After seven days of racing on the Critérium du Dauphiné, Tadej Pogačar seems to be all set to stroll away with the general title come Sunday night. The Slovenian scored his third win of the week on stage 7, soloing dwelling to achieve extra time on rival Jonas Vingegaard.
He completed atop Valmeinier 1800 with one other 14 seconds in hand on the Dane, his GC lead now prolonged to 1:01 with one stage to go.
A primary Critérium du Dauphiné title on his palmarès is not any small deal for Pogačar, even when his focus – and that of Vingegaard – as a substitute primarily lies on the Tour de France‘s yellow jersey subsequent month.
Talking after the stage on Saturday afternoon, Pogačar stated he cannot know whether or not his dominance of the race would have an effect on Vingegaard’s psychological preparation for July. He did, nonetheless, say that the wins and the higher hand within the two-man battle are a bonus for him.
“I do not know him so effectively as an individual if that impacts his psychological stage of how he can put together now,” Pogačar instructed CyclingPro. “However for positive, for me it is a bonus that I can win at the moment on this type of stage, super-hot, with massive, massive mountains. For me, it is a good motivation for the Tour.”
Pogačar went clear with 12km to go on the 16km ending climb, countering a transfer from Vingegaard’s Visma-Lease A Bike teammate Sepp Kuss. The Dutch squad had tried a number of instances in the course of the stage to place the Slovenian on the again foot, however not one of the techniques labored out.
Ultimately, Pogačar wanted solely Pavel Sivakov to set him up, within the face of 4 Visma riders. As soon as he launched, there was no person who may reply his acceleration, and so he sped away to victory quantity three.
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“I did not essentially want on a regular basis on this planet at the moment,” Pogačar stated of his profitable transfer. “I kind of [defended] at the moment, to not have Visma riders attacking on a regular basis. I simply tried to tempo myself to the highest, ease up the final kilometre, and roll by the end line.
“I am tremendous proud of how we rode at the moment. They attacked us, we responded, and I believe we will be actually proud of at the moment. For the Tour, we nonetheless have two climbers to come back into the group, so I am tremendous proud of the way it went at the moment.”
Whereas it would not appear to be a very seemingly situation, all may nonetheless change on Sunday’s closing stage to Plateau du Mont-Cenis. Vingegaard remains to be inside touching distance, in any case. It isn’t as if the week has hosted a complete trouncing.
Nonetheless, Vingegaard has nonetheless been a stable second-best this week. After the stage, Pogačar was requested whether or not we might be in for a boring Tour, a query Pogačar dismissed, even when he’d love for that to be the case.
“I do not assume so,” he stated. “I’d signal on for this – that I might win it simply. However nothing is straightforward in biking, so let’s wait and see.
“The Dauphiné can not inform every thing. We’re speaking each day that the Tour is coming. It is three weeks lengthy, and the Dauphiné is a preparation race, so we are going to see what occurs within the Tour.”
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