"These are ordinary humans who just happen to be doing extraordinary things" - Tadej Pogacar & Jonas Vingegaard a Tour de France rivalry for the ages says Ned Boulting

For the fourth Tour de France in a row, it looks as if Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard will finish in the top 2 positions at the 2024 edition. After Pogacar's win in 2021, Vingegaard triumphed in 2022 and 2023. Although it's the Slovenian who enters the final week in the lead this year, the fight for the Maillot Jaune isn't yet over.

"The last three editions of the race have raised them both onto a pedestal of their own, lifting them clear of the ordinary constraints of the here and now. They have scored their names into the history of the sport," writes ITV Sport commentator and cycling historian, Ned Boulting in a column for CityAM. "In Pogacar and Vingegaard, we have two riders who are unable (and in Pog’s case frankly unwilling) to keep their true natures hidden. Clinically optimistic, pathologically positive and determinedly aggressive, Pogacar is an open book. My colleague Gary Imlach summed him up brilliantly on Saturday when he closed our live broadcast by saying: 'It’s often said that attack is the best form of defence. Well, in Tadej Pogacar’s case, it’s the best form of everything.'"

With Pogacar in the form of his life, the Slovenian has backed up his Giro d'Italia dominance by entering the final week with a three minute lead over his great rival. Whilst Pogacar was winning the Giro however, Vingegaard was taking part in an intense recovery following a punctured lung in a crash at the Itzulia Basque Country left the Dane in intensive care earlier this year.

"It has taken longer for us to get to know Pogacar's naturally taciturn rival Vingegaard. Uncomfortable in the limelight, yet politely accepting of his obligations, the Dane has hitherto managed to navigate a course through the mayhem which has kept his public at arm’s length," Boulting analyses of Vingegaard. "That all changed at the end of his victory on stage 11 last week, when he outsprinted the man in the yellow jersey to take a stage win and grasp the momentum (albeit temporarily) in the race."

"The tears came, as he contextualised the effort he had had to make to come back from serious, potentially life-threatening injury in early April. He could have died, he told us. Suddenly, we were staring at a man rather than simply a calculated if uninspiring rider," Boulting reflects of Vingegaard's stunning stage 11 victory. "That story, and his sudden willingness to share it, leant the victory a meaning that went above and beyond the Tour de France. The simple truth about this sport, like any other, is that these are ordinary humans who just happen to be doing extraordinary things."

Will Pogacar reclaim the Maillot Jaune or can Vingegaard pull of an incredible comeback? We will soon out but regardless, the duo continue to prove themselves the best Grand Tour riders of their generation as their rivalry for the ages continues year after year in France.