Forget Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard's biggest rival at Tour de France is Jai Hindley – Jonathan Vaughters

Jonas Vingegaard's biggest rival for the yellow jersey at the 2023 Tour de France is Jai Hindley (Bora-hansgrohe), not Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates), EF Education–EasyPost boss Jonathan Vaughters claimed on The Breakaway after a Stage 5 thriller. Hindley grabbed the overall race lead with a brilliant solo win on Wednesday, with Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) obliterating Pogacar on the final climb to suggest the pre-race script of a two-horse race was all wrong.

Ad Pogacar arrived with a huge question mark over his form and fitness after fracturing his wrist at Liege-Bastogne-Liege in April, with the two-time champion only given the green light to train again on the road in June. Tour de FranceDaring Hindley into yellow with epic Stage 5 win as Vingegaard cracks Pogacar4 HOURS AGO And Vaughters, a special guest on Eurosport's coverage in the Pyrenees, said Jumbo-Visma would now turn their attention to delivering the «last nail in the coffin» on Thursday's summit finish.

«They'll definitely take time on Pogacar if they can,» said Vaughters ahead of Stage 6 to Cauterets, which also goes over the mythical Col du Tourmalet. «They’ll want to put that to bed and put the last nail in the coffin as soon as they can.

But I don't think Pogacar is Vingegaard's biggest rival. I think it's Jai.» Meanwhile, Eurosport's motorbike extraordinaire Philippe Gilbert said Pogacar's wrist injury may have ruined his bid for a third Tour crown already.

«I think we all forgot Pogacar broke his wrist at Liege, he had a lot of disruption in his preparation of the Tour and there was still a question mark around his form,» Gilbert said at the finish. «He responded quite well with the first stages – perfect for him with let’s say Classic-like first two