Pogačar looked to punish Vingegaard on the first two tough Pyrenees climbs in Stage 16, catching him by surprise with a lightning acceleration as the peloton trudged up the Port du Lers, with still over 50 kilometres to race on the stage.
The Slovenian appeared to have carved out a gap, but Vingegaard took it upon himself to take all that ground back with apparent ease. Pogačar went again only 600 metres later, but Vingegaard was undeterred and calmly chased him down for the second time.
Looking for a change of strategy, Pogačar then looked to test Vingegaard's descending skills, attacking as the group crossed the summit of the Port du Lers, an area we hadn't really seen the Dane have to perform under pressure.
But just as before, Vingegaard marked Pogačar acceleration for acceleration and turn for turn, strengthening his case with every stage for why he deserves to be the first man to win the Tour de France since 2019 not named Tadej.
The Dane's team also made sure to protect him well again today, Wout van Aert reprising the role of satellite rider and dropping back from the break, as well as Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) splitting the favourites group with a blistering pace on the Mur de Péguère after Rafal Majka (UAE Team Emirates) had a bad mechanical while on the front.
Van Aert said after the stage his move was a calculated one, as well as Kuss' efforts on the final climb where Jumbo were afraid of their rider being vulnerable to more attacks after those on the previous ascent and descent.
"We wanted to have someone at the front," the green jersey said.
"Initially, we thought more of Christophe Laporte but I went for it because there were (Brandon) McNulty and Dani Martinez and the group got formed very quickly. Eventually, it was a good situation for us.
"We feared that Jonas would be isolated in the Mur de Péguère, that’s why I was there to accompany him in the downhill to avoid any surprise. Every day that we keep our advantage is one day more towards the win in Paris.”
Vingegaard acknowledged staying with Pogačar wasn't easy, but he was happy he had the legs to do it after recovering well from a crash suffered before the rest day in stage 15.
"Today I’m one day closer to Paris," Vingegaard said after the stage.
"I did expect Tadej Pogacar to attack me today. He did it already on the second last climb, and I could match his acceleration, which was very strong and not easy to follow, so it turned out alright for me. I will try to keep it like this every day.
"Our goal is to win the Tour de France, and I guess every attack takes me closer to delivering it. The plan today was to send someone in the break, because having a satellite rider up front is always useful and can be very important on a stage like this on which we expected long-range attacks. It worked out perfectly.
"We did a great work as a team and I’m still on the leader jersey with the same margin. Consequences of my crash? Well, I felt super good on the bike yesterday already. I was a bit sore on Sunday, but the bad feelings are now gone. Especially on the bike, it doesn’t hurt at all."
While Pogačar's plan again didn't work out today, he didn't waver from his focus to keep pressuring Jonas, looking ahead to the next two, harder stages in the Pyrenees.
“It wasn’t such a bad day," he said.
"In any case, it was hard to make differences in this stage. I tried to attack in the downhill but it hasn’t really worked out. I didn’t manage to attack Jonas. He was well escorted.
"Things changed when Rafal Majka broke his chain because he setting a high tempo.
"After that, I found myself with the Jumbo-Visma riders who received the help of Van Aert from the front group. Climbs will be longer in the coming two days. There will be more opportunities for attacking.”
When asked if he felt his attacks made Vingegaard suffer, Pogačar took a long time thinking of a response before finishing with a good-natured "yeah, probably."
The Tour de France continues in the Pyrenees with another mountain stage for Stage 17. Watch from 9.05pm AEST on the SBS SKODA Tour Tracker, with the SBS and SBS On Demand broadcast starting from 9.30pm AEST.
