Pogacar stuns defending champion Vingegaard to claim stage victory in Tour de France Pyrenees

Two-time Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar took a 10th stage win in cycling’s biggest race on Thursday after a stunning counter-attack and dropping defending champion Jonas Vingegaard in the final.

A day after losing more than a minute to Vingegaard on the first Pyrenean stage, Pogacar showed he was not ready to give up and reignited the tension.

Vingegaard crossed the finish line 24 seconds behind Pogacar after their exciting duel to snatch the yellow jersey from the race leader, 25 seconds ahead of his Slovenian rival, according to preliminary results.

The brutal 145-kilometer stage 6 with a mountaintop finish from the southwestern town of Tarbes to the plateau of Cambasque featured three tough climbs, including the legendary Col du Tourmalet.

It was on the steepest part of the famous mountain pass, in the middle of nowhere, that Vingegaard, riding behind a small group of breakaway riders, started the battle.

After his teammates choked the competition with a frenetic pace that cracked most of the other contenders, Vingegaard launched a sharp attack about a mile from the top. Pogacar was the only one who could follow.

Vingegaard’s teammate Wout Van Aert, who was part of the early breakaway and rode furiously all day, was waiting for his leader on the descent as a group of eight riders gathered at the front for the final rut with some steep sections at an 11% gradient .

The tireless Van Aert accelerated again with five kilometers to go to mount Vingegaard’s second attack of the day, with Pogacar and Michal Kwiatkowski on his wheel.

The Polish rider was quickly dropped and the duelists found themselves on their own for the final three kilometers of the stage, spurred on by the vociferous cries of exuberant roadside fans and flares of light. Pogacar then mounted his explosive counter-attack with 1.6 miles to go and never looked back.