In the first uphill test on Thursday, his performance was once again not good enough, but the Dane from Visma | Lease a Bike bounced back in a climbing time trial. It is therefore still unclear what Vingegaard's potential is in this race.

While Tadej Pogacar has been enjoying a dream Tour de France run this year, his main rival Jonas Vingegaard and his once almighty team are now closer to third than first place after just one high mountain stage on Thursday.

Jonas Vingegaard's wife Trine was brutally honest in her assessment of the Visma-Lease cycling team, as she blamed them for pushing her husband too far.

Lease a Bike was dealt a serious blow on Thursday in the first mountain stage between Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar. The Danish leader of the Dutch team lost more than two minutes, but his teammates remain confident in him.

Earlier this week, Hansen gave an interview to Politiken in which she appeared to question the Dutch squad's Tour planning, saying that the team was "pushing Jonas too far now" and that "if you focus on stage wins for others, you're not fully focussed on Jonas."

Tadej Pogačar won the mountain time trial to Peyragudes. The Slovenian dominated, winning by 36 seconds from his main rival Jonas Vingegaard.

Tadej Pogacar unleashed a vintage assault on the unforgiving slopes of Hautacam, crushing the Tour de France 12th stage and leaving chief rival Jonas Vingegaard gasping for air and clinging to fading hopes on a brutal,

Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease A Bike) riding his teammate Jan Tranik's bike (Image credit: Getty Images) After suffering a tyre puncture halfway in the gravel-packed chaotic Tour de France stage 9

Tadej Pogacar regains the overall lead of the Tour de France after storming up the Hautacam climb to win stage 12 by over two minutes from Jonas Vingegaard.

Vingegaard simply couldn't hold onto the attack Pogačar put in at the bottom of the Hautacam, and ended up finishing second, but 2:10 down on the Slovenian, dropping to 3:31 down on the overall. He's still in the runner-up spot, but Visma are looking at a very tough-to-fix deficit.