Pogacar wins Tour stage in nail-biter

From the moment Tadej Pogacar heard the Tour de France would return to the summit of La Planche des Belles Filles, France this year, he wanted to win there again.

The Slovenian pulled it off on Friday in a nail-biting finish on the steep gravel slope of the mountain where he took the yellow jersey for the first time in 2020.

Victory in the first summit finish of this year's Tour extended his lead after taking over the yellow jersey on Thursday.

“It was in my mind already a really, really long time, maybe since the route was already (revealed). It was a big, big goal to win today,” Pogacar said.

Pogacar caught, first, Lennard Kämna, who came agonizingly close to a breakaway win, and then Jonas Vingegaard with one last sprint at the top of La Planche des Belles Filles, a ski resort in the Vosges mountains of eastern France, near the German border. Poga ar had his family watching on and had extra motivation to win to mark the launch of his own cancer research foundation on Friday.

“It was really, really difficult, especially in the end, the last part. When Jonas attacked, he was so strong,” Poga ar said. “I had to push to the finish line.”

He started the 109-mile stage with a four-second lead over Neilson Powless and ended it with a 35-second advantage over Vingegaard. “A little bit is always good, but still, we know in cycling no gap is enough,” was the verdict of Poga ar, who praised Danish rider Vingegaard as “probably the best climber in the world” at the moment.

Geraint Thomas, the 2018 Tour winner, sat third, 1 minute, 10 seconds back, and his Ineos Grenadiers teammate Adam Yates was 8 seconds further behind.

American rider Powless, Aleksandr Vlasov and Daniel Martinez were among the general classification contenders who lost time.