Tour de France – Three things that stood out: Pogacar leaves forces, but gains advantages

Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard did not follow through with their attack on the Jaizkibel to the finish of the day, but the two top favorites underlined their exceptional position with their start before the Bergpreis.

After Saturday, the Slovenian also emerged as the winner of the duel on Sunday.

Emanuel Buchmann took the spotlight for a few seconds in the San Sebastian final, but his captain Jai Hindley also seems to be in good shape.

And with the winner of the day, Lafay, one of them is preparing to become a shooting star on this tour, something that only a few had really had on their radar screens before.

Three things that stood out:

1. Pogacar lets forces of the team but collects seconds

The squirrel has a hard time feeding itself. And Tadej Pogacar also left a few grains behind on the first two days of this tour – especially those of his teammates, who had to work a lot on the hunt for bonus seconds, especially on Sunday. But who knows what that could have been good for in three weeks in Paris?

Thanks to his two third places in the stage finishes in Bilbao and San Sebastian, as well as his first place at the ‘Bonus Point’ on the Jaizkibel, the Slovenian has already gotten a total of 16 seconds time bonus. Vingegaard has only managed five so far, leaving Pogacar eleven seconds ahead of the defending champions in the overall standings after two days.

“We didn’t win, but it was still a good day,” he said with satisfaction. Because as close together as the two top favorites seem to be in terms of performance, these eleven seconds could be as important in the final calculation after three weeks – and above all: Pogacar is putting pressure on Vingegaard, who is now the hunter and will have to go on the offensive as the tour progresses. Sure, it was the same a year ago and then Vingegaard turned the tables with a concerted effort from his team over the Col du Galibier and up the Col du Granon. But you have to repeat that first, completely without Primoz Roglic.

The fact that the team dynamics at Jumbo – Visma are hotly debated in Belgium and that Vingegaard is criticized there for not helping Van Aert enough should not go unnoticed by the Dane. So marginal as Pogacar’s bonus wins may seem in fact, psychologically the Slovenian clearly has the upper hand at the moment – although he admitted in San Sebastian his wrist was a little sore after a day of jarring on rough Basque roads.

2. Buchmann and Hindley are at the music

Emanuel Buchmann was in the limelight for a few seconds in San Sebastian: When he attacked a good five kilometers before the day’s finish, Wilco Kelderman followed suit for Jumbo – Visma and closed the gap again. Nevertheless, the bottom line is that the German champion is one of the top drivers of this tour. Because much more important than trying to overpower the competition when approaching the finish line was learning about the long climb to the Jaizkibel.

There, Buchmann always drove in the front positions alongside captain Jai Hindley and was able to keep up over the crest. “That was a good start. Today was a confirmation from yesterday that I’m in good shape and I’m confident for the rest of the tour,” the 30-year-old drew an interim balance with a view to the opening weekend. It sounded similar for Hindley, who has not shown any weaknesses so far and finished the first two stages in seventh and ninth place and is now eighth overall.

3. Lafay makes you forget the frustration of the day before – is there more?

With an extremely clever move, Victor Lafay secured the stage win and the green jersey in San Sebastian. He initially let numerous competitors attack, so that the team Jumbo – Visma and even Wout Van Aert were able to exhaust themselves in fending off the attacks. Then, at the beginning of the final kilometer, the 27-year-old Frenchman struck himself with a lot of momentum from behind.

“Jumbo-Visma had already done a lot of work and I saw that Wout didn’t want to drive anymore,” he said of the moment of his attack. “When I started I didn’t worry if it would work. Then I saw how the finish line was getting closer and closer and at the same time my wattage values ​​were dropping more and more. I then gritted my teeth again and it was enough. Just crazy! “

It was a terrific coup that brought him his greatest success to date. But Lafay didn’t just impress on the opening weekend of the tour because he behaved tactically in San Sebastian. The Lyon man had already shone on Saturday, being the only one able to follow Pogacar and Vingegaard up the steep ramp of the Cote de Pike on the outskirts of Bilbao. Then he missed the Yates brothers’ attack and was very annoyed about it afterwards. But the realization that he was in outstanding form stuck there.

Now it will be interesting to see how far Lafay will get on this tour. While captain Guillaume Martin, who is aiming for the top ten in Paris, has already lost 1:41 minutes on the first two days, Lafay is 12 seconds behind the yellow jersey in fourth place overall. Perhaps he will even focus on the overall standings?

Of his three three-week tours so far, he only completed one. Nevertheless, he already won a mountain finish at the Giro d’Italia from a breakaway group in 2021 and seems to be stronger than ever this summer.

By the way: He has also been successful on the tour, but not as a professional. In 2018 he won the L’Etape du Tour race for everyone. Now he ended the 15-year dry spell of the Cofidis team in terms of Tour stage victory.