Benson Bulletin: Tour de France stage 12 - The door was open until Pogačar shut it 🇫🇷
Defending champion stuns the opposition with a jaw-dropping, unanswerable attack on Hautacam, as we analyse the performance, Visma's tactics and the new GC landscape
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Over the past 11 stages, we’ve been led to believe that this year’s Tour de France was a genuine contest, that the time trial setbacks Jonas Vingegaard suffered in Caen were merely a blip, that the momentum Visma-Lease a Bike had built up, along with Tadej Pogačar’s crash on stage 11, and his shaky team, would mean the high plains of the Pyrenees and Alps would offer audiences a true head-to-head battle.
However, this year’s Tour has potentially been decided with one attack, one surge from UAE Team Emirates-XRG, and by the time Pogačar had drawn Vingegaard into a dog fight on the lower slopes of Hautacam on stage 12, the Dane was already on his knees.
Once free from his main rival, Pogačar launched a 12.8 km solo attack that displayed ruthless power and crushing strength. Vingegaard, tied in knots, tried to keep the gap respectable for as long as he could, but by the summit, the gap was over two minutes, with Pogačar now leading by 3:31 over the two-time champion. It’s not quite game over, but Vingegaard can’t endure much more of this, and frankly, it might be better for everyone if Pogačar shows mercy and puts him out of his misery in Friday’s mountain time trial.
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Pogačar back in yellow 🟡
For Pogačar, this was another incredible day in his career, one in which he rode to the top of one of the hardest ascents in all of cycling, and swapped the rainbow jersey for maillot jaune. His stage win has put him well clear of the rest in this year’s Tour and, barring a crash or a total off-day in the second half of the race, a fourth Tour de France title awaits. He’s simply too good for Vingegaard and miles clear of the rest.
At one point, Pogačar was even ahead of Bjarne Riis’s 1996 record-setting time on the climb. Ultimately, the Slovenian fell short by 28 seconds, but his time is still the second fastest on record, ahead of Luc Leblanc, Miguel Indurain, and Marco Pantani, and over a minute clear of Vingegaard’s winning time from 2022.
“The plan was to try to win the stage, depending on the breakaway, but we'd go for the stage. In the end, Visma was trying to go, and Jhonatan Narváez was there, Adam was there, and Tim was there. We were talking today at breakfast, remembering about this stage of the Dauphiné, the stage on Friday, we were going all in for the bottom [of the climb]. And Jhonatan doesn't take jokes, I guess, and he just sent it full [today]. Adam was not in the Dauphiné, so he was like 'what is this guy doing?' but I was like, OK, I see the plan of Jhonatan, I follow, I try to commit, the worst thing that happens, I can blow and go a bit slower. But in the end, Jhonatan did a good move, we went full, and then I remained alone, and it was better with a kilometre solo in the finish line,” Pogačar said after moving back into the yellow jersey.
Jhonatan Narváez, the signing of the season ✍️
A week ago, I spoke with Pogačar’s sports director here at the Tour de France and asked if Jhonatan Narváez was, in some ways, the team’s secret weapon, given that the rider had far exceeded expectations this season. His performance at the end of the Dauphiné in June, for instance, was remarkable, with one stage standing out above all others when he tore the race apart on the road to Combloux and dismantled Vingegaard in the process.
When I asked the UAE sports director about Narváez performing a similar role at the Tour, he appeared unsure of what to say, and eventually mentioned Adam Yates, João Almeida, and Marc Soler as key climbers in the Tour.
Almeida left the race early, Yates has been impressive in flashes, while Soler has been used much earlier in stages at the Tour. Narváez, meanwhile, has been sensational, and on stage 12 he recreated his performance from the Dauphiné, taking the lead at the front of the peloton just before Pogačar accelerated. The Ecuadorian’s turn at the front of the peloton didn’t last long - just a few hundred metres, if that - but the effects were devastating, with no one but Pogačar and Vingegaard able to follow before the Dane was forced to relent soon after.
Improving UAE Team Emirates is a difficult task for those building the team’s roster, but in Narváez, they have added to their depth chart, and not only that - they’ve seen something in him that Ineos never did or could utilise. Signing of the season, at this point.