LE MARKSTEIN (Reuters) -
Defending champion Jonas Vingegaard of Denmark was set to win his second Tour de France title after keeping a close tab on his main rival and 20th stage winner Tadej Pogacar in a final, emotional mountain ride of the race on Saturday.
Two-time Tour winner Pogacar, whose title hopes evaporated when he was crushed by Vingegaard in Tuesday’s time trial and cracked in Wednesday’s last Alpine stage, claimed victory on the day after 133.5 kilometres (82.95 miles) from Belfort, outsprinting Austrian Felix Gall for his second win in this year’s race.
Local hero, France’s Thibaut Pinot, meanwhile, produced his last mountain effort as he rode on his training roads with thousands of fans cheering him on with flags, beer and flares.
Overall, Jumbo-Visma rider Vingegaard leads Pogacar by seven minutes and 29 seconds with his United Arab Emirates team mate, Briton Adam Yates, in third position, 10:56 off the pace.
“I’m so happy to win my second Tour, it was the big goal of my season. It’s really amazing, I want to thank my team, they’ve done so well and it’s really nice that I could finish it off,” Vingegaard told a news conference.
“The Tour de France is something so special, I’ll probably try to win it again next year.”
Vingegaard built his success on a supersonic time trial and benefited from Pogacar’s spectacular failure on Wednesday’s toughest stage on the Col de la Loze, and the Slovenian vowed to come back next year, too.
“It’s 90% sure that I will be back next year to try and win it,” the 24-year-old, who will claim the white jersey for the best under-25 rider for the fourth year in a row, told a news conference.