Tadej Pogacar wins final mountain stage of Tour de France

Tadej Pogacar won the final mountain stage of the 2023 Tour de France to Le Markstein, as Jonas Vingegaard sealed back-to-back wins in the French race

Sat, 22 Jul, 2023 - 16:51

Jeremy Whittle

Tadej Pogacar won the final mountain stage of the 2023 Tour de France to Le Markstein, as Jonas Vingegaard sealed back-to-back wins in the French race. With only Sunday’s processional stage to central Paris still to come, the Dane will, barring accidents, wear the final yellow jersey on the Champs-Élysées on Sunday.

Pogacar, whose overall challenge collapsed midweek in the Alps, had been determined to end the Tour on a positive note. Despite his final stage win, he was still beaten overall by 7:29 by Vingegaard, with his UAE Team Emirates, teammate, Adam Yates, finishing third overall at 10min 56sec behind the Jumbo-Visma rider.

The Yates twins, Adam and his brother Simon, ended this Tour very much as they began it, riding together to the finish, with Adam Yates leading Pogacar into the final kilometre to set up his winning sprint.

Riding his last Tour, on local roads, Thibaut Pinot made good his promise to try and win the stage. The Frenchman’s lone move was cheered on by thousands, as “Pinotmania” gripped the Vosges.

The Groupama FDJ rider, who had said before the stage that “it would be hard to know these roads better than I do”, led the yellow jersey group, containing Vingegaard, by a minute and a half as he reached the top of the penultimate climb, the Petit Ballon.

Three pursuers – Tom Pidcock, Warren Barguil and Chris Harper – chased Pinot to the foot of the Tour’s last mountain, the Col du Platzerwasel.

But nine kilometres from the finish, the weary Frenchman’s determination was no longer enough and, after being swept up by Vingegaard, Pogacar and climbing phenomenon Felix Gall, he slipped behind.

The stage was marred by a series of crashes with three riders in the top 10 – Pidcock’s teammate Carlos Rodriguez, Vingegaard’s key climbing lieutenant, Sepp Kuss and Pinot’s co-leader, David Gaudu – among the fallers.

Rodriguez, bloodied on his left side and also on his brow, fought hard to hang onto fourth place but on the final climb, was unable to prevent Simon Yates from moving ahead to claim fourth overall.

Guardian