Saturday may have been the 125th win of Tadej Poga\u010dar\u2019s career and the 25th stage victory in the Tour de France, but the Slovenian is keeping a lid on any presumptions about the overall.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s now a daunting 4:30 ahead of Jonas Vingegaard with a week left to race, yet cautions that yellow in Paris is not a done deal.<\/p>\n
In fact, following a strong several-kilometer long push at the front by Vingegaard on the final climb, Poga\u010dar suggests that the Dane could even have the upper hand in the days ahead.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf my power meter is correct, he did an amazing performance on the front,\u201d Poga\u010dar told media after Saturday\u2019s stage 14.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think honestly, he\u2019s missing a little bit compared to the last few Tours, but maybe the bigger, longer mountains like Alpe d\u2019Huez he will get this extra boost. Maybe he will drop me there, you never know.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s there, he\u2019s really strong, and he knows this, but he also knows that he misses a bit of a punch maybe. A bit more grinta. It\u2019s a small percentage [to find], and he\u2019s there with me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would not count him out for the next days. Tomorrow is a good day for him also, and both Alpe d\u2019Huez stages.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018My legs are extremely good\u2019<\/h2>\n
Tour winner in 2022 and 2023, Vingegaard is the only rider to ever beat Poga\u010dar in the battle for the maillot jaune.<\/p>\n
He dreams of a third Tour win but was gapped close to the top of the Col du Haag climb on Saturday. He then lost further ground on the downhill and flat roads to the finish.<\/p>\n
Vingegaard shook his head as he crossed the finish line, having gone so deep in chasing that he was left vulnerable to late efforts by Isacc del Toro (UAE Emirates-XRG) and Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM).<\/p>\n
He finished 44 seconds behind Poga\u010dar yet sounded curiously upbeat at the finish.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got the feedback that my legs are extremely good,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like I was really riding well. I\u2019m happy with how I rode myself \u2013 and the team,\u201d he told TV 2 Sport.<\/p>\n Vingegaard\u2019s tactic on Saturday was a prolonged injection of pace on the final climb rather than a sudden attack. Why was that?<\/p>\n \u201cAfter the Giro, we know that I might not be the most explosive version of myself,\u201d he said, presumably referring to the fatigue of riding and winning that race.<\/p>\n \u201cSo if I\u2019m going to try to get away from someone, it\u2019s probably more on the long, hard stretch. That\u2019s why we first tried to set a hard pace with Sepp Kuss, and then I took over. But I don\u2019t think the climb fully\u2026 It was a bit of a funny climb.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was very steep at the bottom, and then there was a small descent. And from there, it was a few kilometers where it went a bit uphill without being really steep.\u201d<\/p>\n Vingegaard is lighter than Poga\u010dar and he will hope that Sunday\u2019s grueling summit finish at Plateau de Solaison may suit him a little better.<\/p>\n Visma-Lease a Bike DS Marc Reef is also counting on the same thing.<\/p>\n \u201cFortunately, tomorrow we have a long and steep climb at the end. And I hope we can really fight for a top result,\u201d he told TV 2 Sport.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will fight for the stage win, because when it is so long and steep, you get a different battle between Poga\u010dar and Vingegaard.<\/p>\n \u201cWe hope that we can win it and that we also manage to put pressure on the other general classification riders and gain more time on them.<\/p>\n Best case scenario: he wins, and he also gaps Poga\u010dar and starts taking time back.<\/p>\n There\u2019s still a week of racing ahead and things could yet take a different turn.<\/p>\n In 2022 Poga\u010dar turned up at the race as the clear favorite. He\u2019d won the two previous editions and many tipped him to do it again.<\/p>\n However a compromised buildup saw him crack dramatically. It\u2019s something he\u2019s wary about happening again.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you remember, in 2023, I lost two minutes to Jonas in the time trial and the next day I lost eight minutes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s quite obvious that anything can change in one day.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s true, although his caution is also affected by growing optimism.<\/p>\n \u201cI think for now I\u2019m more confident,\u201d he admitted.<\/p>\n \u201cI must admit that yesterday and two days ago, when Trek were going full gas, I was not feeling the greatest. \u2018Shit, this is so hard,\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cThen yesterday I felt a bit better, and it was these kind of days you have to get through. Today in the morning I spoke with Ur\u0161ka [partner Ur\u0161ka \u017digart] and she gave me a moral boost also.<\/p>\n \u201cI was feeling great today. So far, this Tour has been amazing for me.\u201d<\/p>\n He will hope that will continue, and also that he can find more success in the days ahead.<\/p>\n \u201cTomorrow\u2019s stage I will be confident, then it\u2019s rest day and a time trial,\u201d he said. \u201cI have to do it like a one-day race and do the best I can do because I\u2019ve put a lot of effort into in.<\/p>\n \u201cThen we\u2019ll see for Alpe d\u2019Huez what is left in the tank.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/tour-de-france\/pogacar-vingegaard-amazing-performance\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2286641458-e1784390266783.jpg”] Shane Stokes Updated July 19, 2026 07:07AM Saturday may have been the 125th win of Tadej Poga\u010dar\u2019s career and the 25th stage victory in the Tour de France, but the Slovenian is keeping a lid on any presumptions about the overall. He\u2019s now a daunting 4:30 ahead of Jonas Vingegaard with a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-2051312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2051312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2051312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2051312\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2051312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2051312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2051312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Jonas](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Z8A_2540.jpg?width=3840&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
\u2018A different battle\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018Two days ago I was not feeling the greatest\u2019<\/h2>\n