Tadej Pogacar threw both arms in the air and shouted his joy over the yellow jersey. The defending champion duped the competition on the longest day of the 109th Tour de France with a phenomenal performance on the final climb and took the overall lead.
Pogacar thus replaced Belgian Wout van Aert, who had previously been the main protagonist of the 220-kilometer stage with a nearly 140-kilometer escape.
“I’m totally happy. It was so tough today. The first two hours were crazy. The strongest guy was in the breakaway group, in the end the peloton was stronger”, said Pogacar. He gave a special thank you to his team. “They almost got me to the finish line and then all I had to do was finish it.” And added with a view to his first yellow jersey on this tour: “I’m happy to have won. Anything else is a bonus.”
Vlasov loses five seconds
In the overall standings, Pogacar is now four seconds ahead of American Neilson Powless and 31 seconds ahead of last year’s second-placed Jonas Vingegaard of Denmark. The German team Bora-hansgrohe suffered a minor setback when captain Alexander Vlasov fell eight kilometers from the finish.
The sporting director of Bora-hansgrohe, Rolf Aldag, praised the teamwork: “They did a good job of waiting for him and bringing him back. Everyone contributed fully and put their own ambitions and chances aside, that’s what makes a team.” In the end, Vlasov’s loss of time was manageable at five seconds.
Pogacar’s teammate Rafal Majka was satisfied after the first coup: “Today we showed ourselves great as a team. It was an extremely fast stage. It was important that Tadej showed today how strong he is and shot the stage.”
Van Aert impresses again
In the first 60 kilometers through Belgium it was not possible to establish a breakaway group. Then leader van Aert tried it himself after 72 kilometers and was able to pull away with the Dane Jakob Fuglsang and the American Quinn Simmons. However, the trio was not left out for more than three and a half minutes. Van Aert’s escape kept the pace consistently high. After three hours of racing, the average was 50.2 km/h.
Despite the work of several teams, it was only eleven kilometers before the finish line that Van Aert was able to catch up. He had long since shaken off his two companions. The performance of the 27-year-old was once again impressive. Only on Wednesday, van Aert practically single-handedly drove his captain Vingegaard back up the cobblestone stage and ensured that the Dane lost just 13 seconds to dominator Tadej Pogacar.
First mountain arrival is pending
After the longest stage, the favorites have to show their form at the first mountain finish on Friday. The seven kilometer climb to the La Super Planche de Belles Filles is a monster especially at the end. There are gradients of 20 and 24 percent, and the road is partly unpaved.
The Planche is actually a ski slope and was first included in the program ten years ago by the tour organizers. Since then, the ascent in the Vosges has been something of the destiny of the tour. Chris Froome (2012), Vincenzo Nibali (2014) and Tadej Pogacar (2020) won there and ended up winning the tour. Fabio Aru (2017) and Dylan Teuns (2019) did not succeed despite their success on the planche.