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Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar © Getty Images |
Wednesday's race between the four favorites for the Tour de France took place over a sequence of hills in the central Cantal region, with Jonas Vingegaard emerging victorious over Tadej Pogacar.
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Defending champion Vingegaard reeled in Slovenian Pogacar's ferocious attacks before a razor's edge final dash to the line.
Primoz Roglic, Pogacar's countryman, finished fourth at 55 seconds despite a late accident, while Belgian Remco Evenepoel came in third at 25 seconds.
Roglic was subsequently given the same time as Evenepoel by race officials.
Pogacar leads Evenepoel by 1 minute, 06 seconds, Vingegaard is third at 1 minute, 14 seconds, and Roglic is fourth at 2 minutes, 15 seconds in the overall yellow jersey standings.
Pogacar, 25, would normally be a faster sprinter than Vingegaard, but sportingly reached out a hand to his rival at the end of their struggle after a 211km ride.
Vingegaard, 27, cried after coming off from his bike, as the spindly-framed rider proved he had overcome life-threatening injuries in March at the Tour of the Basque Country.
"I called my wife, she's been a big part of me coming back. I'm deeply moved by this win," Vingegaard said.
"It's only a few months ago my loved ones feared I was going to die.
"I never thought I'd be back at this level. I had many doubts about myself," he added.
While the stage win went to Vingegaard, his tactics also may have won him a moral victory in the struggle between the pair of two-time Tour winners.
PYRENEES PROMISE
With two hilly stages scheduled for this weekend in southern France, Pogacar, however, was not going to accept that.
I won the first climb, but he caught up to me on the second, so okay, he won the sprint. I have a lead in the rankings so no," he said.
"Let's see what happens on the bigger climbs in the Pyrenees.
"I'm really confident," he added.
The gathering war of attrition between Visma-Lease a Bike's Vingegaard and his challengers reached a crescendo as it climbed to the remote ski station of Le Lioran, located at an altitude of 1,242m.
Surprisingly it left the top four positions unchanged however.
"We can now confirm that Jonas is on good form. He beat me," Pogacar said.
"And I was feeling good," he added.
This was Vingegaard's first stage win on this year's Tour and above all proof he has overcome his injuries from earlier in the year.
For Pogacar it is back to the drawing board after his bold, but foiled attempts to distance his rivals on a handful of testing climbs to the west of the city of Clermont.
The 2020 and 2021 champion Pogacar had opened up a 30sec lead over Vingegaard on the penultimate climb and dropped Evenepoel altogether before he also rallied.
Pogacar was unable to maintain his infernal pace as he looked over his shoulder in horror as Vingegaard once more appeared on his back wheel.
Vingegaard spent most of the 2023 Tour sitting just behind Pogacar during the race, before pulverising him on stage 16 and 17 in the Alps to win by 7min 29sec.
Pogacar did however take the king of the mountains climbers' points jersey.
Frenchman Romain Bardet, who grew up in the region, was greeted by a throng of ardent supporters on what was billed as 'Virage Bardet' (Bardet corner) where thousands of locals and backers bid him farewell on his final Tour de France.
He came second on the 2016 Tour de France and finished in the same position at the world championships two years later.
Bardet told France Televisions, "I did not think it would be so intense, but it was a magnificent day."
The 33-year-old continued, "The atmosphere was amazing; I tried my hardest to be in front, but it did not work out."
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