Tour de France: Pogacar cracks and loses nearly six minutes on Vingegaard, Gall wins in Courchevel

2023-07-19 18:01:00

Jonas Vingegaard can already begin to savor his final victory. The Dane feared the attack of a vengeful Tadej Pogacar after being largely beaten this Tuesday during the time trial, but the Slovenian completely cracked. Victim of a fall at the start of the stage, the double winner of the Grande Boucle lost contact with the yellow jersey nearly 9 kilometers from the top of the Col de la Loze, conceding five minutes to his main competitor on this single ascent. . He says goodbye to his dreams of victory on the Champs-Élysées.

Despite his attack six kilometers from the top, the stage victory was still impossible for the Jumbo-Visma rider, who did not manage to come back on the breakaway. In the lead all day, Felix Gall won alone. The Austrian offers a first victory to AG2R Citroën since the start of this Tour de France, which had initially bet on Ben O’Connor to grab a good place in the general classification. But the Aussie was never able to assume that leadership status. This victory allows Gall to move up to 8th place overall.

Impressive, as in the first stage when he finished second behind his brother, Simon Yates again fails a few seconds from victory. He still goes up in the general classification and is now in 5th place. David Gaudu and Pello Bilbao, also present in the breakaway, just like Thibaut Pinot, Wilco Kelderman or Rafal Majka, also failed to keep pace with the winner of the day in the Col de la Loze. Pello Bilbao completes the podium.

Blocked for a few seconds by a car and spectators during his climb, Jonas Vingegaard finally finished 4th, 1′52″ behind Felix Gall. Pogacar is 5′45″ behind Vingegaard. Thanks to his performance, the Dane is more than ever in yellow. He now has a 7′35″ lead over Tadej Pogacar. Adam Yates, who did not wait for his teammate to retain his third place, took advantage of Carlos Rodriguez’s weakness to consolidate his lead and afford a mattress of 1′16″ before the last four stages.