Cycling's all-time great Eddy Merckx believes Jonas Vingegaard's climbing makes him stronger on Grand Tours than his rival Tadej Pogacar, he told AFP ahead of stage 19 on Friday.

The 78-year-old Belgian hailed the testing course of the 110th Tour de France and the duel between the two current big guns of road cycling.

"This has been a fabulous Tour de France, wouldn’t you say?" the five-time Tour de France winner said at the starting enclosure of the stage at Moirans-en-Montagne. 

Merckx said the duel between overall leader Vingegaard and second-placed Pogacar, as well as the route itself, had delivered a great Tour.

"It’s been a thrilling race," he said.

"Also with Pogacar and Vingegaard racing neck and neck helped, until the time-trial anyway," he said.

"There wasn't much difference between the two of them and then with what happened the day after, well after that the suspense was gone after the big mountain stage," he said.

The pair had engaged in a thrilling struggle for supremacy over the first 15 stages, and were separated by seconds.

Vingegaard however then took a 1min 48sec lead over the Slovenian in the individual effort on stage 16 before totally crushing the two-time champion in the high mountains on stage 17.

"Pogacar is still a more complete rider," said Merckx, who has perviously spoken highly of the adventurous style with which Pogacar races.

"But for the moment, in the high mountains at least, Vingegaard remains the stronger of the two," he said.

The 26-year-old Dane won the 2022 Tour de France by turning the screw on the then two-time defending champion Pogacar on a sizzling day on the final climb of a major mountain stage.

Pogacar vowed to fight back this year, but a broken wrist in April hindered his preparations.

And Vingegaard again turned the screw in the mountains to take a rock-solid lead of over seven minutes.

Merckx raised his eyes to the heavens as if to say 'if only', when asked if he would have fancied his chances against the pair.

"I would really have loved to have raced in this Tour de France," said Merckx, who won the event from 1969-1972 and again in 1974.

"But I'm happy to have raced in my day," he said.

Merckx won a total of 11 Grand Tours, picking up a colossal 64 stage wins along the way and shares the all-time stage win record on the Tour de France of 34 wins with Mark Cavendish.

The Tour de France winds up in Paris on Sunday with the only real threat to Vingegaard's lead being an unlikely meltdown 24 hours earlier on the mountainous stage 20.

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