Vingegaard attack ends in yellow
With 4.5 kilometers to go, Vingegaard attacked. Pogacar tried to counter, but nothing worked with the seemingly invincible. “The whole Jumbo team attacked me. When Jonas left I didn’t feel good. I don’t know if it was the attacks or a weakness. Now I can start attacking them,” said Pogacar.
Geraint Thomas, Romain Bardet, David Gaudu or Nairo Quintana – all of the co-favorites literally left Pogacar standing on the mountain. The Slovenian staggered precariously, his jersey completely torn open. It was the biggest defeat in his young career. 2:22 minutes, Pogacar is now third in the standings behind Vingegaard, who single-handedly won the stage ahead of veteran Quintana and Bardet. Second overall is now Frenchman Bardet, 2:16 behind the man from Hillerslev in the far north.
“On the Galibier, Tadej left everyone else behind except me. He was strong there. On the last climb I thought to myself: I can’t win if I don’t try. Second place in the overall classification is nice, but that’s what I had last year yes,” Vingegaard said.
For Kämna, the dream of yellow was over at the Col du Télégraphe a good 67 kilometers from the finish. Kämna had to let the favorites go with a heavy kick, on the climb to the 2642 meter high Col du Galibier he was already more than four minutes behind. The 25-year-old was therefore no longer in sight at the big spectacle at the front.
Geschke defends mountain jersey
Once again, veteran Geschke delivered a courageous performance. The 36-year-old Berliner was again in the breakaway group, fought his way over the Télégraphe in third place and over the Galibier in second. That was enough to successfully defend his coveted white dress with the red dots.
This means that Geschke can tackle the 21 most famous hairpin bends in the world in a mountain jersey on Thursday when it goes up to the legendary Alpe d’Huez ski station. Hundreds of thousands of fans will line up again on the 13.8-kilometer final climb with an average gradient of 8.1 percent and make for a madhouse.But even before that, the stage has it all.After the start in Briançon, it goes back over the Galibier and the Col de la Croix de Fer, all mountains of the highest category.