“We have more than shown that we can go for the green jersey and the yellow jersey at the same time”
BARCELONA, 16 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Belgian cyclist Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) affirmed this Saturday that the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) “forces them to be on target all day” in the Tour de France, after his “isolated” attacks on his partner , and overall leader, Jonas Vingegaard.
“It is logical that Tadej Pogacar isolates Jonas [Vingegaard] when it attacks. After all, we spend the day shooting; the strange thing would be that we could follow them. Pogacar is one of the strongest riders in the peloton and he forces us to be on target all day”, he said after the fourteenth stage of the Tour de France.
The green jersey of the points classification highlighted the level exhibited in the first two weeks of the French round. “I’m having very good legs in this Tour de France. In particular, it gives me the feeling that every year I climb better,” he said.
“We have more than shown that we can go for the green jersey and the yellow jersey at the same time. Luckily, I don’t need much work from my teammates to score points, Christophe is enough for me [Laporte]. I wouldn’t say that the green jersey is insured, but I do see that we are very well placed”, added the winner of two stages this edition.
About the day on Saturday, Van Aert highlighted the endless attacks. “At one point I realized that there could very well be 40 riders scattered ahead of the peloton, and I decided to start to hunt down a few of them and try to defuse the situation,” he assessed.
“Unfortunately, Tadej was at my wheel and, when I saw him, I quickly lifted my foot and we exchanged roles. It was a very tough start. As an example, the fact that all those who reached our height, after my acceleration, were cyclists involved in the general”, he concluded.