Pogacar fired up by losing twice to Evenepoel at Tour de France / Photo: Jeff PACHOUD - AFP
Pogacar fired up by losing twice to Evenepoel at Tour de France
Reigning Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar admitted Tuesday that he was fired up to prove his superiority after being beaten in back-to-back stages by Remco Evenepoel.
There was no surprise the Slovenian lost to the world and Olympic time-trial champion in a race against the clock, but Tuesday's stage 16 defeat came two days after the Belgian surprisingly beat Pogacar on a mountain-top finish.
With three mountain stages left in the 113th edition of the Grande Boucle, including two that finish on the iconic Alpe d'Huez, Pogacar said he wanted to restore the Tour's hierarchy.
"Obviously, I always race to win and today I'm not going to lie, I really wanted to make the best out of it. Try to win," said the 27-year-old Slovenian.
"I was really motivated. I had good legs. At the end of the day, he's the best ever on the time-trial.
"It gives a bit more fire for the next days to get another win."
Pogacar, who has already won three stages this year, was nonetheless magnanimous.
"He's just a legend on the race against the clock," said the four-time Tour winner.
"He's one of the greatest, no doubt, and no shame coming second behind Remco."
Even so, Pogacar had a warning for Evenepoel and the other contenders.
"I'm looking forward to the next days in the Alps."
- 'I've failed already twice' -
One of the biggest surprises in the 26.1km time-trial along the shores of Lake Geneva from Evian-les-Bains to Thonon-les-Bains was Mattias Skjelmose, who finished third, more than a minute quicker than his Lidl-Trek team leader Juan Ayuso.
The Dane is sixth overall, one place and less than a minute behind the 23-year-old Spaniard.
"I'm super happy. We wanted to put a statement today," said Skjelmose.
"We made a bet about starting crazy hard, also harder than I actually thought I could.
"Today is just one of those days where I could keep going."
He stopped short of suggesting that his team might have to reassess who should be their leader.
"Juan is still the main guy for us. He's still in front in GC (general classification) as far as I'm concerned."
Four days ago, Ayuso led the best young rider's white jersey category and was only 16 seconds off the podium.
He is now fifth, two-and-a-half minutes off both, held by Mexican Isaac Del Toro.
"It's hard because to be on the podium, you can't fail and I've failed already on two days, so it obviously makes things harder," he said.
"But there are still two really hard days, and two other days where a lot of things can happen."
Ahead, third-placed Del Toro leads teenage French talent Paul Seixas by just 20 seconds.
Seixas's Decathlon CMA CGM sporting director Julien Jurdie insisted that the team were not getting carried away with targets on the 19-year-old's Tour debut.
"We're not going to think about the white jersey or the podium, we're going to give our all collectively and individually," he told France TV.
"There are still three big battles ahead on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
"The difficulties will increase in a crescendo to Saturday."
"Saturday's stage, honestly, it's monstruous -- anything can happen."
C.Ursini--LDdC
