour, sharing some insight that only from within the peloton can be seen properly: "Vingegaard really needs a team around him. When he is alone, he gets very nervous and he is constantly looking left and right. Then Tadej also comes to you: 'You see, you see? He's nervous, isn't he!'"

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