Star Metro - Pogacar urges rivals to fight for victory

The 27-year-old Slovenian seems to be sauntering to a record-equalling fifth Tour title with a lead of more than three and half minutes already over his nearest rival, two-time former winner Jonas Vingegaard, after 13 stages.

With back-to-back mountain stages to come this weekend, many expect Pogacar to turn the knife even more before a brutal final week.

Some rivals have even suggested that they are already fighting for second place, but Pogacar said that would be a mistake.

"I don't know how to respond to that. If you go only for second place, it's a bit (of a) pity," the world champion said.

"I think in the Tour, especially when you have a strong team around you, there are so many possibilities.

"You always need to aim for the best and hope for the victory."

On Thursday, Vingegaard's team manager Marc Reef insisted that Visma-Lease a Bike still believed in their chances, although he admitted that it would be tough to reel in Pogacar.

"We knew that in the first stages and the first week we could lose some time," he told AFP.

"Of course, it's more than we hoped for, but we also have trust in Jonas, that he really grows into the race."

But he added: "Of course, (if) it continues like this and Pogacar stays strong like this, it's also difficult. We have to be realistic."

Even though none of his rivals have even attempted to attack him yet, Pogacar is expecting them to do something during Saturday's 155km 14th stage from Mulhouse to Le Markstein Fellering in the Vosges mountains.

Almost from the off, the peloton will tackle the first of four tough, long climbs.

The final Col du Haag has several sections with gradients of over nine percent.

"It's a tough day, (ideal) for a lot of attacks. It's a playground for that tomorrow," he said.

"I hope that we can set a good pace, that it's good for us and not easy for the others. We will see.

"Tomorrow will be a tough day and we have to be prepared for any attacks from the contenders."

- 'We'll try to take advantage' -

However, with the way that his UAE Emirates-XRG team has been riding, and controlling, the stages where differences could be made, one of Pogacar's main rivals said that his team will be waiting to see what the champion does.

"We all expect UAE to control the stage to try to win it, and we'll try to take advantage of that," said Lidl-Trek's Juan Ayuso, who is fifth, just 46 seconds off Vingegaard.

Ayuso dropped a place after Tom Pidcock finished third on Friday's 205km stage from Dole to Belfort, some seven and a half minutes ahead of the peloton.

That allowed the Briton to jump from 10th to fourth, although he had a long day in the breakaway.

Ayuso is confident that he will be able to take back that position from the Olympic mountain bike champion.

"He's another tough rival. He already showed that last year at the Vuelta that he's capable of doing well over three weeks," The 23-year-old Spaniard said of Pidcock, who was third at the Vuelta a Espana last year.

"I hope that tomorrow he pays a little bit for the hard work he had to do today to gain that time and will lose time again."

S.Cloutier--SMC