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

Cycling
Wednesday, 10 July 2024 at 11:05
tadejpogacar jonasvingegaard
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.
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10 Comments
peteyraysd 10 July 2024 at 18:02+ 0

Winning is intelligent.

abstractengineer 10 July 2024 at 17:18+ 3132

Last i heard, Remco did not have a teammate called Vingegaard

BikeMike 10 July 2024 at 13:44+ 67

Tadej... keep burning those candles. Stage 14 and on, we'll see who's an intelligent racer. I like everyone in the top 3 right now, but you've got to race to your strength, not anyone else's.

Ben 10 July 2024 at 13:44+ 493

What bs. Why bother gaining 10 minutes on the entire peloton on stage 9, not even halfway the Tour? Both Pogacar and particularly Professor Evenepoel are scared of what's to come.

Jumpyjohn 10 July 2024 at 12:00+ 204

Regardless of what was said. Remco and Tadej just messed up, there was very little reason to do that.

Remco started without knowing the other two would join, Tadej went for it not knowing Jonas would follow, when they were three, they could have remained with the breakaway, so what if Jonas participates or not, he was never going to be a stage win threat. The 3 getting a gap over other contenders, whatever for, and on such a stage when they can do that on any mountain stage?

Sorry, quite rightly, nobody really understood what was going on yesterday.

pieceaway 10 July 2024 at 12:00+ 61

Is this what he actually said, and what was the context?
He can't in all seriousness have meant that he had no understanding for the way Visma rode?
If that is the case, he really does lack race understanding

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KerisVroom 10 July 2024 at 24:12+ 753

Use this key TvRmVmTq4g0 to search for the said video on youtube and see for yourself. He doesn't look super upset as I thought when I read the article.

pieceaway 10 July 2024 at 24:11+ 61

Appreciate it. Seems like a piece of lazy and baiting writing to me. Has nothing to do with what was said about smart racing from Vingegaard as they try and make it seem in this article

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santiagobenites 10 July 2024 at 12:10+ 1755

Perhaps the 'Netflixification' of the TDF has lead to this type of sensationalized, overly dramatic journalism. I see it more and more these days.

awp 10 July 2024 at 24:12+ 1215

I believe that is the case...

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