Vingegaard wins resoundingly at Tour de France 2023
On July 18, after a day off, the Tour de France 2023 raced the 16th stage of individual timekeeping with a length of 22.4 km from Passy to Combloux.
Before the competition, Vingegaard was only 10 seconds ahead of Pogacar on the overall scoreboard after two weeks of fierce competition. But in the direct confrontation in the individual timed stage, Vingegaard showed a different level than the rest.
Jumbo-Visma's Danish jockey finished first with a time of 32 minutes 36 seconds, leaving Pogacar 1 minute 38 seconds ahead of Pogacar. Vingegaard's teammate, Belgian cyclist Wout van Aert finished third when he finished 2 minutes 51 seconds behind the defending champion.
Winning the first stage at the Tour de France 2023 helps Vingegaard continue to hold the Yellow Vest overall with a total time of 63 hours 6 minutes 53 seconds, widening the gap with Pogacar to 1 minute 48 seconds. In third place is Adam Richard Yates of UAE Team Emirates team with 8 minutes 52 seconds ahead of Vingegaard.
"I think it's been one of my best days on the bike and one of my best individual timers," Vingegaard said. "I think today all the hard work paid off. On the flat road between climbs, I tried to hold back, then speed up a bit during the climbs."
Yesterday, Vingegaard soon took the advantage when cutting corners and accelerating into a straight road at a higher speed than Pogacar. The Dane took a 16-second lead over the 7.1 km mark and widened the gap to 31 seconds at the foot of the decisive Côte de Domancy climb.
About 5.3 km from the finish line, Pogacar swapped the timed race bike for a standard road bike, 2 kg lighter. It was an unsuccessful gamble when the two-time Slovenian driver in 2020 and 2021 was powerless to follow Vingegaard.
Pogacar admits it's reached the limit and can't do anything more at stage 16, but insists the 2023 Tour de France is not over yet. The 24-year-old driver confirmed that there are still many difficult stages ahead and he and the whole team will plan accordingly to try to fill the gap with Vingegaard.
Today, the 2023 Tour de France will continue racing stage 17 with a 166 km climbing journey from Saint-Gervais-les-Bains to Courchevel, France.
