Jonas Vingegaard climbed into a rock-solid lead in the Tour de France on Wednesday as his main rival Tadej Pogacar lost almost six minutes on the toughest climb on the 21 stages.
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Felix Gall won stage 16, billed as the “Queen” stage with 69km of Alpine climbing, ahead of Simon Yates.
Defending champion Vingegaard of Jumbo Visma increased his lead in the overall standings to a crushing 7min 35sec, with Pogacar second and his UAE teammate Adam Yates up to third at 10min 45sec.
Ineos rider Carlos Rodriguez slipped to fourth. He is 1min 16sec behind Adam Yates and 18sec ahead of twin Simon Yates of Jayco Alula.
After Vingegaard pulverised Pogacar in the individual time trial the day before, the Slovenian vowed to fight back, saying he was hoping for bad weather.
But the forecast storms passed in the early hours of the morning and the run from Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc to Courchevel took place in searing heat.
Both the leading riders and their entire teams were dope tested an hour before the race set off from the pretty Alpine resort.
With around 7km remaining of the final climb up the Col de la Loze, Pogacar told his team radio “I’m dead! I can’t go on.”
Vingegaard skipped away. Adam Yates, freed of his services pacing Pogacar, was on the Dane’s tail.
On a Tour where motorbikes have been much in the news, Vingegaard was stopped by one on the upper reaches of the last mountain after a vehicle stalled, blocking the race director’s car.
The cool Dane was far from flummoxed and was even slightly annoyed that spectators then gave him a shove to help him get moving again.
(AFP)
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