Pogacar beats Roglic as defending champion Bernal cracks

COL DU GRAND COLOMBIER, France, (Reuters) - Tadej Pogacar beat fellow Slovenian and overall leader Primoz Roglic to win the 15th stage of the Tour de France as defending champion Egan Bernal all but abandoned his crown after a brutal failure yesterday.

The Colombian was dropped 13km from the finish at the top of the Col du Grand Colombier, an unforgiving 17.4-km ascent at an average gradient of 7.1%, and lost seven minutes 20 seconds on the line.

Two-time runner-up and fellow Colombian Nairo Quintana also quickly lost contact with the leading group led by Roglic’s Jumbo-Visma team mates, who set a frantic tempo from the bottom of the climb.

Pogacar, however, was the freshest man in the finale as he outsprinted Roglic for the victory at the end of a punishing 174.5-km trek in the Jura mountains, confirming he was the odds-on favourite’s main rival.

“Tadej is very strong, I have to say he has great legs. My team mates did a great job today as I really wanted to win but I have to admit Tadej was slightly stronger,” said Roglic, who still had the support of team mates Tom Dumoulin and Sepp Kuss with two kilometres to go.

“Today was a tough day, Jumbo-Visma con

trolled the race and set super high temp. A lot of riders were dropped and I wanted to focus on the finale,” said the 21-year-old Pogacar.

Australian Richie Porte took third place, at 35 enjoying a sweet resurgence on the Tour.

Roglic leads Pogacar by 40 seconds and Colombian Rigoberto Uran by 1:34 as the race is turning into an all-Slovenian affair following Bernal’s disappearance.

Bernal, who was third overall 59 seconds off the pace before the start in Lyon, dropped out of the top 10, meaning IneosGrenadiers, formerly known as Team Sky, will not win the Tour for the first time since Chris Froome crashed out in 2014.

They had won all the other editions since Bradley Wiggins became the first British winner of the race in 2012.

Bernal had been looking under par in the first part of the race and Sunday’s stage confirmed that impression as the 23year-old zig-zagged up the road, sweat dripping from his face, while JumboVisma’s Wout van Aert pulled the shrinking peloton.