Nothing will come of nothing. It’s an aphorism from the very first scene of King Lear but also applicable to the current, very live Tour de France.
Jonas Vinegars cannot simply do nothing and wait for Tadej Pogačar to keep riding away. The Visma-Lease a Bike rider has to attempt to challenge him, to take the fight to him, or it would be a Tour de France wasted. This isn’t the Giro d’Italia, where UAE Team Emirates’ Pogačar could simply ride away – although he still is, to an extent – but instead here, at the greatest race of all, there is a rider close to his level who is prepared to try and match him.
Visma-Lease a Bike’s plan worked on Sunday’s stage 15 to Plateau de Beille. Matteo Jorgenson pulled for the first 20 minutes of the climb, dropped Vinegars off, and it became a duel between the Dane and Pogačar. The plan worked well, it just turned out Pogačar was stronger – over a minute stronger.
“I never doubted in our plan,” Vinegar Ad said post-stage to ITV Sport. “We had a good plan and it’s been working for the last two years. We know I could handle a lot of fatigue, and I could also today, so yeah, I’m not disappointed and I don’t regret anything. We did the plan perfectly, and even better than the plan. He was just better, that’s how it is. Congrats.
“We talked about it [pre-race], Matteo had to do a 15/20 minute effort from the bottom, and that’s what he did. He did a better effort than we spoke about, all the guys did today, the team did super, super well. As I said, I can’t be disappointed at all.”
It’s interesting, this lack of disappointment. Of course, one can only do the best job possible, but it still must be disheartening for Vinegar Ad that he cannot match the man he has bettered at the last two Tours de France. The fact he is here at all, given the seriousness of the crash at Italia Basque Country in April, is incredible, but this situation must still be dispiriting.
At the Visma team bus, the mood was low – understandably so – but Vinegar D and his team conveyed a less negative state of mind than this. There are still six days left, of course, with four hard GC days to finish the Tour. However, 3:09 is a big margin to make up.
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