Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) moved an important step closer to winning his third Tour de France with a decisive victory on the first summit finish of the race on Saturday.
The Slovenian rider surged clear of a small group of race favourites on the day’s final climb, the Saint-Lary-Soulan Pla d’Adet. He made his move with 4.6 kilometres remaining, quickly bridging across to his teammate Adam Yates, who he had instructed to attack minutes earlier.
He was then briefly paced by the Englishman before pushing on alone.
“The plan was just to come to sprint in the final and make the sprint hard, maybe take some seconds, a stage win. But in the end, like this it is much better,” Pogačar said. “I am super happy to be in this position.”
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Defending champion Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) had scored a blow to his chief rival earlier this week when he caught him on Wednesday’s climbing stage and then beat him at the finish. However he was on the back foot on Saturday, trailing in 39 seconds behind.
With time bonuses taken into account he is now 1min 57 off yellow, but insisted after the stage that he can still win the Tour.
He did move up to second overall, overtaking the Belgian Tour debutant Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step), who finished 1min 10 back and is now third in the overall standings.
Another debutant, Irishman Ben Healy, had a superb ride on the stage. He was part of a breakaway group which went clear 97km from the finish, attacked with Frenchman David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) with 10km remaining.
He then went solo 600 metres later when he dropped the Frenchman, who previously finished fourth overall in the 2022 Tour.
At one point Healy looked good for the stage win but ultimately lost out due to the general classification battle behind, with Pogačar’s UAE team not permitting breakaways the usual freedom this year.
He was caught by Pogačar and Yates with just over four kilometres remaining, but was awarded the most combative rider prize as a result of his aggression.
He remains a fine 14th overall, and will continue trying for a stage win.
Sunday’s race is another tough day in the Pyrenees, and finishes atop the Plateau de Beille climb.
Meanwhile young Irish rider Lucy Bénézet Minns took a superb gold at the junior and under-23 European track championships in Cottbus, Germany, on Saturday, winning the junior women’s points race.
Erin Creighton took eighth in the under-23 omnium.
