Published July 19, 2024, 16:45
Tour de FranceTadej Pogacar wins solo at Isola 2000
The Slovenian, yellow jersey holder of the Grande Boucle, has further increased his lead over his pursuers by winning in the Alps on Friday.
Tadej Pogacar crushed the competition again on Friday in a mountain stage.
AFP
Alone in the world, Tadej Pogacar took a decisive step toward final victory in the Tour de France by winning the 19th stage solo on Friday at the ski resort of Isola 2000.
The Slovenian attacked nine kilometers from the summit to overtake the last escapees one by one, marking his fourth victory in this 111th edition.
With just two days before the final arrival in Nice, he now holds a 5’03” lead over Jonas Vingegaard and 7’01” over Remco Evenepoel in the overall standings.
The Dane, who pushed himself to the limit, and the Belgian finished the stage together in fifth and sixth places.
Toward a double not seen in 26 years
Unless an accident occurs, the UAE leader will then win his third Tour de France after 2020 and 2021 and take a spectacular revenge on Vingegaard, the winner of the last two editions.
If he triumphs, he will also become the first cyclist since Marco Pantani in 1998 to achieve the Giro-Tour double in the same year.
Even though there is still one mountain stage left on Saturday and a final time trial between Monaco and Nice on Sunday, Pogacar, 25, is outperforming the competition this year and seems to have erased what constituted his only weakness: the long climbs in the heat.
On Friday, the stage featured three climbs over 2000 meters, including the summit of the Bonnette, the highest paved road in France, perched at 2802 m above sea level.
But this did not trouble the Slovenian at all, who reached the summit with four teammates within a small group of favorites.
Evenepoel and Vingegaard together
Up front, six men opened the road, including Vingegaard’s two best mountain lieutenants, Matteo Jorgenson and Wilco Keldermann, perhaps a sign that the Visma team no longer believed in winning overall but preferred to aim for a stage victory.
This group of six included climbers of the caliber of Richard Carapaz, Jai Hindley, and Simon Yates—three former winners of grand tours—who approached the foot of the last ascent to Isola 2000 with a four-minute lead over the yellow jersey group.
Jorgenson then attacked with over 13 kilometers to go to seek victory as a consolation prize for Visma.
But a few minutes later, Pogacar accelerated again, and it took him only seven kilometers to catch up with the American, who ultimately finished second 20 seconds behind, and then immediately drop him.
Behind, Evenepoel tried to attack Vingegaard, but the Dane managed to keep up, and the two men arrived together, far from Pogacar.
(AFP)