Tadej Pogacar rides to solo victory in Tour de France’s Bastille Day showdown

By Vincent Daheron, Reuters

Four-time Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar launched a blistering solo attack late on the 10th stage of this year’s tour to claim victory and extend his overall lead ahead of Jonas Vingegaard to three minutes and 36 seconds.

Vingegaard’s attempt to chase down the 27-year-old UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider failed as Pogacar, chasing his third straight Tour de France title, sped away to the finish line 32 seconds ahead of second-placed Remco Evenepoel, while Paul Seixas came in third.

“Today was incredible… we targeted this stage from a long time ago,” Pogacar said after the 24th Tour stage win of his career.

“My legs were destroyed in the end. I didn’t know I was going to win until the last kilometre. I remembered it was Bastille Day, and wanted to honour the yellow jersey.”

The general classification contenders had taken a back seat in the last three stages, which included two sprinter-friendly flat rides, but Tuesday’s 166.6km mountainous ride from Aurillac to Le Lioran brought them back into the mix.

Large holiday crowds gathered along the route, which tested the riders with two steep category one climbs towards the end.

After the peloton reined in early attackers, Javier Romo (Movistar) and Harold Tejada (XDS Astana) pulled ahead, before Romo launched a solo attack on the climb to Col de la Griffoul.

Romo rode solo until the peloton finally caught him before the ascent to Puy Mary-Pas de Peyrol, the highest summit of the day, and within moments, Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) sped ahead of the pack.

Pogacar dominates with decisive attack

Carapaz built a 40-second lead with 24km to go, while Tom Pidcock, Matteo Jorgenson and Chris Harper crashed during the climb, with Harper needing some time before he could continue.

As the riders approached the last category one climb of the day to Col de Pertus, Pogacar was still happy to stay in the bunch as Vingegaard’s teammate Davide Piganzoli led the peloton.

But one kilometre from the summit the Slovenian attacked and flew past Carapaz and went over the top first.

Pogacar sped down the descent to go 30 seconds ahead of his general classification rivals with 7km left, as two-time winner Vingegaard set the pace for the chasing group that also included local favourite Seixas and Juan Ayuso.

But Pogacar kept his lead with a controlled push, without looking like he was over-exerting himself, and was greeted by a packed crowd at Le Lioran, some of whom booed him for his sheer dominance.

“To all the guys who were booing: They give us more power,” Pogacar added.

The next stage is a flat 161.3 km ride from Vichy to Nevers.

-Reuters