Why Tadej Pogacar has to ‘throw everything at it’ on Stage 18 to reel in Jonas Vingegaard at Tour de France

Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) roared to a thrilling Stage 17 victory on Wednesday, but Eurosport’s experts have said he now needs to throw everything he has left at Jonas Vingegaard’s (Jumbo-Visma) overall lead if he is to claim Tour de France glory once more.

The 143.2km route from Lourdes to Hautacam represents an absolutely crucial day of racing for the Slovenian to haul in his rival, and the Breakaway team made it abundantly clear that he must give everything he has left.

“There has only been one Danish winner up there so Vingegaard might be able to become the second,” Adam Blythe said. “It is going to be a hard day.

“It is not the longest, but it is that distance where it is a little bit shorter and riders will think they should be a bit more aggressive.”

Dan Lloyd added: “He [Pogacar] will throw everything that he has left in the tank at it because even on his best day, on the time trial he is not going to be able to take that time back.

“So he has to take a chunk of it back tomorrow [Stage 18] to have any hope. He would be doing well to take a minute out of Vingegaard on the final time trial. A minute even then would be pushing it.

“He has to take more than a minute off tomorrow if he is going to have a chance of winning a third straight Tour.”

Pogacar praised his remaining three team-mates for teeing up his third successive hat-trick of stage wins on the Tour, saying his team should be “proud” of their battling qualities, despite their numerical disadvantage.

“Without George [Bennett], Rafal [Majka], Vegard [Stake Laengen] and [Marc] Soler, we can’t do any more. Tomorrow is another chance, but I’m happy with my win. I gave absolutely everything. I know that I need to win, there’s no other way, so I have my all for the team right to the line,” he said.

“Mikkel rode like a climber today – he set such a good place on the climbs, it was unbelievable. I felt really good and then Brandon did an amazing job. A special mention goes to him.”

Asked if he was still optimistic about potentially winning a third successive Tour title in Paris on Sunday, the 23-year-old said: “Yes. I am optimistic. I think tomorrow is a harder day and we can try again tomorrow.”

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