Tadej Pogacar is close to winning the Tour. © ANSA / SEBASTIEN NOGIER

Pogacar wins difficult Alpine stage

Is this the preliminary decision in the battle for the Tour victory? Tadej Pogacar wins the very difficult Alpine stage and is well on his way to bagging the Giro and Tour double.

July 19, 2024

From: dpa

Tadej Pogacar can hardly be denied the overall victory in the 111th Tour de France. The Slovenian also won the very difficult Alpine stage from Embrun to Isola 4400 with 2000 meters of elevation gain and celebrated his fourth stage victory in this year's tour. The American Matteo Jorgenson came in second, ahead of the Briton Simon Yates.

In the overall standings, Pogacar extended his lead over defending champion Jonas Vingegaard to 5:03 minutes. The Dane was unable to follow Pogacar's attack around nine kilometers from the finish. Belgian Remco Evenepoel is third, 7:01 minutes behind.

Probably no longer repressible

There are still two stages to go, the Alpine stage from Nice to the Col de la Couillole on Saturday and the final time trial from Monaco to Nice. However, the performances shown cast doubt on whether Pogacar can be pushed out of the top of the overall rankings. Only a fall or illness can stop the 25-year-old.