Pogacar lost the yellow shirt in the Tour de France two years later

In the past two seasons, Pogacar kept the yellow shirt until the end of the race, and once reached the top of the Tour de France. In the 2020 competition, Slovenian cyclists won the yellow shirt from the 20th stage and successfully defended the first place in the final stage. Last season, he dominated the jersey from stage 8. But despite winning the yellow shirt from Belgian cyclist Wout van Aert in stage 6, Pogacar failed to maintain that impressive record at the 2022 Tour de France.

In the 11th stage yesterday, there was a 151.7 km route from Albertville to Col du Granon, with four mountains, among which Col du Galibier was the highest, with an altitude of 2,642 m, a length of 17.7 km and an average slope of 6.9%. At the end of the journey, cyclists have to climb 9.2% in a row to reach the finish line on the top of Col du Granon.

Along with teammate Primoz Roglic, Vingegaard repeatedly attacked Pogacar while climbing the mountain. But every time his opponent tried to isolate him from the UAE-Emirates team, Pogacar calmly responded. The tour de France champion of the last two years even smiled at the television cameras just before entering the final climb.

With the help of teammate Rafal Majka, Pogacar rose to the top of the group. But in the end, the effort to make the opponent consume the physical strength of the Jumbo-Visma racers paid off.

In the final 5km, Vingegaard escaped alone and finished with a time of 4 hours 18 minutes 2 seconds, leading runner-up Nairo Quintana of Arkea Samsic's team by 59 seconds. Pogacar finished seventh, 2 minutes and 51 seconds behind Vingegaard.

Vingegaard revealed the strategy of the Jumbo - Visma team that was planned for months, in order to make the most of the collective strength. Denmark added: "I can't do this without my teammates. They can't believe it. When I accelerated, I felt that Pogacar seemed to be broken. This time, I wanted to win and succeeded ".

This is the first time Vingegaard's first stage at this year's tour de France. Last year, he came second after Pogacar himself. "Now I have a yellow shirt to continue fighting all the way to Paris," Vingegaard emphasized.

Yesterday's victory helped Vingegaard to lead the top table with a record of 41 hours 29 minutes 59 seconds, leading Romain Bardet of the DSM team 2 minutes 19 seconds, and Pogacar 2 minutes 22 seconds. "I want to reclaim what has been lost. Everything has not ended," Pogacar said after the failure in the 11th stage.

Today, Tour de France 2022 will continue to race on the 12th stage with a 165.5 km long climbing race from Briancon to Alpe d'Hez, France.