Tadej Pogacar not having it with Jonas Vingegaard's Tour tactics: "Intelligent racing or not, it’s nonsense"

The psychological fight for the Tour de France win is full on. Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard are typically very friendly and respectful of each other, having battled for now three consecutive Tour victories. However Vingegaard's extremely defensive and conservative tactics have gotten in the head of the race leader who did not look to save his words of frustration this morning at the start of stage 10.

“Intelligent racing or not, it’s nonsense," Pogacar said in words to ITV cycling this morning before the start of the stage. “Right now I have the yellow jersey. For me, that’s intelligent: having the leader’s jersey, with a good lead. In the Tour de France, racing intelligence is important, but above all you need good legs to win the Tour.”

Pogacar remains controlled but it is very clear that stage 9, with it's many gravel sectors, have seen both the Slovenian and Remco Evenepoel significantly change their opinion on Vingegaard and Team Visma | Lease a Bike. The trio went clear of the rest of the peloton with almost 80 kilometers to go on the stage but Vingegaard refused to collaborate - with Evenepoel being particularly frustrated with that, as it could've significantly improved his chances of fiishing on the final podium.

Later in the day Pogacar had attacked and was joined by Vingegaard and his teammate Matteo Jorgenson, close to the finish with both Remco Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic dropped. Despite having two riders, the plan was to outright not pace and then this led to Pogacar specifically being quite frustrated. Over the rest day all three riders said words about each other and it's clear than the Dane is not in the race to make friends, and he certainly isn't making any. This could ultimately see an alliance between the other two, which seems to be the case but it will not be easy to work as Vingegaard has so far passed every test and matched their every move.