Pogačar on Vingegaard: "He's missing something compared to other Tours."

It says everything about Tadej Pogačar 's extraordinary superiority in this 2026 Tour de France that, a few seconds after praising his rival Jonas Vingegaard's performance on the climbs, the Slovenian added with disarming lucidity that the Dane is not, in his opinion, at the level of previous editions.

Stage 14 was pure routine for Pogačar, a champion. When he soloed up the brutal ramps of the Col du Haag , the outcome was already written: yet another triumph, the 25th of his career at the Tour and the fourth in just two weeks of racing. His advantage over Vingegaard grew to 4 minutes and 30 seconds . Barring any cosmic catastrophes in the remaining seven stages, his fifth victory at the Grande Boucle is practically his.

Yet, both before and after that devastating attack, it was clear that Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) was having one of his best days of the Tour. Before Pogačar's attack, the Dane had raised his pace enough to undermine Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), his main rival for the podium. And after the Slovenian's attack, Vingegaard remained his closest pursuer for most of the climb, only slightly losing ground at the summit when Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Paul Seixas (Decathlon-CMA CGM) managed to rejoin.

But Pogačar, while acknowledging his rival's performance, didn't hide behind diplomacy: "If my power meter is correct, he put in an extraordinary performance when he was pushing. But I honestly think he's missing something compared to the last few Tours." He added: "In the bigger mountains, maybe he'll find that extra push and knock me down, you never know. But here, I think he's lacking a bit of grit."

"He's a small percentage away, but he's right there with me, so I wouldn't rule him out for the next few days. Tomorrow's Plateau de Salaison climb is a suitable one for him, and both stages on Alpe d'Huez are too."