Cycling - Tour de France - Stage 9 - Troyes to Troyes - Troyes, France - July 7, 2024 Team Visma | Lease a Bike's Wout van Aert, Jonas Vingegaard, Christophe Laporte and UAE Team Emirates' Tadej Pogacar in action with riders during stage 9 Pool via REUTERS/Papon Bernard
ORLEANS, France (Reuters) - With defending champion Jonas Vingegaard entering the event having not raced for three months, Tadej Pogacar was hoping to put the hammer down early in the Tour de France, but while he leads on the first rest day, the Slovenian has not knocked his big rival out.
After nine stages, Pogacar has the yellow jersey and leads Belgian Remco Evenepoel by 33 seconds and Denmark's Vingegaard by 1:15.
It is not quite enough, however, to start thinking of celebrations of a possible Giro d'Italie/Tour de France double, the first since 1998.
Predictably, Pogacar took a swashbuckling approach to the race and managed to gain time on Vingegaard in the individual time trial and first high mountain stage, although most of the seconds he won that day were down to his descending skills.
On the second stage, he tried to distance Vingegaard on a short, punchy climb, but failed. On Sunday, on a stage peppered with gravel roads, he tried relentlessly, but failed again.
"Tadej was the strongest," said Vingegaard, whose defensive tactics were criticised by Pogacar and Evenepoel, with the Belgian saying that sometimes you have to show courage in the race, referring to the Danish rider.
Vingegaard, who three months ago sustained a collapsed lung and rib fractures in a crash at the Tour of the Basque Country, called it "riding smart" when asked about Evenepoel's comments.
The leading trio had the chance to distance fourth-placed Primoz Roglic on Sunday, but Vingegaard refused to collaborate, only focusing on not losing time.
The Visma-Lease a Bike leader is waiting for his moment, knowing five more mountain stages and a potentially decisive time trial are still to come.
"I'm growing into the race, feeling better every day," he said on Monday.
"I feel like I have already a high level. Way better than I could have expected after only one and a half month of preparation."
Vingegaard found it hard to compare his level with last year's, when he crushed Pogacar in the final week on his way to securing his second consecutive title.
"It's difficult to say because we only had one real mountain stage so think I think it is maybe under (last year's level) but of course it's good for me that it's been easy in the first week," he said.
"I'm focusing on the next two weeks because even in the second week there will be hard stages, especially at the weekend."
(Writing by Julien Pretot; Editing by Ed Osmond)
