For the only time trial in this Tour de France no big differences were expected between Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar, but the Dane turned out to be more than one and a half minute (1:38) faster than the Slovenian.
“We expected a smaller difference. Tadej did a great job too. The gap on number three Wout van Aert is impressive, but chapeau for Jonas. He had an incredible day”, UAE Team Emirates boss Mauro Gianetti said.
“I had the time on Wout van Aert and I was really happy to be 20 seconds in front of him on top of the first climb,” Pogacar said. “I was trying to go good and I was gaining time on him, but I was losing time to Jonas, so it was a bit of a shame. But I still tried to limit the time loss to the finish line. I gave it my all.”
“If I am honest, I didn’t feel the best in the second part, but I still went pretty solid. I felt I was going OK, but it’s a big gap now. I was hoping for less here. I was hoping to be in yellow today but that’s how it is today. I hope it’s like the Marie Blanque day and tomorrow I can have good legs like in the first week.”
“It’s definitely not over. Especially if it’s raining tomorrow, then I can promise you it’s going to be interesting,” Pogacar said. “There are two more really hard stages to come, I think the hardest two of this Tour. Anything can happen, and I think anyone can have a bad day. Like I said before, I hope today was like the Marie Blanque stage for me…”
“We will try to make a plan,” he said. “It’s not easy to gain two minutes, a little bit less, but we will try.”
