Gall in tenth place
Pogacar flexes his muscles in the Pyrenees
Tour de France dominator Tadej Pogacar has secured his next stage win in the Tour, his 14th overall. On the French national holiday, the Slovenian won the arduous 198 km from Loudenvielle to Plateau de Beille with five mountain finishes, thus consolidating the yellow jersey and the mountains jersey. For Pogacar, who outsprinted Jonas Vingegaard from Team Visma by 1:08 minutes, it was his third stage win at this year's Tour.
As the Belgian Remco Evenepoel (Soudal) finished third, the podium at the second mountain finish in the Pyrenees was exactly the same as on Saturday at the first. The Austrian Felix Gall (Decathlon) broke away on the last climb of the 15th stage and finished tenth, almost six minutes behind.
About 10.5 kilometers before the finish came the expected attack from Vingegaard. From the top group, which had been reduced to six riders, only Pogacar followed the Dane's consistently high pace. The Slovenian made a confident impression on the rear wheel of the defending champion, showing no sign of weakness. On the contrary: five and a half kilometers before the finish, Pogacar counterattacked and Vingegaard had nothing left to counter.
Already a decent cushion
Pogacar's solo victories in Pla d'Adet and on the brutal royal stage with 4,800 meters of climbing put him a huge 3:09 minutes ahead of Vingegaard in the classification. "I couldn't have imagined this result after two weeks," said Pogacar. "I was a bit on the limit with Jonas' attack, but then I realized that he didn't have the legs to pull it off. It looks very good, it's a comfortable lead." The third Tour triumph after 2020 and 2021 and the double of Giro and Tour is now within reach for the 25-year-old.
After the two tough Pyrenean stages, the professional cyclists will take a break on Monday. After that, Vingegaard still has two tough Alpine stages on Friday and Saturday and the final time trial on Sunday to catch up.
Corona returns
Since Sunday, the topic of corona has been very present again at the Grand Loop. Many teams are no longer testing for the virus, but there are still new cases almost every day. British rider Geraint Thomas remained in the race despite being infected, while his teammate Thomas Pidcock dropped out. The Tour organization once again made masks compulsory in certain areas.
Until the end of the tour on July 21 in Nice, masks must be worn if you come into contact with the riders. This applies to the respective bus parking lots, the area behind the finish line and the two mixed zones set up for media representatives. The top riders Vingegaard and Evenepoel have been wearing masks from the start of the Tour when they are in a crowd. Pogacar had recovered from an infection shortly before the Grand Départ.
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