Tour: Pogacar doesn't give up, 'I'll try until the end'

"I'll do everything to get my yellow jersey back, starting in the last few kilometers or from afar. But I'll try."

Word of Tadej Pogacar, who on the rest day of the Tour, before the 'three days' in the Pyrenees, shows himself anything but resigned to the domination of Jonas Vingegaard, who for now has repeated blow by blow the attacks of the Slovenian phenomenon.

    "I have to seize all the opportunities and attack as soon as possible, on every climb - says Pogacar -. Attacking closely, from afar, I will try everything. Because I have a considerable delay to catch up".

In reality, Pogacar's delay on Vingegaard, before the Pyrenees, is two minutes and 22 seconds and the Slovenian is sure that "there will be opportunities, in three days many things can happen. We all begin to get tired, physically and mentally, but I'm very motivated ".

But it won't be easy to take back the lead: "Jonas (Vingegaard ed) is the man to beat, he's super strong".

Would an alliance with Geraint Thomas' ineos be possible to bring down, or at least put in serious difficulty, the yellow jersey?

"I don't think there will be this alliance - he replies -.

The Ineos folks think it's my job to attack.

They will think above all to keep a place on the podium (currently Thomas is third).

So I will do my race ". But Thomas also expressed himself on this issue:" if the circumstances of the race allow it and this is profitable for us, obviously (the alliance ed.) We will do it ".

    In any case, the Slovenian is not counting on Saturday's time trial between Lacapaelle-Marival and Rocamadour (40.7 km) to recover.

    "I don't bet on it, because Jonas has shown that he is at ease in this specialty - he explains -. So I have to make up for the delay I have with him first."

    Last year's precedent says Vingegaard finished 25 seconds ahead of Pogacar in a 30.8km time trial between Libourne and Saint-Émilion.

It is therefore logical that the UAE captain Emirates should attack first, starting tomorrow and as soon as the road starts to climb again.

But if it goes badly, for Pogacar "it would not be the end of the world. At the end of the Tour I have already won twice and finished second, with the white jersey (of the best youngster) as a bonus. After all, it's not bad ...

    Meanwhile, Pogacar tested negative for the swab which, like all the other riders of the Tour, he made on the rest day.

This did not happen to two of his colleagues, whose names the UCI did not reveal, who tested positive for Covid, as asymptomatic.

The decision on their possible stay in the group will be made in the next few hours.

On the other hand, Jakob Fuglsang, the Rio 2016 Olympic vice-champion, retired, who suffered a fractured rib after being involved in one of the many falls during yesterday's stage, completed despite the pain but with more than twenty minutes of late from the first.