Tadej Pogacar, using for the UAE Emirates staff, elevated his total lead within the 2024 Tour de France, with a dominant victory over Jonas Vingegaard within the first summit end of the race, at Pla d’Adet ski station within the Hautes-Pyrenées.
Pogacar, winner of the Tour in 2020 and 2021, accelerated violently from the principle favourites slightly below 5km from the high-altitude end to increase his lead on the Danish defending champion, chief of the Visma Lease-a-bike staff, by virtually two minutes.
A five-man breakaway approached the foot of the ultimate ascent, with a lead of slightly below a minute and a half on the group of favourites, however shortly fell aside on the primary steep ramps of the ten.6km climb. As Ben Healy, of EF Training EasyPost, moved clear, his remaining remaining companion, David Gaudu, of Groupama-FDJ, slid again into the peloton.
Behind Healy, Pogacar’s UAE Emirates staff led the principle peloton to the underside of the ascent, with Remco Evenepoel and his Soudal Fast-Step staff of their slipstream. However with not one of the “Key Three” of Pogacar, Vingegaard or Evenepoel keen, or in a position, to danger an assault till the ultimate kilometres, a tactical stalemate settled on the principle contenders, till Pogacar’s teammate Adam Yates soloed clear, 7km from the end.
The British rider’s transfer failed to attract a response from Vingegaard or his staff, however was merely a decoy to a very violent acceleration from his Slovenian staff chief, as he rode into the ultimate 5km. Pogacar shortly opened a niche and distanced Vingegaard and Evenepoel additional, regardless of their finest efforts, with the Belgian slipping to 3rd within the total rankings.
In the meantime Ineos Grenadiers continued to undergo, shedding Tom Pidcock to Covid signs, whereas an more and more weary Geraint Thomas, winner of the Tour in 2018, battled on via the Pyrenees, in help of their staff chief, Carlos Rodríguez.
With extra riders dropping out, both via sickness, damage or Covid, the peloton is steadily lowering in quantity. After Pogacar was hit by the withdrawal of a key help rider, Juan Ayuso on stage 13, Evenepoel misplaced his Soudal Fast-Step teammate Louis Vervaeke to Covid on the climb of the Col du Tourmalet.
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