Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard celebrated on the second-to-last day of the Tour de France. Pogacar pipped the defending champion to take the penultimate stage on Saturday however it received’t be sufficient to cease his nice rival from winning the race once more.
Vingegaard maintained his big lead over two-time champion Pogacar and can certainly be topped the Tour winner after Sunday’s largely ceremonial stage ends on the Champs-Élysées in Paris.
“We have to be careful not to do anything stupid but, yeah, it’s amazing to take my second victory in the Tour de France and I almost cannot believe it,” Vingegaard mentioned.
Pogacar, who received in 2020 and 2021, claimed his second stage win in the a hundred and tenth version of the Tour however was unable to make up for Vingegaard’s big benefit inbuilt the Alps. The Danish rider leads by 7 minutes, 29 seconds.
Pogacar attacked six kilometers earlier than the summit of Col du Platzerwasel, adopted intently by Vingegaard. They had been joined by Felix Gall and later by the Yates brothers – Simon and Adam.
Pogacar attacked once more with 2.9 kilometers to go. Again, Vingegaard stayed proper on his wheel.
With 250 meters remaining, the Slovenian rider went once more. Vingegaard obtained in entrance however PogaÄŤar powered previous to get the stage win with Gall in between.
“I really appreciate the battle I had with Tadej,” Vingegaard mentioned.
Pogacar had been in excellent kind this yr, winning almost in all places he raced. But the Slovenian crashed at Liège-Bastogne-Liège in April and wanted surgical procedure on a damaged wrist. It’s laborious to say how a lot that setback impacted his Tour de France hopes.
“Today I finally felt like myself again,” Pogacar mentioned. (*20*)
Giulio Ciccone celebrated being topped the Tour’s “King of the Mountains” at Col de la Schlucht.
“We had one plan and we did a terrific job to execute it,” the Italian bicycle owner mentioned. “I need to thank all my teammates. They did something crazy right from the start.”
⏪ He mentioned he’d win, and he is solely gone and carried out it! @TamauPogi claims the penultimate stage after a really quick ultimate KM ⤵️
⏪ Il avait dit qu’il gagnerait, et il l’a fait ! @TamauPogi remporte l’avant-dernière Ă©tape après un dernier KM très rapide ⤵️#TDF2023 pic.twitter.com/H5hqzaRZ2s
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 22, 2023
