Tadei Pogacar secured a convincing victory in the mountainous Stage 10 of the 113th Tour de France, which took place on Bastille Day in France. He demonstrated dominant riding to increase his overall lead in the race.
World Champion Pogacar won his third stage this year and his third consecutive Bastille Day victory. With this win, he increased his gap to Jonas Vingegaard by more than three and a half minutes. This marked Pogacar's largest gap over rivals on this stage.
This victory was Pogacar's 24th Tour de France win, bringing him closer to Andre Lejeune, the Frenchman who won the title twice in the 1930s and ranks fourth in the list.
Pogacar noted that the day was incredible and thanked the team for their excellent work. He also mentioned that he had targeted this specific stage, recalling that two years prior Vingegaard had beaten him in the sprint.
"I didn't know I would win until I reached the last kilometer, and then I remembered it was Bastille Day, and I tried to honor the yellow jersey," added Pogacar, noting that the support of the fans, despite some shouts, gave him strength.
The reigning champion Vingegaard attacked 15.5 km from the finish line on the 166.6 km stage in the Cantal mountains, quickly creating a decisive gap. However, he could not maintain the pace on the climb to the finish line and finished seventh, trailing Pogacar by 44 seconds.
In the battle for lower places at the base of the race, Remco Evenepoel came second, 32 seconds behind Pogacar. Third place was taken by young Frenchman Paul Seixas, beating Florian Lipovic by only two seconds.
After the stage, Vingegaard is now 3 minutes and 36 seconds behind Pogacar, while Evenepoel has moved up to third overall, still 30 seconds behind the leader.
Pogacar's teammate, Isaac Del Toro, was one of the biggest disappointments of the day, losing positions from third to seventh in the general classification after finishing eighth on the stage, trailing by 1 minute and 31 seconds.
The breakaway formed approximately 50 km in, when the Lidl- Trek Mads Pedersen team set a very fast pace for an intermediate sprint, where he increased his advantage in the green sprinter's jersey.
Ultimately, a group of 31 riders separated, but soon the Spanish rider Javier Romo rode solo for about 50 km until Pogacar's UAE Emirates-XRG team caught him 38 km before the finish.
This signaled former Giro d'Italia winner Richard Carapaz to attempt a victory on the 7.8 km Puy Mary climb. He extended this advantage during the fast descent to the key and steep Col de Perthus climb of 4.4 km. However, when Pogacar launched his powerful attack just over a kilometer from the summit of this climb, the final result became clear.
He overtook Carapaz 250 meters from the summit and crossed it with a 20-second lead over the group, which included Vingegaard, Evenepoel, Seixas, Lipovic, and Spaniard Juan Ayuso. At the foot of the descent, Pogacar had a gap of about 16 seconds over the chasers, but he was too strong for them to close the distance, even adding time to the finish.
Tadej Pogacar secured a convincing victory in the third stage of the Tour de France, demonstrating mastery in the Pyrenees, which allowed him to reduce his deficit to Jonas Vingegaard and claim the leading yellow jersey.
Current champion Tadej Pogacar won the third stage of the Tour de France on Monday, taking the 'special' yellow jersey from his rival Jonas Vingegaard. Although both athletes had equal time, Pogacar took the lead due to better finishing positions in the first three stages of the race.
The thirty-year-old athlete achieved his 22nd stage victory in the Tour de France and his tenth victory in the Pyrenees. He finished two seconds ahead of the Dane and earned an additional four bonus seconds compared to Vingegaard, thereby eliminating his six-second deficit at the start of the day.
Pogacar noted that winning the yellow jersey is a dream for any cyclist regardless of age. He added that every time he can put it on his shoulders again, it feels special.
In this stage, which was 196 km long, starting in Granollers, Spain, and finishing in Les Angèles in the French Pyrenees, former Giro d'Italia winner Richard Carapaz overtook young French prodigy Paul Seix, finishing third in the same time as Vingegaard. Despite organizers' requests to stay away due to severe forest fires 70 km from the finish, many spectators gathered along the roads in France.
Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel finished eighth with a four-second deficit, maintaining third overall place, but lost 23 seconds relative to the leader. Isaac Del Toro, winner of Sunday's second stage, holds fourth overall place with a 24-second deficit, finishing eighth. Also in the top six leaders are Spanish Juan Ayuso (27 seconds) and Seix (48 seconds).
After Pogacar allowed his teammates from UAE Team Emirates, Del Toro, to win on Mount Monjuic in Barcelona on Sunday, the Spaniard led the team for a decisive sprint to the finish this time. Pogacar made it clear that he aimed for both the stage win and the yellow jersey thanks to the dominant victory.
He explained that he gained extra energy in the finale thanks to Isaac: 'Thanks to Isaac, I got some extra strength in the finale today.' He continued: 'He gave more than one hundred percent in the final climb, and the whole team too. In the middle of the stage, we decided that we could compete for the stage win, and I am very, very happy that we started the Tour this way.'
On a day that looked perfect for an escape, UAE Team Emirates left no chance for anyone else. After 70 km, an eighteen-man breakaway formed, stretching the maximum advantage to three minutes. At that moment, UAE Team Emirates took over the pace. They halved the gap when the breakaway reached the Category 1 climb Col du Toses, 9.3 km long, located just over halfway through the stage. The breakaway reduced to six men at the summit, and 34 km before the finish, the French pair Alex Bodin and Nicolas Prodhomme went off on their own. Prodhomme held on for another 8 km, while Bodin, who had already achieved enough for the mountain points jersey, was caught 12 km from the finish. UAE Team Emirates controlled the race until the last short climb in Les Angèles, and Pogacar completed the job.
