Pogacar snatches victory from under Visma | Lease a Bike's nose: "The plan? 100 percent perfect!"

Tadej Pogacar put the finishing touches on his Tour de France performance at Isola 2000 on Friday. The Slovenian from UAE-Team Emirates had spent several weeks preparing on that mountain for his major summer goal and was keen to win there, which, as usual, he did successfully.

"I wanted to win this queen stage," he made no secret of it at the start of his flash interview. "I can now also confirm that the Cime de Bonette is a terrifying climb. In training, it’s a cool climb, but then you can skip the last kilometer, haha," laughs the Slovenian who resides in Monaco.

"We spent a month here. It’s also a tough period, with hardly any easy days. You have to climb those cols every time, but that’s why you know them so well now," he continues. "During our altitude training, we already discussed how we wanted to approach this stage, and it happened exactly as planned. Up to the moment of my attack. 100 percent perfect!" Pogacar exclaims.

So what did that plan look like, and how did he explain Visma | Lease a Bike’s tactics? "We maintained a good pace on the Bonette, also because we thought Jonas Vingegaard would attack there. But they also rode hard at the front, so we got the feeling they wanted to win the stage with Matteo Jorgenson. But I got him," he says with a big smile.

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"It seemed easy, but Pogacar assured that it wasn’t. "I was also quite exhausted in those last two kilometers. When I caught Richard Carapaz and Simon Yates, I was actually already at my limit. But I saw that Matteo was also losing time, so I went after him and passed him. That also somewhat drained my own legs, but hats off to Matteo. He did very well, as did the other breakaway riders."

Pogacar acknowledges: "It looks better than ever"

The lead is now five minutes over Vingegaard. "It looks better than ever," Pogacar also notes. "It’s a big gap, so on Saturday I have all the time to just enjoy. We’ll let the breakaway go and just enjoy riding on roads where I often train. And hopefully, nothing strange will happen," says the UAE-Team Emirates leader.

At Isola 2000, he has now secured four stage wins this year, and fifteen in total. "That makes it a great Tour in terms of total wins. I’ve found a good balance. Last year there were two, now four," he explains in the flash interview.