“Pogacar is close to impossible to beat on a finish like this” – Sepp Kuss sees positives for Jonas Vingegaard despite Tour de France yellow jersey loss
Cycling
Sepp Kuss refused to frame Jonas Vingegaard’s yellow jersey loss at Les Angles as a major setback, despite Tadej Pogacar taking both the stage win and the race lead on stage 3 of the 2026 Tour de France.
Vingegaard finished second behind his biggest rival after a short uphill sprint that played straight into Pogacar’s explosive finish. Team Visma | Lease a Bike left the first Pyrenean stage without yellow, but also without Vingegaard losing time to Pogacar.
Speaking to TV 2 Sport after the stage, Kuss said Vingegaard’s result had to be judged against the nature of the finish. “It is not so bad,” said Kuss. “To finish second on the stage is already pretty good, because Pogacar is close to impossible to beat on a finish like this.”
Pogacar had been led into the final kilometre by Isaac del Toro after UAE Team Emirates – XRG spent much of the second half of the stage chasing down the breakaway. Vingegaard was on Pogacar’s wheel when the sprint opened, but the Slovenian immediately put metres into the group and moved into yellow after three days of racing.
Visma expected the break to decide the stage
Kuss also made clear that Visma had not set out to control the stage. A large breakaway formed after a long, aggressive opening phase, with Alex Baudin briefly threatening the yellow jersey before securing the polka dots later in the day. “We expected a breakaway to go all the way, so we had no plans to control,” Kuss said. “They ended up controlling the stage and they got the victory they deserved.”
That left UAE to make the race. Tim Wellens, Nils Politt and Felix Grossschartner all worked to bring the escape back before Del Toro put Pogacar in position for the final climb.
Vingegaard lost the yellow jersey, but he remains on the same overall time as Pogacar, with Remco Evenepoel 23 seconds down, Del Toro at 24 seconds and Juan Ayuso at 27. Bigger mountain stages are still to come, but at Les Angles, Visma treated second place behind Pogacar as a result they could live with.
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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