Tadej Pogacar wins stage but Jonas Vingegaard keeps yellow jersey

Tadej Pogacar beat Jonas Vingegaard in a slow-motion uphill sprint to win stage 17 of the Tour de France as the top two left everyone else behind on the road to Peyragudes

ARMS ALOFT: Stage winner Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar, wearing the best young rider's white jersey, celebrates as he crosses the finish line ahead of Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard, wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey, during the seventeenth stage of the Tour de France. Pic: AP Photo/Daniel Cole

Tadej Pogacar beat Jonas Vingegaard in a slow-motion uphill sprint to win stage 17 of the Tour de France as the top two in the fight for yellow left everyone else behind on the road to Peyragudes.

Pogacar could not shake off Vingegaard in his bid to put a dent into the Dane's advantage in the yellow jersey but did take consolation in the form of his third stage win of this Tour.

The pair had slugged it out on the 16 per cent gradient to the top of the Peyragudes airstrip, with Pogacar going first, slipping behind Vingegaard but then attacking again to cross the line just in front of his rival.

Geraint Thomas had been distanced on the penultimate climb, the Hourquette d'Anzican, as the remains of Pogacar's injury-hit UAE Team Emirates defied their lack of numbers to set a ferocious pace on the 130km stage from Saint-Gaudens.

However, the Welshman kept fighting and came in third, a little over two minutes down, to strengthen his position in the final podium position as others trailed by much greater gaps.

Before the stage began Pogacar had seen Rafal Majka become the latest team-mate to pull out but Mikkel Bjerg and Brandon McNulty did a superb job, setting a pace that shredded rivals, with McNulty getting Pogacar to within 300 metres of the line before his battle with Vingegaard began.

Pogacar's stage win brought bonus seconds which cut his gap to Vingegaard to two minutes and 18 seconds. Thomas sits third, four minutes and 56 seconds down but with a near-three minute cushion to Nairo Quintana in fourth.

After being dropped, Thomas allowed the likes of Romain Bardet and Alexey Lutsenko to catch him on the descent to the final climb, getting a little help in the chase before beating the others to the line by a little over 30 seconds.

"I felt alright but I didn't quite feel as light on the pedals as I have earlier in the race," Thomas said.

"I wasn't feeling tip-top today. I made the call to wait for the group behind rather than battle, go into the red and risk blowing up and losing even more time. We were able to ride a solid pace all the way to the line."