The widely held assumption that Tadej Pogačar was unbeatable in the Tour de France this year was swept aside today when the reigning champion was put to the sword by Jonas Vingegaard on the final climb of stage 11.
By the time the front runners reached the finish line atop the Col de Granon, Vingegaard (Jumbo Visma) was out front alone, winning the stage after his team had battered the race leader with attacks for over two hours today.
Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) cracked on the final climb, with Vingegaard riding away from him and putting a massive 2:51 into the yellow jersey, added to by a 10-second time bonus for the stage win.
It means Vingegaard goes into yellow after attacking with 5km to go and overhauling all of the early breakaway men. Pogačar continued to fall further and further back and was dropped by a succession of the general classification men as the Slovenian cracked in the Alps once the road went above 2,000 metres.
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Up the front, Vingegaard fought for every second on the upper slopes of the climb and did not even celebrate his win until after he had crossed the line. He was pursued by Nairo Quintana (Arkea Samsic), with Romain Bardet (Team DSM) just behind.
Then came the other big names who also rode away from Pogačar. Quintana was 2nd on the stage, at 59 seconds while Bardet was 3rd at 1:10 followed by Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) at 1:38. David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) was 5th at 2:04 followed by Adam Yates (Ineos Grenadiers), at 2:10.
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And then came the struggling figure of Pogačar, who was outgunned by
Vingegaard after Jumbo Visma had completely overwhelmed UAE Team Emirates from a long, long way out. In the end the man in yellow today was 7th on the stage, some 2:51 down on the rider who will wear the jersey tomorrow.
The stage result means Vingegaard now leads overall by 2:16 from Bardet - who rode a sensational final climb by attacking the GC group - with Pogačar dropping to 3rd overall at 2:36, though his challenge is far from over.
More to come.
