Fifth in the stage arriving at Mont Ventoux, after winning two seconds on Jonas Vingegaard, Tadej Pogacar admitted that he had not wanted to make too much effort this Tuesday, in anticipation of the Alpine stages.
This week on the Tour de France, Tadej Pogacar has checked Mont Ventoux and the Col de la Loze, two climbs where he has already suffered in the past, and where he would see himself taking revenge on fate. For the Ventoux, it is (partly) missed. The Slovenian certainly did not seem to suffer, but he failed to win the stage, brilliantly won by Valentin Paret-Peintre, member of the breakaway of the day.
After the arrival, the yellow jersey said not to have any regrets, at the microphone of France 2 : “It is not always my decision, sometimes it is the breakaway that decides. Paret-Pintre deserves victory, the breakaways of the breakaway were very fast. It’s hard to control this kind of step when there is a big breakaway. We tried not to waste too much energy as a team. At the end, I saw that Paret-Peintre was so happy, it was nice to see, I was happy for him. »»
Pogacar: “I didn’t want to get too involved”
Even if he did not win, Tadej Pogacar had good legs this Tuesday, and he intends to win a new victory in the coming days: “In 2021, I had a bad day on the Ventoux. Today, it was the opposite, I had a good day on the bike, I really liked this ascent, until the last meters. I can be satisfied to keep the yellow jersey. When we arrive in the Alps, we will have other opportunities to shine. The team has really worked very hard in the past few days to control, calm the race. We will try to win another stage victory. »»
This Tuesday, the yellow jersey was attacked several times by Jonas Vingegaard, who failed to win him. And the Slovenian did not want to give everything, when there are still five stages left: “Jonas attacked several times, but I knew that I could stay in his wheel. The breakaway was strong in front and I did not want to engage too much in this ascent, not to risk a counterattack. I tried to counterattack once but I didn’t want to hurt my legs too much. Because after the flat stage on Wednesday, it is a stage with three out-of-category passes which is looming on Thursday.
