It was said that Pogacar rode 6.9W/Kg over the almost 40 minutes of climbing, after a day where Team Visma | Lease a Bike pushed the pace for hours and with multiple very hard ascents. Jonas Vingegaard was asked about the estimates that have been made on his own numbers and
admitted they were very accurate.
Thus, we have witnessed an unbelievable set of performances on this climb. Despite the fatigue and being the 15th day of racing at the Tour, Evenepoel was able to beat the time of
Marco Pantani set at the 1998 Tour de France. But still, he arrived at the finish with 2:51 minutes away from the yellow jersey - on a stage that set massive gaps. It was perhaps Evenepoel's prime climbing performance of his career, but the same is certainly true also for both Jonas Vingegaard and Pogacar.
"The last climb I did pretty, well, maybe over 6w/kg. But I think Tadej´'s performance was just outstanding, probably one of the best 40-minute performances after a long time in the saddle already that we'll ever see in cycling," the
Soudal - Quick-Step rider states. "He beat Marco Pantani's record by three and a half minutes. If I'm not wrong, then you're from another planet. So we're going fast, but I'm proud that I was also faster than Pantani."
Evenepoel thus enters the third week in third place of the overall classification, 5:19 minutes away from the Slovenian, 2:10 minutes away from the Dane but 5:35 minutes ahead of João Almeida who is in fourth place. If he can avoid a disastrous day in the remaining three mountain stages, a podium is very viable and likely even in his Tour de France debut.