Spurza Tour saw Jumbo-Visma collide with ‘magnificent Pogacar’: ‘But they can’t be blamed’ | Tour de France

No stage in this round goes by without fireworks.

“From the start in Bilbao to what we saw today, it was really amazing every day,” Sven Nys opens.

“He’s turning in all directions and I’m so glad we have another duel after today’s stage.”

“Yesterday, however, it didn’t look so good. So I thought Jumbo-Visma would slam again today, especially when they threw all their cards on the table in Tourmalet,” says the analyst.

But that turned out not to be the case. “And I didn’t expect it,” Christophe Vandegor honestly admits. “I thought Pogacar would be far from the standard of the past.”

Vingegaard had to concede half a minute, but that was not at all due to the great Wout van Aert. “He’s doing a really good job. No one has any doubts about that,” says Ness.

“He did by far most of the work and was a master servant on the final climb.”

And the rest of the black-and-yellow formation also did what it needed to do according to Nys.

“Jumbo-Visma can’t be blamed. They wanted to build on yesterday’s strong performance, but they collided with the amazing Pogacar.”

And so Pogacar and Vingegaard have shown in recent days that they are in fact on a different level than all the rest. “They’re from another planet,” says Ness.

“But the data also showed that Hindley made the final climb as fast as Pogacar could today, so it was Vingegaard who had a more difficult moment.”

“He was at his limit,” Ness said. It was as if it couldn’t get any better than that.”

Thus Pogacar came within half a minute of the Dane in the standings. “But this situation is actually in favor of Pogacar, because now he doesn’t have to run a race,” says Nys.

“As for the rest, you just have to wait and see. We get shots from day to day,” he claims.

At Puy de Dôme we might get another shot.