Jonas Vingegaard can barely stand at the top of the Col de la Loze. He is breathing from deep within his diaphragm, his shoulders convulsing with the effort. Soigneurs frantically try to get a warm jacket across the Visma-Lease a Bike rider’s narrow, slumped shoulders before he starts to shiver in the freezing rain. This is a man who has given everything to the Tour de France, trying to achieve the impossible dream.
“Today was a brutal day, five hours in the saddle, and I’m not sure I’ve ever done such a hard stage in the Tour before,” the Danish rider told a crowd of reporters who flung microphones at his tired face. “I said it before the stage but this was a brutal stage.”
In reality, Vingegaard’s team were a big part of the reason for the difficulty of stage 18. They threw everything at trying to isolate yellow jersey wearer Tadej Pogačar – it was a textbook plan executed by a big move on the Col de la Madeleine in the name of upsetting UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s stranglehold on the race. Sepp Kuss went first with an attack that reduced the peloton to solely the general classification favourites. Vingegaard followed afterwards, further applying the pressure, until Matteo Jorgenson produced an eye-wateringly fast descent of the climb to try and make things stick.
"The team did amazing today, I want to thank them again, everybody was 100% behind the plan," Vingegaard continued. "It gives me so much motivation when I have a team like this working for me."
It’s true that Visma can be applauded for their fearless approach to trying to gain time back in this Tour, but the harsh reality is that it still is not working. On the final climb of the day, hesitation from the GC group allowed stage winner Ben O’Connor to make his winning move alongside Jorgenson and Movistar’s Einer Rubio. Lipowitz followed – a move he later regretted – for Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, and the others looked at each other. Momentum was gone and control was back, once again, in the hands of UAE Team Emirates.
Pogačar’s team controlled the final climb until Vingegaard tried one more, last-ditch attack close to the summit, but the race leader – as always – easily followed his back wheel. The yellow jersey wearer attacked himself as the line approached – with trademark strong, powerful pedal strokes – even taking additional seconds on his Visma-Lease a Bike rival. For all the work they had done earlier in the stage, the Dutch team had come away with nothing. They ended the day in a worse position than they started it in.
“We had had big plans, which you could see obviously, to try and go early. We did, but unfortunately, I couldn’t take any time on Tadej, but the team did amazing today, and I want to thank my teammates,” an exhausted Vingegaard stated.
Conversely to Vingegaard, Pogačar was relaxed as he crossed the line, his yellow jersey still bright in the mist atop the Col de la Loze. He told the media afterwards that he is “counting down the kilometres to Paris” so he can “do some other nice stuff” in his life. Understandably, the 26-year-old was happy with his performance on the Col de la Loze, pointing out that he’s even extended his race lead, despite all the work Visma did to try and challenge him. This is a man still in total control of the bike race.
The question that we are left with is: How long can Visma keep trying? There is one Alpine stage left for them to do something, but there was a sense that Thursday's queen stage was an all-or-nothing approach to trying to win. When does hope run out? Is this finally, after a valiant effort, the endgame for Jonas Vingegaard?
