Pogacar back to his best to wrest control
LE GRAND-BORNAND: Defending champion Tadej Pogacar soared into the Tour de France overall lead on Saturday an Alpine stage won by Belgian Dylan Teuns as British outfit Ineos’ hopes were again battered.
UAE’s Slovenian leader Pogacar finished fourth, around a minute behind Belgian rider Teuns, but took another three minutes out of his most credible rival Ineos’ Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz.
Overnight leader Mathieu van der Poel went into a trademark ‘all or nothing at all’ meltdown and later said he will decide today if he will drop out of the Tour to jet off to Tokyo to contest the mountain bike gold.
At one point a wind-blown umbrella flew across van der Poel’s path but the Dutch Tour rookie swerved brilliantly to avoid it, keeping his Olympic dream alive even as he let go of the yellow jersey.
Pogacar who stunned his rivals with a stage five time-trial win, was again head and shoulders above the rest of the field. He attacked from the group of contenders a full 30km out after his sports director said ahead of the race “the Tour de France starts here”.
With 13 stages remaining, Pogacar leads the Tour by 1min 48sec from Belgian Wout Van Aert, who is Jumbo’s main hope after Primoz Roglic’s misadventures with a fall and subsequent decline in form.
Van der Poel said he would wait until today’s break before deciding whether to the Tour de France the race ahead of the Olympics.
“I will take advantage of the rest day to think about it,” said the Dutchman. “I still have other goals.”
“It was very hard today, the tempo was too high. I rode to the finish at my own pace,” he said.
“I enjoyed the yellow jersey, even today. I never thought I would keep it for so long.”