"Now he doesn't have that disadvantage" - Exercise physiologist Jan Boone argues Tadej Pogacar no longer has endurance disadvantage

Tadej Pogacar lost the 2022 and 2023 Tour de France on days with multiple mountains and a constantly high pace from Team Visma | Lease a Bike, and the Dutch team hoped for that outcome on stage 15 this time around. The Slovenian has proven that this is no longer a difficulty, as argued by Jan Boone.

"The concept of "durability" is a hot topic in sports science. You compare how you ride up a mountain pass in fresh conditions with a climb after you have already done 3 or 4 mountain passes, such as Sunday to Plateau de Beille. How much decline is there then?" Exercise physiologist Jan Boone told Sporza. "Last year, Jumbo-Visma played it that way by imposing a high tempo during those first climbs. They hoped that there would be a decline and that is what happened then. Because of that wrist injury, there was a decline in Pogacar. Now he doesn't have that disadvantage after his preparation, while Vingegaard's was a bit less. And I don't think Vingegaard has the team to impose that pace this time."

Whilst Visma is not as strong as previous years collectively, they prepared this stage with a lot of focus and had the tactics in mind already for months. The plan was perfectly executed and Vingegaard put in one of the best performances of his career, judging by his own words and the estimates on his power output... But it was not enough to damage the yellow jersey, who instead had the legs to attack and put further meaningful time into his rival.

Boone believes that Pogacar ended the Giro d'Italia still with some energy, and ended up having the ideal preparation for the Tour afterwards. "I think there was still reserve in the Giro. If he has done another block with volume at a low intensity afterwards, the decline will be very limited." On what can be termed the queen stage, Pogacar cemented himself as the man to beat in this race, something that should only happen if he has a very bad day on the bike or bad luck.