Pogacar delivers major blow to Vingegaard and Visma | Lease a Bike, secures yellow and gains minutes on rvals

Before the riders really made their way into the Pyrenees, this stage had a flat start. And so the battle for the early breakaway was a fierce one. Many riders wanted to be in the early breakaway, but in the first half hour, no one really got the green light. After all, a bunch of riders got away, thanks in part to a Dutch rider who started the decisive breakaway.

We are talking about Thymen Arensman. The rider from INEOS Grenadiers saw four of his teammates in the breakaway of the day: Tobias Foss, Axel Laurence, Connor Swift, and Carlos Rodriguez. The latter in particular was considered a threat by the peloton, which allowed the breakaway group a maximum lead of two minutes. In the peloton, UAE Emirates-XRG, EF Education-EasyPost (with yellow jersey wearer Ben Healy), and Uno X-Mobility took turns at the front. The Norwegian team currently holds a top-ten place with Tobias Halland Johannessen, but with Rodriguez at the front, the young talent would likely lose that top-ten position to the Spaniard.

In the first hour of the race, the average speed was 52 kilometers per hour. That is exactly the same as the number of riders in the breakaway group. That group also included Mathieu van der Poel for Alpecin-Deceuninck, Tiesj Benoot for Visma | Lease a Bike, and Tim Wellens for UAE Emirates-XRG. After 90 kilometers of racing, the first obstacle of the day awaited: a short fourth-category climb. Lenny Martinez, wearing the polka dot jersey, was also present in the large leading group, but let his teammate Fred Wright take the point.

After the short descent, the intermediate sprint followed immediately, the only one of this stage. Without sprinters Jonathan Milan, who holds the green points jersey, and Biniam Girmay, it looked like all the points would go to van der Poel. But Milan (Lidl-Trek) and Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) let other riders join the sprint. Girmay's teammate, Laurenz Rex, won the sprint ahead of Van der Poel. Thibau Nys was sent into the sprint for Lidl-Trek and took third place.

After the intermediate sprint, the road would start to climb gently before the gradient really increased. With the Col du Soulor (11.8 km at 7.6%) approaching, the first serious climb of the Tour was looming. The first riders, including Edward Theuns (Lidl-Trek), could no longer keep up with the pace at the front. Brian Coquard also had major problems. The Cofidis rider was in the leading group but was forced to stay on the side for a long time with a painful finger. The peloton caught up with the Frenchman, leaving the sprinter alone in his battle against the time limit.

For van der Poel, his day in the breakaway group was also over when he turned onto the Col du Soulor. The peloton, still two minutes behind at that point, would catch up with the Alpecin-Deceuninck leader not much later. Nys also let the breakaway group go with a good ten kilometers to go on the Col. In the peloton, Visma | Lease a Bike, with Victor Campenaerts at the front, took the lead.

This pushed the pace even higher. When Campenaerts handed over the lead to fellow Belgian Tiesj Benoot, another Belgian had to drop out of the group of favorites at the back. It turned out to be Remco Evenepoel. The Soudal Quick-Step leader was unable to keep up with the pace with just over seven kilometers to go. Marc Soler (UAE) and Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) also struggled.

But it didn't stop there. The pace set by Sepp Kuss, who had taken over the lead from Benoot, proved too fast for his teammate Matteo Jorgenson. This happened shortly after the yellow jersey wearer, Healy, fell behind. Meanwhile, Mathias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) broke away at the front, which immediately meant the end for Arensman and others in the leading group.

Who was able to follow? Bruno Armirail, Aurélien Paret-Peintre (both Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Einer Rubio (Movistar), Michael Storer (Tudor), and Michael Woods (Israel-Premier Tech). The latter tried to make a break just before the last kilometer at the top, but no one followed him, and he managed to secure all ten points at the top. Martinez, the polka dot jersey wearer, was no longer in the front, which meant that Woods did well in the battle for the mountain jersey.

After the descent of the Col du Soulor, a trio took the lead: Woods, Skjelmose, and Armirail. The latter immediately attacked and was the first to start the Col des Bordères (3.3 km at 8.1%), a second-category climb. The Frenchman was the first to reach the top and built up a lead of one minute. Among the favourites, Jorgenson struggled a kilometre below the summit, while teammate Yates set the pace. Kuss was also struggling in the Vingegaard/Pogacar group.

In the meantime, Evenepoel managed to make up a lot of time on this group. The Flemish rider managed to catch up with his rivals 27 kilometers from the finish, just before the start of the final climb. At Visma, Jorgenson was also back in the group, which consisted of four men: Simon Yates, Kuss, and, of course, Vingegaard. On the flat section after the descent, Belgian champion Wellens took the lead. Armirail started the final climb of the day, Hautacam (13.5 km at 7.9%), a good 13 kilometers from the finish.

At UAE, Adam Yates and Narvaez were the men who could support Pogacar alongside Wellens. After Wellens' work, the pace picked up considerably under the leadership of Narvaez, forcing Jorgenson, Evenepoel, and Simon Yates to let the group go. Adam Yates (UAE) also didn't have the legs to follow and had to drop back to second place without having done any work at the front. That was the signal for Narvaez to go full throttle. Game on.

A fierce attack by Pogacar followed. It immediately became clear that Vingegaard was unable to follow, so the Dane chose his own pace. Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) still had his teammate Florian Lipowitz with him behind Vingegaard, as well as Kevin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL), and Johannessen (Uno X-Mobility). With more than seven kilometers to go, they were already more than a minute and a half behind. Vingegaard followed 50 seconds behind Pogacar.

The world champion only extended his lead. Evenepoel slowly caught up with Roglic's group, allowing the wearer of the white jersey to limit the damage. Roglic, in turn, was unable to keep up with Lipowitz, who was chasing Vingegaard. Onley managed to follow Lipowitz for a long time, but he too had to find his own pace.

At the finish line, Pogacar's victory gesture spoke volumes: it had been a challenging ride for him, too. Vingegaard crossed the finish line more than two minutes later. Evenepoel followed in Vauquelin's wheel in seventh place.