"2022 I gave everything that I could but in the end, Jonas was better," Pogacar says before Liv Jayco AlUla Zigart joins the conversation. "It wasn't the easiest because it was like this realisation, 'oh, I am not the best anymore,'" she adds. "But then it brought back the hunger that he really wants to prove that he's the best again. Now Jonas is the number one guy and you're the one who has to attack him."
"This year we have a really super strong team and I feel better coming into the first part of the season than any other year and then yeh I crashed in Liège," Pogacar recalls. "It was a really nasty crash, I am lucky that I only fractured my wrist. I am still not 100%, the scaphoid is still fractured but I will never give up. Now I start a little bit different training, I try to bounce back and you need to push yourself because the
Tour de France is the Tour de France. Everybody comes here in top shape."
This year, the roles are reversed as Pogacar enters the Tour in top form and Vingegaard is the one fighting hard to recover in time from a nasty crash that he suffered at the Itzulia Basque Country earlier this year. If the Dane makes it back in time for the Tour, chapter four in the epic Pogacar vs Vingegaard rivalry awaits next month.