Tour de France Stage 10: Pogačar Piles on the Pain as Vingegaard Suffers

When the Tour de France last stopped in Le Lioran, Tadej Pogačar lost to Jonas Vinegaard.

Pogačar didn’t let it happen again Tuesday with a spectacular stage 10 victory that expanded his gap on the GC and squashed a little more hope from his yellow jersey rivals.

The four-time champion blasted away from a small group 15km from the line and cantered over the hilly final for his third stage-win of the race — the 24th of his career.

Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) came to the line second behind Pogačar at 32 seconds. The Belgian had been dropped 6km from the finish but rallied to lead home a sprint of yellow jersey hopefuls.

French sensation Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA-CGM) kicked for third, a further 2 seconds back.

Vingegaard was gapped from the chase group in the explosive kick to the line. The Dane finished seventh, 44 seconds behind Pogačar, and 12 seconds behind Evenepoel.

Vingegaard suffers in hilly finale

This was a damaging day for Visma-Lease a Bike’s hopes of breaking Pogačar’s yellow jersey stranglehold.

The result Tuesday puts Pogačar even deeper into the driving seat of this Tour de France. He’s now 3:36 ahead of Vingegaard as the race heads to a transitional week across central France and into the Vosges.

“Today was incredible. The team did a super good job,” Pogačar said at the finish. “We targeted this stage since a long time ago.

“Two years ago, Jonas beat me in the sprint fair and square here. Today I had similar legs, completely destroyed. But I enjoyed the day. In the final I didn’t know I’d win until the last kilometer.

“Then I remembered it’s Bastille Day and tried to honor the yellow jersey,” Pogačar said.

Spectators lined the roads Tuesday on France’s July 14 national holiday. It seems they didn’t all like what they saw as Pogačar and UAE continued to suffocate their home race.

“There was an amazing atmosphere, even if there was some booing,” Pogačar said. “The booing just gives us more power.”

Pogačar finished his 24th Tour de France stage-winner’s interview by suggesting he’s not getting bored of his dominance.

“You never know how long it lasts [i.e. – being able to win],” he said. “You need to be grateful for these moments to be riding here in the biggest race in the world. I need to enjoy this moment.”

It wasn’t all perfect for UAE Emirates-XRG, however.

Isaac del Toro was dropped in the final 20km and came to the line with Vingegaard at 44 seconds. The Mexican star slides from third in GC to seventh.

Evenepoel takes his spot on the podium.

Pogačar and UAE pile on the pain (again)

Tour de France route organizers served home fans a firecracker and the peloton a horror for the July 14 holiday. Stage 10 across the Massif Central was a sinuous, grippy monster loaded with seven categorized climbs and sketchy narrow descents.

The majority of the day’s 3,800m ascent was slammed into the back-half of the 166km course.

In any other world, this was a stage for the breakaway.

But this is Pogi’s world, and the finish into Le Lioran was significant.

The Slovenian had unfinished business with the town after he was outsprinted by Vingegaard there on stage 11 of the 2024 Tour de France.

Pogačar stacked all seven teammates on the front of the bunch after a 23-rider break finally got away after around 40km of racing.

Like on stage 9 on Sunday, UAE Emirates-XRG didn’t give the attackers more than two minutes of a gap.

The UAE pain-train plowed past final breakaway rider Javier Romo at 38km to go and the race looked like it was unraveling for Visma and Red Bull soon after.

Superdomestiques Jai Hindley and Davide Piganzoli both popped on the Cat.1 Puy Mary at 30 km to go.

Matteo Jorgenson crashed on a sinuous descent not long after that. The American was able to get back on the bike, but lost the group.

Sepp Kuss was next to drop.

But the tone of the race changed as the race tilted into the final two climbs in the last 20km of the stage. Davide Piganzli took control of the reduced group of favorites for Visma-Lease a Bike on the 4.5km, 8% Col de Pertus.

Did the Killer Bees have a plan?

Pogačar attacks once and attacks hard

Pogačar was having none of it.

He exploded from a few wheels back in the final kilometer of the Pertus climb, and nobody had an answer.

The banana-suited Slovenian rocketed across to Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) after the Ecuadorian made a speculative long-range attack at 38km to go and spat him straight off the wheel.

Evenepoel led the chase behind Pogačar with Vingegaard, Seixas, Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek), and Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull). Del Toro was caught in a small group a few seconds back.

But Pogačar’s attack at 15km was decisive and absolute. He rapidly got a gap of around 20 seconds, held it there for some time, and then piled on a little further in the 5km.

Stage 10 Final Kilometer

Tour de France stage 10 results

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