Surprise! In developments everyone knew was coming because this is sport chatter and you canβt ever be defeatist, duh, and despite it being absolutely ludicrous and flying in the face of reality β erm, hello, have you checked the GC recently, Jonas? β Visma-Lease a Bike have come out fighting and declared that the Tour de France is not over. They can still beat Tadej PogaΔar.
On the day that the defending champion PogaΔar took his second consecutive win in the Pyrenees and his fourth of the race with eight stages still to come, Jonas Vingegaardβs deficit to PogaΔar grew from 3:31 to 4:07. A third Tour title for the Dane looks a distant possibility. At least this year, anyway.
In the first 10 days Visma-Lease a Bike were the most aggressive and attacking team, but on stage 12 to the Hautacam, the first mountain stage, they were found wanting and unable to isolate PogaΔar. Still, though, Vingegaard believes in his teammates. βThe whole team is incredibly strong,β he commented. βWe just have to show it in the coming days.β
