Tadej Pogacar on Saturday won for a fifth time on this year’s Tour de France, moving to the brink of a third title, with an “out of this world” performance ahead of defending champion Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel.
Two-time champion Pogacar had a 5-minute, 14-second lead over Vingegaard after Saturday, as he effectively made sure of becoming the first man in 26 years to capture the Giro d’Italia-Tour de France double in the same season.
It was a fifth stage victory this month for the two-time champion, who stretched out his arms as he crossed the line before holding up his fingers to signal his number of wins.
Photo: AFP
The only other man to have won five mountain stages in one Tour was Gino Bartali in 1948.
“Five wins. If you had told me that before the Tour then I would not have believed you,” Pogacar said. “It’s out of this world, I’m super happy.”
He rode most of the stage aided by teammates, likely to conserve energy for the last day.
“I wanted to ride and finish with the team,” he said, knowing he would finish alone in the final stage.
The Slovenian won the Tour de France in 2020 and 2021 before his attack-minded tactics backfired as Vingegaard beat him into second place in 2022 and last year.
The day’s action started in Nice and culminated on the tough Col de Couillole climb.
Evenepoel’s Soudal Quick-Step team set the tempo and attacked Vingegaard in an attempt to take second place overall.
Instead Evenepoel dropped about 53 seconds on the Dane, making it less likely the Belgian could claim second place after the time trial, where he is the favorite for the stage win.
Vingegaard said he had not been targeting a win on Saturday’s penultimate stage after admitting on Friday that his title hopes were over when Pogacar also pocketed the 19th stage.
“I was riding more to put more time into him [Evenepoel] rather than going for the stage today. He’s the best time trialist in the world so you never know,” the 27-year-old Dane said. “I felt really bad yesterday, completely empty, so to bounce back like this is really nice.”
Taiwan’s participation in the Olympic Games has been a story of politics as much as sports, with the name it has competed under since 1984 — Chinese Taipei — drawing as much attention as its athletes. However, with the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad set to begin in Paris on Friday, the exploits of Taiwan’s athletes past and present who have won 36 medals since the country’s debut in Melbourne in 1956 deserve a nod. Many of Taiwan’s medal winners have gained considerable name recognition, but only two have achieved legendary status — Maysang Kalimud and Chi Cheng, the only medal winners
In April last year, Taiwanese badminton ace Tai Tzu-ying finally opened up about her future in the sport in which she had competed professionally since 2009. “My plan is to retire after the end of next year’s season. Even if I’m still able to compete, I would prefer not to,” she said at a promotional event. If true, the Paris Olympics would be her last stab at an Olympic gold medal, a prize some might think a player who has topped the rankings in women’s singles for a record total of 214 weeks — between December 2016 and September 2022 — should
Canada women’s soccer coach Bev Priestman on Wednesday said she would step away from the team’s opening game against New Zealand at the Paris Olympics in the wake of a drone scandal. New Zealand complained to the International Olympic Committee’s integrity unit after it said drones were flown over closed practice sessions earlier in the week. As of press time last night, Canada, the defending Olympic champions, were set to open the Paris Games against New Zealand in Saint-Etienne. In the fallout of the complaint, two staff members — assistant coach Jasmine Mander and analyst Joseph Lombardi — were sent home, the
Shohei Ohtani on Sunday hit a 473-foot (144m) home run as the Los Angeles Dodgers went deep six times in a 9-6 victory over the Boston Red Sox. Freddie Freeman, Teoscar Hernandez, Gavin Lux, Austin Barnes and Jason Heyward also connected as Los Angeles swept the three-game series. “Going into the break, we weren’t playing good baseball, and then to come out fresh against a really good ball club and to play the way we did — the offense came to life,” Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts said. It was the 25th time the Dodgers launched at least six homers in a game