On a crucial day in the battle for the GC Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) strengthened his position with two days of racing remaining, by conquering Isola 2000 and gaining an additional 1’42” over his podium rivals Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step). A fourth stage win and his third in yellow at this year’s Tour saw Pogacar finish 21” ahead of Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) and 40” in front of Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla), who had both been in the breakaway. After Pogacar attacked from and decimated the GC favourites group and picked off what remained of the breakaway on the final climb, Evenepoel and Vingegaard crossed the line fifth and sixth respectively, behind fourth placed Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), who now has the polka dot jersey. Going into the final two stages this weekend Pogacar now leads by 5'03” overall from Vingegaard, with Evenepoel in third, 7'01” from the leader.
An early breakaway
There were two non-starters announced ahead of the stage, with Jake Stewart (Israel - Premier Tech) out of the race due to illness and Stefan Küng (Groupama FDJ) also unable to start, meaning there were 143 riders on the start line in Embrun. An early breakaway group of 22 riders formed, with Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) the first of them to reach the line at the intermediate sprint in Guillestre (IS, km 21.1). Coquard was amongst the riders who then fell back as the lead group was decimated on the first climb of the day to Col de Vars (km 42.6, HC, 18.8 km at 5.7 %, 20 Mountain classification points).
A smaller lead group forms
Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) and Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla) left the peloton on the climb and made it to the front group to join Matteo Jorgenson, Wilco Kelderman (Visma-Lease a Bike), Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale), Ilan Van Wilder (Soudal-Quick Step), Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Cristian Rodriguez (Arkea-B&B Hotels) and Oscar Onley (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) on the gruelling ascent. Olympic champion and Stage 17 winner Carapaz topped the Col de Vars first, ahead of Jorgenson, Kelderman and Van Wilder, with the peloton by that point 3’30” behind.
Tough Cime de la Bonette climb
As the breakaway riders began the brutal ascent of the Cime de la Bonette (km 87.5, HC, 22.9 km at 6.9 %) their lead over the bunch had grown to 4'30". Onley, Prodhomme and Van Wilder were dropped on the climb, with Carapaz again reaching the summit first to take 40 Mountain classification points and put him in the polka dot jersey, with the main GC group getting there 3’40” later.
Isola 2000 showdown
Cristian Rodriguez was dropped by the five remaining breakaway riders - Jorgenson, Keldermann, S. Yates, Hindley and Carapaz - early on the final climb to Isola 2000 (km 144.6, Cat.1, 16.1 km at 7.1 %, 10 Mountain classification points). Then 13.5km from the summit Hindley also lost ground and a few metres later Jorgenson attacked, going solo at the front. But 9.5km from the summit Pogacar also attacked, with Evenepoel and Vingegaard trying to follow him and unable to hold his wheel. Within 2km the Yellow Jersey quickly built up a 20” advantage over his two rivals on the provisional podium. 1.9km from the summit Pogacar caught and overtook Jorgenson for another fantastic victory, cruising to the finish unrivalled.
