Tadej Pogačar won the 10th stage of the Tour de France to deal his rivals another crushing blow and extend his overall lead.
Pogačar, who had already sapped his rivals’ morale with victory on the iconic Col du Tourmalet, again stamped his authority with a break just over 900 metres from the summit of the Col de Pertus, the penultimate climb on the hilly stage.
Pogačar’s closest race rival Jonas Vingegaard couldn’t follow and Pogačar quickly made ground on Richard Carapaz before powering past him 200m before the summit.
The Slovenian rider didn’t slow down. Pogačar was 5 seconds ahead of Carapaz at the summit, and 18 ahead of Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel, Florian Lipowitz, Juan Ayuso and Paul Seixas.
At the finish line, Pogačar was 32 seconds ahead of Evenepoel for his 24th stage victory altogether — his third on Bastille Day, France’s national holiday — and the third already at this Tour.
Seixas, French fans’ greatest hope, was third, 34 seconds behind.
Carapaz built a 40-second lead with 24km to go, while Tom Pidcock, Matteo Jorgenson and Chris Harper crashed during the climb, with Harper needing some time before he could continue.
As the riders approached the last category one climb of the day to Col de Pertus, Pogačar was still happy to stay in the bunch as Vingegaard’s teammate Davide Piganzoli led the peloton.
But 1km from the summit, the Slovenian attacked and flew past Carapaz and went over the top first.
Pogačar sped down the descent to go 30 seconds ahead of his general classification rivals with 7km left, as two-time winner Vingegaard set the pace for the chasing group that also included local favourite Seixas and Juan Ayuso.
But Pogacar kept his lead with a controlled push, without looking like he was over-exerting himself, and was greeted by a packed crowd at Le Lioran — some of whom booed him for his sheer dominance.
“To all the guys who were booing: They give us more power,” Pogacar said after the 24th Tour stage win of his career.
“Today was incredible … we targeted this stage from a long time ago.
“My legs were destroyed in the end. I didn’t know I was going to win until the last kilometre. I remembered it was Bastille Day, and wanted to honour the yellow jersey.”
Vingegaard could only finish 44 seconds behind Pogačar, leaving the yellow jersey holder with a lead of 3 minutes, 36 seconds after 10 stages.
Four-time champion Pogačar already had the biggest lead he has ever had at this stage of the race.
While Ben O’Connor, Michael Matthews and Lucas Plapp each had moments, the stage was another disappointing one for Australians, notably Chris Harper, who was the worst affected of three riders to crash on a left-hand hairpin on the descent down Puy Mary.
Harper appeared to have injured his wrist, but managed to reach the finish, coming in 83rd, 32:35 adrift.
The highest placed Aussie on the day was Jai Hindley, 28th, 7:09 behind. He remains the best-placed Australian on GC, 31st at 51:48.
AP/Reuters/AAP
