Mid-term review of the tour – the momentum is changing: who has the advantage? How are the Swiss doing? Who collected?

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They are the great rivals of the Tour de France, who would probably prefer to avoid each other – and yet have to spend every day together: leader Jonas Vingegaard (26) and pursuer Tadej Pogacar (24).

The difference between them is only 10 seconds from last week. The picture at the end of the 15th stage on Sunday is correct: they cross the finish line on Mont Blanc side by side after attacking both. Unintentionally, the Dane and the Slovenian are currently inseparable.

“What they’re delivering is absolutely crazy,” Silvan Dillier (currently ranked 122nd) tells Blick before the last tour week. “We haven’t had a fight like that in a long time, where every second is fought.”

There are still three main stages before Paris on Sunday: the short but mountainous time trial on Tuesday (22.4 km), the mountain stage to the ski resort of Courchevel with the dangerous finish on Wednesday (165.7 km) and the final confrontation in the mountain stage on Saturday to Markstein Fellering (133.5 km).

Last year’s winner Vingegaard turned out to be the more solid driver, Pogacar the more explosive. After the 64 second mortgage Pogacar got on the 5th stage, he kept gaining seconds with his attacks. On Sunday, however, Vingegaard remained informed. He says, “I was more in control than usual.” Momentum is about to tip back to the leader.

“To be honest, my muscles are very broken,” says Silvan Dillier (122nd). Mentally it’s fine, but during the stages it’s very tough. “Especially if, like me, you were mainly a spectator of the race.”

Stefan Küng (currently 54th) mourns the day when he felt really good: “It was a pity that I couldn’t join the breakaway group on stage 10 because the whole team had to help the captain. I had great legs then. But it is a very, very difficult road.”

Thanks to sprinter Jasper Philipsen (25), Dillier’s Team Alpecin-Deceuninck has already won four stages and won 65,000 euros in prize money. More than any of the other 21 teams. Only eight have won a stage so far. At the end of the ranking: Dsm-Firmenich with only 4000 euros, where captain Romain Bardet (F) had to give up.

There may be no more mass sprint then. Dillier explains: “There are not many sprinters left in the peloton. That offers opportunities for teams that have not yet received a piece of cake. And that’s a lot. The last week is definitely going to be tough.”

Source : Blick