In the final three mountain stages of the Tour de France, Tadej Pogachar steadily chipped away at Jonas Vingegaard's overall lead.

More importantly, for the first time in over a week, Jumbo Visma's leader not only resisted Pogachar's mountain attack, but matched it, in Saturday's ultra-difficult stage.

As Pogachar roared in with his trademark ferocious attack, Vingegaard, who had fallen off midway up the brutally difficult Juuplane climb, slowly but surely caught up with the Slovenian after a stifling and tense 2km, consolidating the gap between the two at around 5 seconds! The race was now over. It was a very different result from the previous three mountain stages, where Pogachar had attacked and kept the distance between him and Vingegaard.

Vingegaard then held off Pogachar (UAE Team Emirates) to reach the summit and take the time bonus (before the Slovenian sprinted for the summit but was blocked by his bike).

When the time bonuses for the yellow and white jersey holders were combined, Vingegaard gained a one second advantage over Pogachar. It may be a small advantage, but it was important to note how well Vingegaard controlled Pogachar on the climb.

"The bikes were very close on the climb, and it would have been better otherwise," said a mild-mannered Vingegaard, who rarely spoke publicly of his criticism.

Jumbo-Visma's new tactic of keeping the day's break super-tight and going for time bonuses did not disappoint, though Vingegaard denied that he was discouraged by the resulting one-second gap to his rival. It was the same last year, and it will be again this year," he said. 'I'd love to be wearing the yellow jersey in Paris. I still don't think this race will be decided by a few seconds.

In any case, what made Vingegaard's performance remarkable was the mental and physical resilience he showed when Pogachar put maximum pressure on him in the Jouplain. Despite an out-of-category climb, with his rivals right in front of him, and despite both men exerting maximum effort for two kilometers, Vingegaard not only held on, but finally regained contact. 'He attacked very strongly. I had to go with my tempo, but luckily it was enough to catch him," Vingegaard explained.

Vingegaard then tackled the notoriously difficult Col de Joux Plane downhill with Pogachar, who explained that he had previously watched a video of the downhill section created by CPA president Adam Hansen to give the riders an idea.

"It was nice to see the downhill," he said. 'I don't know if I would call it dangerous. If you crash, that means you rode too hard.'

Rodriguez won stage 14 to maintain his lead, but his first day in the Alps confirmed that Pogachar and Vingegaard were pulling further and further away from their rivals in the overall race. Also, thanks to being the first to reach the summit of the Juu Plain, a little-known fact, Vingegaard tied with Nielson Powles (EF Education - Easy Post) for the top mountain prize.

In keeping with his typically noncommittal stance, Vingegaard declined to say who was the moral winner, him or Pogachar.

"It's always hard to say who it was," he said, "and I don't really think about that."

But as teammate Wout Van Art observed, Vingegaard and Pogachar seem evenly matched at the moment.

"They are both pushing Wout more than last year," Vingegaard agreed.

As for which of the two is faster, for now the answer remains somewhere in the air in the Alps.