"No regrets. Tadej Pogacar was just better" - Jonas Vingegaard magnanimous in defeat at stage 15 disappointment at 2024 Tour de France

Jonas Vingegaard had to try something on stage 15 of the 2024 Tour de France. Sadly for the two time Maillot Jaune winner however, although the Dane was able to destroy almost everyone on the final climb at Plateau de Beille, Tadej Pogacar was even stronger.

After Vingegaard had attacked with just over 10km to go, the two historic rivals were one and two on the road. With the Dane unable to distance Pogacar however, the Team Visma | Lease a Bike leader was forced to ask his rival for a turn with just over 5km to go. Instead of doing a pull, Pogacar decided to launch a brutal attack, leaving Vingegaard in his dust and eventually gaining more than a minute on the day to stretch his advantage to over three minutes in the general classification.

"I never doubted in our plan. We have a good plan and it's been working for the last two years," reflects Vingegaard in a post-stage interview with ITV Sport. "I'm not disappointed and I'm not regretting anything because we did the plan perfectly today. He was just better, that's just how it is. So congrats."

"We talked with Matteo Jorgenson that he had to do a 15-20 minute effort from the bottom and that's what he did," Vingegaard concludes, touching on the somewhat early attack he launched with still over 10km to the line. "I think he even did a better effort than we had spoken about, all the guys did today. So the team did super, super well and as I say, I can't really be disappointed at all."