Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) attacked Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) on the final two climbs of stage 17 to SuperDévoluy, gaining a few extra seconds and landing a psychological blow on the Dane as the 2024 Tour de France nears the decisive Alpine stages.
The time gains were marginal but hugely symbolic. Pogačar showed his big rival he is still strong after dominating the Pyrenees and able to hurt him, while Evenepoel is now less than two minutes down on Vingegaard in the fight for second.
“I stretched my legs on the final climb. I don’t even know myself why I tried something today but I gained a few seconds on Jonas, so I’m happy with that,” Pogačar said of his attack.
The 177.8 km stage was full of attacks from riders fighting for the stage victory. A breakaway finally got away after non-stop attacks, with Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) winning the stage.
Pogačar and the peloton seemed happy to ride carefully to the finish. But when Matteo Jorgenson and Wilco Kelderman were distanced, Vingegaard was left alone. Pogačar sensed an occasion and attacked hard on the Col du Noyer with 13 km to go.
Vingegaard tried to chase but suffered and lost the wheel. Then Evenepoel came past him. On the descent, Vingegaard caught the Belgian with the help of teammate Christophe Laporte who had been in the breakaway. They worked together to catch Pogačar on the descent but the attacks were not over.
Evenepoel jumped alone on the final 3.8km climb and managed to gain 12 seconds on Vingegaard at the line. Pogačar sat behind Vingegaard on the gradual climb to the finish in Superdévoluy and then attacked him again three hundred metres from the finish, gaining two seconds at the line.
Each attack seemed to boost Pogačar’s morale and hurt Vingegaard.
Pogačar now leads Vingegaard by 3:11, with Evenepoel third overall at 5:09. The Slovenian's UAE teammate João Almeida is fourth at a distant 12:57, highlighting the chasm between the podium contenders and the rest of the Tour de France peloton.
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