Still standing, Vingegaard lies in wait on Tour de France

ORLEANS, France : With defending champion Jonas Vingegaard entering the event having not raced for three months, Tadej Pogacar was hoping to put the hammer down early in the Tour de France, but while he leads on the first rest day, the Slovenian has not knocked his big rival out.

After nine stages, Pogacar has the yellow jersey and leads Belgian Remco Evenepoel by 33 seconds and Denmark's Vingegaard by 1:15.

It is not quite enough, however, to start thinking of celebrations of a possible Giro d'Italie/Tour de France double, the first since 1998.

Predictably, Pogacar took a swashbuckling approach to the race and managed to gain time on Vingegaard in the individual time trial and first high mountain stage, although most of the seconds he won that day were down to his descending skills.

On the second stage, he tried to distance Vingegaard on a short, punchy climb, but failed. On Sunday, on a stage peppered with gravel roads, he tried relentlessly, but failed again.

"Tadej was the strongest," said Vingegaard, whose defensive tactics were criticised by Pogacar and Evenepoel, with the Belgian saying that sometimes you have to show courage in the race, referring to the Danish rider.

Vingegaard, who three months ago sustained a collapsed lung and rib fractures in a crash at the Tour of the Basque Country, called it "riding smart" when asked about Evenepoel's comments.

The leading trio had the chance to distance fourth-placed Primoz Roglic on Sunday, but Vingegaard refused to collaborate, only focusing on not losing time.

The Visma-Lease a Bike leader is waiting for his moment, knowing five more mountain stages and a potentially decisive time trial are still to come.

"I'm growing into the race, feeling better every day," he said on