TADEJ POGACAR extended his overall lead at the Tour de France to more than three minutes on Sunday with a convincing second straight stage win in the Pyrenees.
The Slovenian dropped the last of his rivals with five kilometres to go after five more Pyrenean peaks. A valiant Jonas Vingegaard could only finish one minute and eight seconds adrift in second, with Remco Evenepoel in third at 2min 51sec on the day.
Meanwhile, Ben Healy, having led until late in the stage yesterday, produced another creditable performance, finishing 19th.
He is now 13th in the general classification, while fellow Irish star Sam Bennett is 143rd after finishing in 140th position today.
As Pogacar crossed the line at the magnificent Plateau de Beille deep in the Pyrenees, resplendent in his yellow outfit, he racked up a second straight iconic mountaintop triumph and a 14th Tour de France stage win aged 25.
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.
