Tour de France: Tadej Pogacar on his race strategy in GC battle with Jonas Vingegaard – ‘This year is more controlled’

Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) says he has had a change of tactics to last year’s Tour de France as he battles it out with Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) in the general classification.

“Last year [at the second rest day] I was far behind and maybe wanting too much,” Pogacar said.

“I was just doing stupid moves. This year is more controlled. I am not so far behind time-wise this time, so I’m not throwing all the bombs at once.

“Maybe just once and doing it 100 percent, so that’s a different situation.”

Pogacar says there is no psychological battle unfolding between himself and Vingegaard and that the yellow jersey will go to the fittest of the pair.

“I can see Jonas is looking pretty good in the bunch,” he said.

“He doesn’t seem to be too nervous. Rather than our heads, I think it’s going to come down to our legs this year.”

He says he is feeling physically fine at the moment, but admits he is still experiencing some pain in his wrist, which may mean he will need to take time off to recover once the Tour reaches its conclusion.

“My legs are good and that’s the most important thing,” he said. “We’ll see how my wrist is afterwards, and maybe take some rest after the Tour.”

After a rest day on Monday, Stage 16 of the Tour is a 22-kilometre time-trial which Pogacar believes acts as a prelude to Stage 17 and Stage 20 mountain stages which he calls “very complicated”.

He said: “I have reconned Stage 17 and the [Stage 16] time trial, but even if I don’t know the Markstein so well, the area is more or less familiar to me.

“Wednesday is the hardest day of the Tour on paper, but a lot will depend on how we race Stage 20 – that could end up being even tougher. We’ve got three very complicated stages ahead.”

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