Jonas Vingegaard is a man who is as willing to say the words in a press conference as he is to give seconds to Tadej Pogachar. Since winning the yellow jersey in the opening week of the Tour de France, the Dane has kept things as discreet in the press conference room as he does on the road.

On Sunday evening in St. Gervais, for example, Vingegaard would say only the faintest of things about his mano a mano with Pogachar on stage 15's Le Betex climb.

"We look at each other a lot," he said. All I think about is being with Tadej."

Later, Vingegaard was asked by a reporter, "Do you still believe that this tool will be decided in a few minutes? - Do you still believe that this tool will be decided in a few minutes?

Then he pithily said, "I've been asked those questions for the past two days, and look at the answers I've gotten over the past two days."

But Vingegaard's attitude and word count were rather different when asked if he could understand the skepticism that greeted his extreme level of performance in this Tour. Then again, this was also a question that would make the yellow jersey sit up and take notice.

Incidentally, on stage 5, Vingegaard and Pogachar climbed the Tourmalet Pass faster than anyone in history, breaking Tony Rominger and Zenon Jaskra's 30-year-old record. On Saturday, they were on the verge of breaking Marco Pantani's 1997 record of a time that seemed unattainable on the Pass du Joux, but they both stalled in the last 2 km.

Vingegaard knows enough about cycling history to understand that any race that surpasses the times achieved in the days when EPO was prevalent in the peloton will always be open to criticism.

He also knows enough about his relationship with the press to understand that reacting with irritation to doping questions, as teammate Wout Van Aert did at last year's Tour, does not make them go away. on the final weekend of the 2022 Tour. He adopted the same conciliatory tone here as he did when answering similar questions in Rocamadour. [Frankly, skepticism is perfectly understandable, and we should be skeptical because it has happened in the past. Otherwise, it will just happen again." Vingegaard said in response to a similar question on Sunday at Rocamadour during the final weekend of the 2022 Tour.

"In that sense, I understand all the questions we get about this. The only thing I can say is that I have not taken anything. But honestly, I'm glad there's skepticism. I think that's a good thing. Besides, food, materials, training, everything is different. But it's always good to be skeptical.

What Vingegaard and Jumbo Visma will do to allay skepticism and answer questions remains to be seen. As the former Tour-winning team has proven, transparency is easy to talk about as a philosophy, but rarely implemented in practice. See you soon.

Vingegaard entered the second rest day of the Tour still in the yellow jersey and opened a 10-second gap on Pogachar on stage 15 to Saint-Gervais-Mont-Blanc.

The two were so engrossed in their private duel that they could afford to allow Pogachar's UAE teammate Adam Yates to briefly break away on the climb to the finish. As in the Grand Colombier, Pogachar accelerated after flamme rouge in an attempt to take a few seconds off Vingegaard, but the yellow jersey never gave way and the two finished 6:04 behind winner Wout Poels (Bahrain Victorious).

"I felt good today, but I don't know if I was thinking about attacking," Vingegaard said. "But that moment when I let Adam Yates go, I don't think I would have gotten anything out of the try. It didn't make sense to go there."

Vingegaard and Pogachar engaged in a series of intense one-on-one battles in the Pyrenees mountains early in the Tour. In the last six stages of this evenly matched battle, Pogachar had cut Vingegaard's lead by only seven seconds.

With the mountains seemingly unable to separate the two, Tuesday's 22.4km hilly time trial to Combrue may be the more important referee.

"I think not only the time trial, but also the next day and stage 20 will be very decisive," said Vingegaard. 'Any of those three could be really decisive stages.'

Ultimately, something has to give. Asked if he had reached his athletic limits yet, Vingegaard hesitated to answer. 'There must be something I can optimize,' he said. 'Of course, we must always strive to get as close to our limits as possible. That is what we always try to do.'