As the finish line approached on Friday, Tadej Pogacar looked over his shoulder and saw an empty road. Moments later, he was a giant step closer to clinching a third Tour de France title by winning another tough mountain stage.
Pogacar pulled away from Jonas Vingegaard to be 5 minutes, 3 seconds ahead of his main rival with two days left.
“Now I have a good lead,” Pogacar said. “I will do the last two days of the Tour on the roads where I have trained my entire professional career.”
Photo: AP
The Slovenian looked almost certain to reclaim the Tour crown from Vingegaard, the two-time defending champion from Denmark, and in doing so secure the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France double.
Behind a fading Vingegaard sat Tour debutant Remco Evenepoel of Belgium, who was 7 minutes, 1 second adrift in third place.
Pogacar attacked with about 9km left on the final climb of 16km to the Isola 2000 ski resort. Vingegaard could not follow as Pogacar chased after the Dane’s Jumbo Visma teammate, Matteo Jorgenson.
Photo: AFP
The American rider was alone in front with Richard Carapaz and Simon Yates just behind him.
Carapaz and Yates were caught by Pogacar, leaving just Jorgenson ahead. He was overtaken with 2km left as the UAE Team Emirates leader soared to his fourth stage win this month — holding up four fingers to the fans — and 15th Tour stage victory of his career.
“As I approached the last 2 kilometers, I felt a little drained. I still caught Richard Carapaz and Simon Yates, and I could catch up with Matteo Jorgenson,” Pogacar said. “When it was time to pass him, I pushed as hard as possible to overtake him with speed. He was very strong today, as were all the guys in the breakaway. Hats off to them.”
After four hours in the saddle, Pogacar raised both hands in the air as he crossed the line. Jorgensen was 21 seconds behind and Yates 40 seconds back in third. Carapaz was 1 minute, 11 seconds back in fourth.
“I knew today’s last climb very well. With the team, we planned it well and we did exactly as we said,” Pogacar said. “Our race was 100 percent perfect.”
Evenepoel placed fifth ahead of a disconsolate Vingegaard, with both riders timed at 1 minute, 42 seconds behind Pogacar.
The Tour ends today on the French Riviera with a time trail from Monaco to Nice, and not in Paris as it usually does because of the Olympic Games.
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