Jonas Vingegaard took his second stage of the Tour de France at Hautacam and that’s his first with the yellow jersey on his shoulder. He extended his lead over Tadej Pogacar as he rode the last 3.5km by himself at the end of an eventful race. Green jersey holder Wout van Aert rounded out the stage podium after riding at the front for most of the day. Vingegaard looks like a solid leader with three stages remaining.
WOUT VAN AERT ONCE AGAIN FIRST ON THE MOVE
140 riders took the start of stage 18 at 13.36. 3 non-starters after they returned a positive test for Covid-19: Chris Froome (Israel-Premier Tech), Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious) and Imanol Erviti (Movistar). Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) attacked from the gun. Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) accompanied him but couldn’t hold his pace as early as on km 4. Nils Politt (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Dylan Teuns (Bahrain Victorious) counter-attacked. Van Aert was brought back by the front part of the peloton at km 13. He forged on and took a few riders with him but six other contenders managed to go clear at km 20: Christophe Laporte (Jumbo-Visma), Andreas Leknessund (DSM), Stan De Wulf (AG2R-Citroën), Stefan Bissegger (EF Education-EasyPost), Florian Vermeersch (Lotto-Soudal) and Michael Matthews (BikeExchange-Jayco). It was all together again at km 33 as Cofidis rode hard to bring polka dot jersey holder Simon Geschke in a better position before the ascent to col d’Aubisque. 36 riders gathered at the front at km 47 but three of them, Florian Sénéchal, Yves Lampaert and Mattia Cattaneo, all from Quick Step-Alpha Vinyl, sat up to wait for pulling the peloton instead. Geschke missed out again and said goodbye to the polka dot jersey.
TADEJ POGACAR CRASHES IN THE DESCENT OF COL DES SPANDELLES
About 20 riders climbed to col d’Aubisque together while Louis Meintjes (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux) rode away from the yellow jersey group. Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo) crested the Aubisque in first position before Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) and Van Aert, 45’’ ahead of Meintjes and 3’20’’ ahead of the yellow jersey group. Up to col des Spandelles, Van Aert, Pinot and Martinez found themselves at the front 5km before the top while Pogacar attacked on several occasions: 7km, 5km, 4km, 3km and 2km before the summit but Vingegaard always managed to stay with him. Both riders had a fright in the downhill, the yellow jersey holder being close to crashing as the white jersey holder was putting him under pressure. Eventually, it was Pogacar who went down but on a slow speed. Vingegaard waited for his rival who thanked him for his fair-play.
VINGEGAARD SOLOES TO VICTORY 3.5KM BEFORE THE END
Pinot was first to speed up in the leading trio with 12.5km remaining. The trio had an advantage of 1’30’’ over the yellow jersey group led by Sepp Kuss ahead of Vingegaard, Pogacar and Thomas 10km before the end. 1km further, Van Aert sped up. Martinez followed him but Pinot couldn’t. Thomas lost contact to Kuss, Vingegaard and Pogacar who caught Van Aert and Martinez 5km before the summit. A leading trio united three distinctive jersey holders: Vingegaard, Van Aert and Pogacar. Pogacar surrended 4.5km before the end. Vingegaard rode away from Van Aert with 3.5km remaining and soloed to victory. The Dane had 40’’ lead over Pogacar with 2km to go and crossed the line 1’05’’ before his rival, which also put him in the lead of the King of the Mountains competition. Thomas defended his third place while David Gaudu edged out Quintana for fourth.
