Pogacar rides solo to Tour de France stage 15 win

LOUDENVIELLE, France: Tour de France leader Tadej Pogacar highlighted his climbing credentials in the Pyrenees when he rode solo to victory in Sunday’s stage 15 of the race, a picturesque 198-kilometer (123-mile) ride from Loudenvielle to Plateau De Beille.

Pogacar dropped Jonas Vingegaard on the final climb, finishing one minute and eight seconds ahead of the Dane, his closest rival, to win his third stage on the Tour this year and his second straight stage victory since Saturday.

Vingegaard attacked with just over 10 km left, with Pogacar sticking to his wheel as the pair surged ahead of the leading group, to set up what promised to be an enthralling duel to the finish line.

But with 5.3 km to go, Vingegaard knew he had run out of gas and looked forlornly over his shoulder at Pogacar and the Slovenian immediately made his move, overtaking the Visma–Lease a Bike rider, before disappearing into the distance.

As Pogacar crossed the line with no other rider in sight, he held his arms aloft, as he extended his overall lead over Vingegaard to three minutes and nine seconds. Remco Evenepoel, who is third in the general classification, finished nearly three minutes behind the Slovenian, and the Soudal-QuickStep rider is now over five minutes behind Pogacar in the overall standings.

Such was Pogacar’s dominance that only 36 riders had crossed the finish line half an hour after the Team UAE Emirates rider had completed the stage. The Team UAE leader´s audacious bid for a Tour de France and Giro d´Italia double in the same season seemed closer after a third stage win on this year´s Tour lifted him comfortably clear.

There are two murderous mountain slogs to go in the Alps, where the weather will likely be much hotter, which Pogacar dislikes. The final-day lottery is a fearsome 34km individual time trial on the corniche between Monaco and Nice.

For now, the sun shines on the Slovenian as he leads the two-time defending champion Vingegaard by 3 minutes 9 seconds with the young Belgian Remco Evenepoel on his first Tour de France third at 5min 19sec.

Vingegaard and Evenepoel were both involved in a nasty crash in March, and it remains to be seen how their stamina stands up in the third week. After Monday´s rest day the race rushes back to the Alps, where tradition holds that the Tour is won.