Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) dropped Tadej Pogačar (UAE-Team Emirates) on the second passage of Mont Ventoux where the first cracks appeared in the yellow jersey's performance on Tour de France 2021.
Ineos Grenadiers had dominated the front of the peloton and whittled it down to a select group as the yellow jersey and those around him hit Mont Ventoux for a second time today.
And when Michał Kwiatkowski, the last Ineos Grenadiers man left working for Richard Carapaz, peeked off on the upper slopes of the climb, Carapaz and then Rigoberto Urán (EF Education-Nippo) took it up on the front of the group.
However, Vingegaard then attacked and while everyone in the small group made an effort to respond, only Pogačar was able to follow. But a gap soon emerged between the two riders as Vingegaard rode away from the race leader.
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Vingegaard's team mate Wout van Aert was up the road, leading the race solo, after dropping all of the men from the early breakaway. It meant Jumbo Visma was riding to victory on the day with Van Aert and also riding to put time into the race leader on the long descent of Ventoux down into the finish in Malaucène.
Uran, Pogacar and Carapaz then came together on the descent to chase down Vingegaard in a bid to prevent him gaining time. While they closed down the 24-year-old Dane, and finished with him, his ability to drop the race leader adds a twist to the race for the stages to come.
Van Aert won the stage with a brilliant performance. He took the victory by 1:14 from the Trek Segafredo duo of Kenny Elissonde and Bauke Mollema, both of whom had also been in the early breakaway - which had contained Irishman Dan Martin, though his challenge faded very early.
The four general classification riders were next, at 1:38; Pogacar putting in a really big effort to make sure he won the sprint for 4th place, from Uran, Carapaz and Vingegaard.
Ben O'Connor (AG2R Citroën), who started the stage 2nd overall, was dropped by the select group long before the top of the second passage of Ventoux. He lost four minutes to the yellow jersey quartet today and so loses his place in the top three overall.
Pogačar still leads, but now Uran is up to 2nd place at 5:18 and Vingegaard is now up to 3rd, at 5:32, and will now feel very buoyed at being able to drop the race leader on such a hard stage today.
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