Tour de France: Pogacar assaults on Galibier, creates a niche on the descent and takes again the yellow jersey. Vingegaard and Evenepoel break free

VALLOIRE – One other revolution on the Tour de France and the a part of the Jacobin is performed by a rare man Tadej Pogacar. A stage victory with a margin that could be a sign for everybody, particularly for Jonas Vingegaardclearly indifferent from the Slovenian as he had not finished since 2021. Pogacar’s assault got here lower than a kilometer from the summit of the Galibier. Vingegaard remained hooked up to his wheel for 400 meters, then needed to let go. On the prime the hole between the 2 was 10″, then on the lengthy descent in the direction of Valloire Pogacar gained on his rival and put 37″ within the bag on the end line.

Vingegaard was additionally caught by Evenepoel, Roglic, Ayuso and Rodriguez. Pogacar’s achieve on the Dane is subsequently nearly a minute: 37″ plus 10 bonus factors and three bonus factors on the prime of the Galibier. With the yellow jersey Carapaz gone, the standings now converse far more clearly: Pogacar leads with 45″ on Evenepoel, 50″ on Vingegaard, 1’10” on his UAE teammate Juan Ayuso, Roglic at 1’14”. Pogacar’s workforce is far more strong than Vingegaard’s Visma, which evaporated on the Galibier. It is getting robust for everybody at this level: those that had been searching for solutions from the primary actual mountain stage have discovered them. Vingegaard is there, however Pogacar is actually in nice form and after 4 levels appears to have the state of affairs firmly in hand. One of the best of the Italians within the standings is Giulio Ciccone, ninth at 3’20”.

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The final, considerably Italian, stage of the Tour begins from Pinerolo: Sestriere and Monginevro, then a descent in the direction of Briançon and the climb of the Galibier from the simpler aspect, that of Lautaret. Lastly, the nosedive in the direction of Valloire. A big breakaway instantly began, with 17 males: Christopher Juul-Jensen (Staff Jayco AlUla), Julien Bernard (Lidl – Trek), Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Staff), David Gaudu, Valentin Madouas and Romain Grégoire (Groupama – FDJ), Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin – Deceuninck), Stephen Williams (Israel – Premier Tech), Oier Lazkano (Movistar Staff), Raúl García Pierna and Cristián Rodríguez (Arkéa – B&B Accommodations), Kobe Goossens (Intermarché – Wanty), Warren Barguil (Staff dsm-firmenich PostNL), Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan Staff), Odd Christian Eiking and Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) and Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies). Van Aert is struggling terribly, and that’s already an indication of Visma’s weak spot.

With 26 km to go, 7 km from the summit of the Galibier, below the UAE’s trains, the boys of the yellow jersey group return to the top of the race. Nevertheless, Simon Yates and the yellow jersey Carapaz instantly soar. Pogacar’s very robust assault arrives simply over 800 meters from the summit. Vingegaard holds him till -400, then has to let him go. On the prime, the Slovenian passes with lower than 10″, then the descent begins. The 2 contenders stay with the identical hole for a very long time, by no means greater than 10″, in probably the most technical half. After Plan Lachat, within the sections the place it’s most necessary to push, Pogacar takes off and Vingegaard begins to look behind him, the place Roglic, Evenepoel, Ayuso and Rodriguez arrive. The 5 now not achieve on Pogi, who celebrates on the end line by beating his chest along with his fists, however instantly after the road. It’s the twelfth stage victory in Pogacar’s profession on the Tour. The yellow jersey, already worn in Bologna, now appears solidly on the shoulders of its nonetheless younger proprietor. Now two flat levels, earlier than the time trial on Friday: there too Pogacar might achieve on all of the others.

“I’m so joyful,” Pogi commented, “this was roughly the plan. It’s a dream stage and to complete it like that is unbelievable. I knew this stage very properly, I educated right here for a very long time, it was nearly a house stage for me. I had confidence and nice legs and I needed to strive. Initially on the descent there was numerous headwind. The moist curves on the prime scared me a bit. Figuring out the street helps lots. 50” gained on Vingegaard is nice information, I’m joyful to be on this place. And now we’ll proceed.”