Vingegaard dominates the mountain and closes in on victory in Paris

Jonas Vingegaard has the Tour de France in hand: the Dane dominated Thursday in Hautacam the 18th stage, the last mountain in the Pyrenees, and distanced his only rival, the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar.

The very large gaps guarantee security for Vingegaard, launched towards his first victory in the Tour de France with an all-powerful Jumbo team which monopolized the honors on the heights of Hautacam.

Three days from the finish, Vingegaard now has a margin of 3 min 26 sec over Pogacar. The third, the Welshman Geraint Thomas, points to 8 minutes.

Under the gaze of Emmanuel Macron, who came to watch the final in the car of Tour director Christian Prudhomme, Vingegaard won his second success since the start, after his coup de force from the Col du Granon in the 11th stage. He also ensured his victory in the Grand Prix de la Montagne, symbolized by the best climber’s polka dot jersey.

On the French side, the President of the Republic had to be satisfied with the performance of David Gaudu, fifth in the stage behind Geraint Thomas and now fourth in the general classification ahead of the Colombian Nairo Quintana.

On this hot day, Pogacar behaved like a perfect challenger. He multiplied the starts (four times!) in the Col de Spandelles, the second of the three climbs of the day. Until his fall on the descent, a turn taken too wide and a loss of grip on the gravel on the side of the road.

– Incredible van Aert! –

Vingegaard, who himself had escaped the fall moments earlier, waited for his rival who thanked him. In contrast to the duel with a knife between the Spaniard Alberto Contador and the Luxembourger Andy Schleck in the 2010 Tour which had aroused controversy to the surprise of the “former” supporters of warrior cycling.

Pogacar, a trickle of blood on the left thigh, then remained most often in the wake of Vingegaard. On the final climb, 13.6 kilometers long with an average gradient of 7.8%, he held the pace before giving way 4.4 kilometers from the line and losing just over a minute to his rival.

Symbolically, Pogacar let go on an acceleration of … Wout van Aert, left in the initial river breakaway and still in the lead in the final climb tackled with Thibaut Pinot and the Colombian Daniel Felipe Martinez.

Omnipresent since the start of the Tour, the wearer of the green jersey has once again achieved an exceptional performance. He launched Vingegaard after the banner for the last four kilometers and took third place in the stage, 2 min 10 sec behind.

“All my teammates were incredible,” greeted the yellow jersey, who made a special dedication to the Belgian + superman +, the other great man in the race: “You saw, he dropped Pogacar!”

Yellow (Vingegaard), green (van Aert), polka dots (Vingegaard)… Jumbo won the distinctive jerseys of this Tour as the final approached. Alone, the best young white is acquired from Pogacar, two years younger than his Danish rival.

“There are two stages left and the time trial, I have not yet won the Tour”, wanted to temper Vingegaard 345.2 kilometers from the finish line on the Champs-Elysées. But the triumphant way is open for the second Danish success in the history of the Grande Boucle, 26 years after the controversial Bjarne Riis.

Coincidentally, Riis had flown over the Hautacam stage that year. As did, more recently, the Italian Vincenzo Nibali, also the final winner in 2014.

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