Jonas Vingegaard is confident and still believes he can turn the situation around at the Tour de France in the third week. During the press conference held at the Visma - Lease a Bike hotel, the Dane was smiling and relaxed and reiterated that the only possible strategy is to attack.

Despite being more than four minutes behind leader Pogačar, Vingegaard wants to maintain confidence in his chances of winning his third Tour. "Of course, it seems very difficult now. The difference is significant, but I still believe I can do it. I must attack. Let's be honest, I'm over four minutes behind, and I have to admit I've had two bad days. I usually don't have bad days, so yes, it's a bit of a shame. Now I just have to look ahead: if I stop believing, I definitely won't win."

Vingegaard didn't want to elaborate too much on tactics and simply said that Mont Ventoux will be a very tough climb. "It will be an extremely tough climb. Probably the pace will be very high from the initial part, and then if someone isn't feeling well, it will be evident from the beginning, but this won't change our strategy."

Beating Tadej Pogačar is truly difficult: in this Tour de France, the Slovenian hasn't shown any signs of weakness, and for this reason, no one has managed to overtake him yet. "So far he has seemed very strong, he hasn't shown any weak points. I think he's one of the most complete riders in the group, if not the most complete, and for this reason, it hasn't been possible to find weak points, but if I found one, I wouldn't be talking about it here."

In recent years, we've seen significant improvement in both Pogačar's and Vingegaard's performances, and both are considered true champions capable of leaving all other riders behind. "I think the biggest improvement that he and I have made was from two years ago until last year. And then he rose a bit more, but I think his biggest improvement was between 23 and 24 years old."

Vingegaard also spoke about difficult days, and how the team hasn't been able to find the cause of his difficulties. "I had two bad days and when that happens, obviously you lose time, but anyone can have a bad day, so yes, it can happen in the third week. From what we've seen so far, in the last week my condition improves and this makes me more optimistic."

The Dane wanted to analyze what has happened in recent years. Starting from the change in training with long periods at altitude, up to last year's accident in the Basque Country, when his physical condition was significantly compromised.

"Certainly the accident last year had a huge impact because I wasn't just two steps back, but ten steps back. The accident had a big impact on me, but I also think this year's fall had no effect. In fact, after about a week I could start training slowly, so I didn't lose much because of that fall. From 2020, we started long training periods at altitude and the entire team has increased its level by 10%. So yes, I think a long training period can actually make you improve a lot."

The Dane then returned to his chances of beating Pogačar. He knows it's a very difficult task, but he's also convinced he can still do something to improve his situation.

"Obviously, as I said before, four minutes is quite a wide gap, but I think I can make a difference. I expected him to be this strong, but I can also say that without those two negative days, we would have a different situation today. In the end, I don't think his condition is that different from what we saw at the Dauphiné."