Danish cyclist Jonas Vingegaard will not be able to win the Tour de France for the third time in a row this year as he will once again have to concede the superiority of his rival Tadej Pogacar on the final climb of stage 19.

“I came into this Tour de France with the mentality of going for the win, but I also knew it would be difficult because of the lack of preparation I had,” Vingegaard said. “We knew it could be a possibility, so I was mentally prepared for it.”

“I think Tadej is at a very high level. I was also at a very high level for the first two weeks and now a little bit less,” Vingegaard said. “I think it’s normal that with just one and a half months of preparation something catches up with me. I always said from the beginning that if I could fight for the win with one and a half months of preparation, it would be crazy. I did that for two and a half weeks. Now the fight for the win is over. But the fight for second and third place is not over…”

“I wasn’t having a good day and halfway through the stage I had to change my mindset from trying to go for the win,” Vingegaard said. “That’s why we brought Matteo and Wilco in, so that if I wanted to go, I would have satellite riders. But I had to change my mindset. Instead of attacking, I had to follow instead. I think tomorrow will probably be the same for me.

“I said before that I wanted to risk second place for the victory, but when you have the legs I have now you have to try to be content with second place.”

“We’ve seen in recent days that Pogacar is stronger,” admitted Visma-Lease a Bike DS Gricha Niermann. “We were still hopeful for today, but in the end you have to be realistic. At the moment, Jonas is the second best rider there.”