A duo to dominate the Tour: Slovenian Tadej Pogacar won the 17th stage on Wednesday at the Peyragudes altiport, ahead of Dane Jonas Vingegaard, still in the yellow jersey. Pogacar, the reigning winner, only gained 4 seconds from Vingegaard who has a 2 minute 18 second lead four days from the finish.
9th stage success in the Tour for Pogacar
The first two of the Tour de France battled for victory on the final ramp at 16%, in the penultimate finish at the top of the race. Exhausted from the effort, Pogacar had to lie down on the finish line. He won his ninth stage success in the Tour, for his third participation at the age of 23.
The Slovenian, with superior explosive qualities, however failed to outrun Vingegaard who never gave any sign of weakness. Pogacar, however weakened by the morning package of his Polish teammate Rafal Majka, used the remaining strengths of his team (Bjerg, McNulty) to harden the race and try to destabilize Vingegaard.
Vingegaard maintains its lead
Thibaut Pinot and the Kazakh Alexey Lutsenko played the scouts in the col d’Aspin, the first of the four passes of the day, then in the Hourquette d’Ancizan. The duo were caught up in Val Louron-Azet, a first category pass climbed at a stifling pace by the American Brandon McNulty.
At the top, 20 kilometers from the finish, the Slovenian tested the Dane without insisting. Vingegaard, Pogacar and McNulty approached the final climb with more than a minute on the Welshman Geraint Thomas (with Kuss, Lutsenko and Bardet in particular) and more than two and a half minutes on their other rivals, except the Briton Adam Yates pushed back significantly more far. In the climb to the altiport (8 km at 7.8%), McNulty deviated 300 meters from the line, before the steepest slope.
In the general classification, Vingegaard has retained almost all of its lead over Pogacar, barely reduced by the finish bonus. On the other hand, the Briton Geraint Thomas, third, saw his disbursement increase by more than two minutes to reach 4 min 56 sec before the 18th stage which includes three hard climbs to reach Hautacam.