2024-07-20 05:14:20
Slovenian Tadej Pogacar is just two racing days away from winning the Tour de France for the third time in his career.
The leader of the United Arab Emirates team triumphed in the “royal” 19th stage – 144.6 kilometers from Embrun to Isola 2000 and extended his lead at the top of the general classification to over five minutes.
Pogacar decided the stage with an individual attack in the last eight kilometers. On the climb from the first category Isola 2000, he attacked his competitors Jonas Vingegor (Dan) and Remko Evenepool (Bel), who had no answer for his action. Soon after, Pogacar caught up with all the other cyclists who were breaking away, with Vingegor’s teammate Matteo Jørgenson being the last to pass. The American was hoping to get to the stage victory, but with a kilometer and a half to go, he was overtaken by the 25-year-old Pogacar, who registered his 81st career victory and fourth since the start of the race.
The time with which the Slovenian finished today’s stage was 4 hours, 4 minutes and 3 seconds. He climbed Isola 2000 in 38:13 min, a new record, and at an average speed of 25.28 km/h. In 1993, Miguel Indurain (Spain) and Tony Rominger (Switzerland) took the shorter 1km distance in 41:49 min at a speed of 21:38 km/h.
Thus, in the general classification before the final two stages, Pogacar has a lead of 5:03 minutes over the champion for the last two years Vingegor and 7:01 minutes over the third Evenepool.