Jonas Vingegaard’s attack on stage four of Paris-Nice ‘cost him’ in battle with Tadej Pogacar

Jonas Vingegaard’s late attack on stage four of Paris-Nice “cost him” in his battle with Tadej Pogacar, believes Jumbo-Visma director Grischa Niermann.

Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) had looked to be in control when he launched his effort with Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) alongside him as the two battled.

“Maybe he shouldn’t have attacked himself in the first place, and that cost him,” Niermann explained, per Cyclingnews.

“But that’s life. He felt good and wanted to try and in the end, he didn’t succeed.”

Pogacar did not let up on his opponent and that caused the Dane to curtail his ambitious pace, but as a result he was caught by the chasing pack, allowing Pogacar to launch his own attack as he chased down David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ).

With two kilometres remaining, Vingegaard struggled to hold the wheel, and started to look like he may be in trouble.

“It wasn’t our best day today. Jonas felt really good and I think in the end he went a little bit over the limit and that cost him. He shouldn’t have done that, but that’s racing,” Niermann continued.

“Of course, he’s disappointed. He was going for more.”

Pogacar is now 43 seconds clear, and Vingegaard is down in third after the four stages so far.

“We will see. The race finishes Sunday afternoon, and until then we won’t give up,” added Niermann. “But Pogacar, his spring form is incredibly good – we don’t know that only from this year but also from the last years. He looks very strong at the moment.”

Asked whether he was surprised at Vingegaard’s struggles, Pogacar said: “A little bit, first he launched his attack. I thought he was feeling super, super great so I didn’t counter, I was just waiting for the rest.

“In the end, it was really tough and I think he missed a little bit to close and catch me, and cracked a little bit.

“It was not in mind to take yellow today, but you don’t say no to yellow. I’m happy with yellow and it’s nice to be back.

“Today was really nervous all day, already really tough on the flat parts with the crosswinds. It was really chaos all day. And then in the final climb, Felix [Grossschartner] did a really good job and the team setting me up to the climb in perfect place. I had good legs, I knew that we could not give Gaudu too much, so I decided to go ‘all in’ to catch him otherwise we would not win.”