Pogačar was aggressive on the final few kilometres of the climb of the Spandelles, and he continued that onto the descent as the pair zipped round the technical bends on the downhill.
First, Vingegaard skipped out his rear wheel on a corner, with Pogačar appearing not to notice as he continued down the descent. It was hard to say if he sat up at all to allow Vingegaard to rejoin, but it was only a minimal distancing in the race and a short chase to rejoin.
Pogačar then entered the second of a series of corners too fast, going wide and then slipping out on some loose gravel and crashing to the ground. Pogačar later said that it took him by surprise as he thought he was through the corner already, suggesting that perhaps he was getting fed the corners from the management in his team vehicle just behind.
Vingegaard made it safely through the corner with a less aggressive approach and then looked around and waited for his main rival for the general classification to rejoin him. The pair shared a handshake in the acknowledgement of Vingegaard’s sportsmanship, something that he didn’t have to do, considering Pogačar was forcing the pace and taking on the risk as well.
“When Tadej crashed, he kinda missed a corner and went into some gravel,” said Vingegaard of the incident. “The bike disappeared under the human and I waited for him.”
Pogačar was full of praise for his rival on the road.
“I have nothing but respect to Jonas Vingegaard,” said Pogačar. “I think we respect each other a lot. When he decided to wait for me after my crash, he was on a good position to do it as he had teammates all over the road. It was fine for him to wait.
“It’s me who wanted to go fast on the descent, but I pushed it too far and crashed – can’t blame anyone for that."
The daredevil descent was called off after that, Pogačar then remonstrated with his team car, perhaps about the lack of information about the corner where he ended up crashing.
Sepp Kuss and Tiesj Benoot returned to support Vingegaard on the final climb of the day, the Hautacam. The final ascent was the Jumbo-Visma show, with Benoot driving then handing off to Kuss, the American then setting an impressive tempo that saw the remaining GC climbers dropped and the Vingegaard- Pogačar group catch the front of the race in Dani Martinez (INEOS Grenadiers) and Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma).
The Belgian star did a furious kilometre of pace-making that saw Pogačar dropped for good, Vingegaard taking over in the final 3.5 kilometres and extending the lead all the way to the line, finishing over a minute ahead of his rival, effectively putting the yellow jersey out of reach on the remaining three stages to the final podium in Paris. However, Vingegaard was not getting ahead of himself in claiming the final victory.
“I don’t want to talk about winning the Tour yet. Let’s talk about it in two days,” finished Vingegaard.
The Tour de France continues with a rare chance for the sprinters on Stage 19. Watch from 8.55pm AEST on the SBS SKODA Tour Tracker or on the SBS and SBS On Demand broadcast from 9.30pm AEST.
