Duel of the fates heads into final week

Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard entered the final week of the Tour with just 10 seconds between them. Adam Becket looks ahead

- Adam Becket

Comfort is at a premium in this year’s Tour de France. At the end of the second week of racing the tension had not been loosened, with just 10 seconds separating the two leaders of the race, Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) and Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates).

Neither had the ability to relax going into the second rest day, nor do their teams, with things so finely poised. On the third Sunday of the race, things felt more like a chess match than a threeweek-long Grand Tour, with stage 15 just one of many stages where Vingegaard and Pogačar were inseparable.

Vingegaard might have been in the yellow jersey on Sunday evening, but it was with the knowledge that his margin was one that could be taken away in an instant, with one attack, one bonus second sprint.

“I only will feel comfortable when the race is done,” Jumbo-Visma directeur sportif Merijn Zeeman said on Sunday. “There is no moment for feeling comfortable now.”

Likewise, Pogačar can take no succour from being so close to the lead but not being in it. While it has appeared at points in the race that the Slovenian could keep chipping away at Vingegaard’s lead, that dynamic had slowed by the third week.

“Any day is important, because the gap is so small, only 10 seconds,” UAE Team Emirates’ principal Mauro Gianetti said. “We need to believe it's possible.”