Special envoy to Combloux
A sledgehammer. Jonas Vingegaard stunned the Tour de France and especially Tadej Pogacar by crushing the time of the 16th stage between Passy and Comboux by relegating Tadej Pogacar to 1’38 over 22 kilometers only. “It’s the best time of my life, I’m very proud of what I’ve achieved. I didn’t think I could get so far ahead, I’m surprised myself, I didn’t expect to do so well”, explained the Dane on France Télévisions before adding: “I don’t know how to explain it, I immediately felt that I was in for an incredible day. I sent very high watts even when I kept some under the pedal, I even thought that my sensor was broken.
A few minutes later, the leader of the Jumbo-Visma admitted having worked a lot on this route in Haute-Savoie. “We have been preparing for this time for a long time and I knew that I was in very good shape. All this work ended up paying off”, he continued, admitting that he had not been kept informed of the evolution of the intermediate times. “I was not aware of the deviations but in the end I was still told that I was doing a good job”, revealed the overexcited yellow jersey when he saw in the distance on the road the clan of Tadej Pogacar gone two minutes before him. “I could see his following car and that gave me a lot of motivation. I was convinced that I had set an excellent time.”
With a 1’48” lead over the double winner of the Tour de France (2020-2021), Jonas Vingegaard is flying towards another victory, barring an improbable failure on Wednesday in the queen stage going up to Courchevel, or on Saturday in the tricky stage between Belfort and Le Markstein, straddling Burgundy Franche-Comté and the Grand Est region. “The Tour de France is not over, there are still many difficult stages, we will have to fight in the coming days. And I can’t wait,” he concluded.
