Star Metro - Vingegaard takes nothing 'I wouldn't give my daughter'

After Wednesday's stage, Vingegaard leads the Tour de France by 7min 35sec from the former two-time winner Tadej Pogacar.

The Danish defending champion Vingegaard was asked about doping on Tuesday afer winning the individual time-trial, He was asked again on Wednesday after he appeared to warp up the toughest mountain on the Tour.

The 26-year-old did not flinch.

"I understand it's hard to trust, but I can tell you something from my heart," said Vingegaard, whose three-year-old daughter hugged him at the finish.

"I don't take anything I would not give to my daughter, and I definitely wouldn't give her any drugs," said the Jumbo Visma leader.

Vingegaard has been in the overall race lead since stage six but has said all along the Alpine stages would be where he wished to pounce.

So it has proved.

"Mostly its the performance team who make the plans," said the 26-year-old.

"They had it decided in December and then we have fine tuned it. Even yesterday we revised the plan from December that we have talked about a lot. We really believed in this plan and we have been fighting the whole Tour with this stage in mind.

Vingegaard admitted that his first reaction to the Tour route last October was negative.

"I was disappointed," he said. "Then I saw this stage and I was like happy about this stage. I had the feeling at first it wasn't that hard."

"But this stage has been one of the hardest for a long period."

The race has been marked by a close-fought duel between Vingegaard and Pogacar but the four Alpine stages have decided the fate of the Tour.

Until then on this 110th edition of the Tour, the pair had traded tit-for-tat hits with the struggle finely balanced.

Vingegaard fired first, taking a 53 second lead over the Team UAE rider in the Pyrenees, but Pogacar hit back three times to reduce the deficit.

Over the weekend's two stages in the Alps, Vingegaard stopped the rot even scraping a second back himself.

The duelling leaders were separated by just 10 seconds at the start of the time trial where Vingegaard's flashing downhill performance helped him open a 1min 48sec advantage.

Wednesday's stage from Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc to Courchevel contained a 20km ascent of the Cormet de Roselend mountain pass, and then a 28km ascent of the Col de Loze to 2,304m altitude where Pogacar lost the strength to keep up any sense of a struggle.

"I know Tadej will never give up," said Vingegaard.

But even the bubbly Slovene surely knows he's beaten now barring a disaster for the Dane.

F.Davis--SMC