Tadej Pogacar launched a solo attack to win stage 10 of the Tour de France and avenge the memory of a similar stage two years ago, when he was beaten by arch-rival Jonas Vingegaard.
The four-time Tour champion took a further step towards claiming a record-equalling fifth crown as he won by 32 seconds from Remco Evenepoel, who was put in difficulty on the final climb but produced an astonishing recovery to charge back and sprint for second place.
French teenager Paul Seixas produced a fine performance on Bastille Day to finish third in a group of favourites also including Vingegaard, who was 44 seconds back in seventh.
The stage win is 27-year-old Pogacar’s third of this Tour already and 24th at the Tour de France in his career to date.
He said: “Today was an incredible day. The team did a super good job. We had been targeting this stage for a long time, also with what happened two years ago when Jonas beat me in the sprint fair and square. Today I had similar legs to the finish, completely destroyed.
“I enjoyed the day in the final. I didn’t know I was going to win until the last kilometres. Then I remembered it was Bastille Day and tried to honour the yellow jersey.”
The result sees Pogacar extend his lead in the general classification standings to three minutes and 36 seconds over Dane Vingegaard, with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s Evenepoel moving up into third overall, four minutes and six seconds off the yellow jersey. The Belgian took the place of Pogacar’s teammate Isaac del Toro, who found himself in a group further back on the road and slipped to seventh overall.
Stage 10, a 166.6km run through the Massif Central from Aurillac to Le Lioran, featured a tricky sawtooth profile including seven categorised climbs.
Pogacar had attacked on a similar parcours in the 2024 edition of the Tour which also finished in Le Lioran, but then he was caught by Vingegaard late on and outsprinted by the Visma-Lease a Bike rider to the line.
There was to be no repetition of that on Tuesday as Pogacar’s UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad set an infernal pace all day, reeling in the last of the day’s breakaway, Movistar’s Javier Romo, with under 40km to go, on the Puy Mary-Pas de Peyrol climb.
EF Education-EasyPost’s Richard Carapaz, a former Giro d’Italia winner, attacked on the climb and eked out a one-minute lead but was eventually caught by Pogacar.
The Slovenian launched his move on the category one Col de Pertus with 15km to go, having benefited from Vingegaard’s teammate Davide Piganzoli pace-setting on the climb. He went solo all the way to the line, while the group of remaining contenders desperately tried to stick together behind him.
Evenepoel struggled on the final ascent of the day, the category three Col de Font de Cere, but was able to get back in touch on the descent towards the finish, joining his teammate Florian Lipowitz, who ultimately finished fourth, Vingegaard, and the Lidl-Trek pairing of Juan Ayuso and Mattias Skjelmose, who came in fifth and sixth respectively.
British rider Tom Pidcock crashed on the descent of the Pas de Peyrol but was quickly back on his bike and rolled over the line in ninth place, 1’59” behind Pogacar, and made up three places in the general classification standings. The Pinarello Q36.5 rider now sits 10th overall.
