Pogacar closes on Tour triumph with stage 19 win
Tadej Pogacar climbed to a convincing victory on stage 19 of the Tour de France on Friday, extending his overall lead over defending champion Jonas Vingegaard to close on a historic Tour-Giro double. With two tough stages remaining, the 2020 and 2021 Tour de France champion Pogacar leads Vingegaard by 5min 3sec while Remco Evenepoel remains third, now at 7min 1sec. Pogacar is also two stages away from a Giro d'Italia and Tour de France double, which would be a first since 1998. A dominant and confident Pogacar promised to attack here on the 'Queen' stage with its massive mountains and came into stage 19 with a 3min 11sec lead over Vingegaard, with Evenepoel at 5min 11sec in third. Previous weak moments for the Team UAE rider have come at altitude and in hot weather, as he let slip the last two Tour de France titles to the Dane Vingegaard. So the 25-year-old will have been happy riding under overcast skies as the mercury dipped to 18.5 Celsius. There was plenty of altitude on the menu however as the pack first crossed the fan-packed Col de la Bonette, a 23km climb at 7 percent average gradient to the dizzying altitude of 2,800m. The final climb to Isola 2000 ski resort is hardly less crushing and Pogacar attacked with a jaw-dropping 10km to go. He left his rivals trailing in his wake and chewed up the attackers one by one in quick succession. Matteo Jorgenson was second on the day at 21sec, while Simon Yates had led much of the way but dropped to third at 40sec after Pogacar passed him. Richard Carapaz was fourth at 1min 11sec and Evenepoel fifth with Vingegaard on his wheel. Eritrean break-out star Biniam Girmay retained the green sprint jersey ahead of Jasper Philipsen as the escape group took the intermediate sprint points way ahead of the peloton. Girmay and Philipsen have both won three stages on this year's race, while Pogacar has four. (AFP)