Former colleague criticizes Dumoulin: "This is exactly what he hated so much when he was still a professional"

Tadej Pogacar attacks to his heart's content in this Tour de France; the Slovenian from UAE-Team Emirates is simply too good for the rest. Wednesday's seventeenth stage was actually not suitable for an attack at all, but the yellow jersey wearer stood on the pedals and once again rode away with immense power from Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel. The analysts couldn't stop talking about it afterward.

"Pogacar just wants to show how good he is. He wants to open up the race and have fun," explained former rider Adam Blythe immediately after the finish on Eurosport. According to him, Pogacar doesn't feel his legs, and every cyclist with the same condition would enjoy that. "Everyone who has ever been on a bike knows how nice it is to go fast. That's what it is with Pogacar: he wants to be as fast and authoritative as possible."

Anyone who reads the numbers from Lanterne Rouge realizes that when Pogacar attacks, almost no one can follow. That Evenepoel proved to be the second strongest and Vingegaard limited the damage by the skin of his teeth is actually a great compliment to them. 8.5 watts per kilogram for two minutes, it would explain why the riders in positions four to ten in the overall standings lost two minutes in no time."

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Dumoulin and Zonneveld saw Pogacar with surplus

Tom Dumoulin enjoyed the seventeenth stage, he confirmed afterward to NOS. As an analyst, he had already realized during the stage that it wasn’t going to be Vingegaard’s day. "I had expected Visma | Lease a Bike to use this day to attack and essentially do what Pogacar did. However, they stayed quiet, so I suspected that Vingegaard might not be so strong. He had nothing to lose, so why not try something today? You have to try every day, and if you don’t, it’s because of your legs."

Thijs Zonneveld calls it 'a pissing contest' in the podcast In het Wiel. "This finale was one of egos. They put Vingegaard in his place. I think it's great, let those egos clash. What Pogacar did on that penultimate climb is actually madness," he said. "If you also see what Pogacar does at the beginning of the stage... You can see so well what he does in terms of positioning, how easily he surfs through the peloton, how often he is alone and doesn’t care at all. He closes so many gaps in the echelons. Pogacar has so much surplus throughout the day, and that’s not just physical quality. It’s the skill to position so well, the mentality to always be concentrated and ready. He always rides at the front of the peloton. That is very difficult because everyone wants to ride there. Pogacar is ready to race every day. That is also completely unique."

At Visma | Lease a Bike, they confirmed that Vingegaard didn’t have the ultimate legs, and according to Dumoulin, Pogacar saw that too. Dumoulin: "Pogacar said: if you have bad legs, let me show you how mine are. This is just bluffing and a show of power. He’s more than three minutes ahead; he doesn’t need to do this at all. He does it purely to tease Vingegaard, who has beaten him two years in a row. That does have a bit to do with arrogance, but this duel has been going on for three years now. Pogacar can’t stand that he has been beaten twice. Now that he is finally in charge this Tour, he can hurt Vingegaard."

Ex-pro Rory Sutherland also heard Dumoulin's comments and raised his eyebrows. "Wow, this guy doesn’t know Tadej at all. It's very easy to say this from the couch, which is exactly what Tom hated when he was still racing. Funny that he's the one doing it now," said the Aussie, who retired at the end of 2020 after a long career with teams such as Rabobank, Saxo Bank, Movistar, UAE-Team Emirates, and Israel, on X.

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Is Vingegaard losing a bit of form after all?

According to Zonneveld, Pogacar's attack was 'beautiful to see.' "And you also saw how the rest were shocked by it. Vingegaard seemed to mentally break a bit, racing through another whole finale... Pogacar always does that prestige sprint, but I wonder if Vingegaard was ready to ride another fifteen kilometers in a row. If his teammates hadn't been there, Vingegaard would have lost a lot of time. He would have had to ride back on his own, and I don't know if that would have worked."

Dumoulin thought out loud about this as well. "It is very telling of the legs of Vingegaard and Evenepoel, that Evenepoel came over that top in second place. He might have felt that there were opportunities for that second place. He smelled blood and went for it, a very nice battle for the overall standings. Without those guys in front, Vingegaard could have easily lost half a minute or more; the tactics of Visma | Lease a Bike were very good in that regard. But maybe this is the third week of the Tour, which you might not handle as well with such a lack of preparation. Then it's going to be a long week."

"The second place for Vingegaard is not secure, and it doesn't matter whether he finishes second or third. They are not racing for second place, but to win," concludes Zonneveld. José De Cauwer was a bit more cautious on behalf of Sporza. "I would think not. Because it's Vingegaard and because we are going to 2,700 meters. Those are basically his strong stages; it is hard to suddenly make them weaker stages after today. That would not be logical. But I watch with admiration for what we will still see. A few days ago, I said the Tour had started. We are now fully underway. We are heading towards the finale, and the more we see signs of the finale, the more important the time trial seems to become."