Jonas Vingegaard on verge of Tour de France title after blowing away Tadej Pogacar again on incredible day

ByFelix Lowe

Updated 22/07/2022 at 08:05 GMT

A maiden stage win in the yellow jersey for Jonas Vingegaard all but secured the Dane a first Tour de France title after drama on the road to Hautacam. In an earlier show of sportsmanship, Vingegaard waited for rival Tadej Pogacar after the two-time champion crashed on the final descent ahead of the Stage 18 finale - before the two resumed hostilities on the last climb of the Tour.

Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) emulated his compatriot Bjarne Riis in 1996 with a remarkable solo victory at Hautacam in the Pyrenees to strengthen his vice-like grip on the yellow jersey in Stage 18 of the Tour de France.

The 25-year-old cracked Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) with the help of Belgian teammate Wout van Aert after the indefatigable green jersey’s latest display of dominance in a breakaway that almost went the distance in the enthralling 143.2km ride through the Pyrenees.

Pogacar, the reigning two-time champion, crashed on the descent of the Col de Spandelles – only for Vingegaard to sit up and wait for his rival to return to the fold in an amazing show of sportsmanship. The pair then agreed on a ceasefire for the remainder of the technical descent before resuming hostilities on the final major climb of the race.

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On the punishing slog to Hautacam, Vingegaard was able to lean on the support of teammates Tiesj Benoot and Sepp Kuss as the two best riders in this year’s Tour dropped Britain’s Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) and closed in on the remaining three riders up the road.

And just as Kuss peeled off with five kilometres remaining, Van Aert – in that trio alongside Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) and Dani Martinez (Ineos Grenadiers) – was able to take up the slack. On his national Belgium Day, Van Aert buried himself on the front for Vingegaard before the elastic finally snapped with just over four kilometres remaining and Pogacar all but conceded the Tour.

Vingegaard rode clear to the delight of the tens of thousands of fans on the climb, blowing a kiss to the crowd as he crossed the line over a minute clear of Pogacar to extend his lead over the 23-year-old Slovenian to 3’36” with three stages remaining. His second victory of the race also secured the Dane the polka dot jersey after Vingegaard moved eight points clear of Germany’s Simon Geschke (Cofidis) in the KOM standings.

Van Aert took third place on a day he also extended his unassailable lead in the green jersey classification by winning the intermediate sprint from the large 33-man breakaway at Laruns ahead of the first of three climbs, the Col d’Aubisque.

‘I was just happy it finally ended!’ – Vingegaard on punishing Stage 18 victory

"It’s incredible. This morning I said to my girlfriend and daughter that I wanted to win for them – and I did. I’m immensely proud that I did this for my two girls at home," Vingegaard said. "Now there’s still two more stages to come before Paris so we need to stay focused and play it day by day. I don’t want to talk about it yet. Let’s talk about it in two days."

Quizzed on Pogacar's fall and his reaction, the Dane said: "He kind of missed the corner and went down into some gravel. When he tried to steer it out, the bike – how do you say? – disappeared under him. And, yeah, I waited for him.

"Today I have to thank all my teammates – incredible. You see Wout van Aert dropping Tadej Pogacar in the end. Sepp Kuss was incredible. Everyone – Tiesj [Benoot], Christophe [Laporte], Nathan [van Hooydonck] – they were all incredible."

Welshman Thomas took fourth place almost three minutes down to secure his third step on the podium, although the 2018 champion dropped to eight minutes behind Vingegaard in the general classification. Frenchman David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) moved up to fourth and traded places with Colombia’s Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic) after battling to fifth on the stage.

Britain’s Adam Yates (Ineos Grenadiers) dropped one place to tenth while Kazakhstan’s Alexey Lutsenko (Astana-Qazaqstan) moved into the top 10 at the expense of Spain’s Enric Mas (Movistar) after getting into the breakaway and holding on for a solid sixth place on the hors categorie climb.

Stage 18 highlights: Wobbles, crashes and sportsmanship as Vingegaard soars in yellow

Jumbo-Visma tour de force on day that mattered

If the first of two mountaintop finishes in the Pyrenees on Wednesday was shaped by the weakened UAE Team Emirates’ defiant show of strength, then Jumbo-Visma raised things up a few levels when the chips were down one day later.

Wout van Aert attacked from the gun and was ever-present in an active opening hour of racing as a large group of 33 riders eventually took a two-minute lead going onto the Col d’Aubisque. With compatriot Tiesj Benoot also in the move, Jumbo-Visma had two strong men up the road and three able deputies in Christophe Laporte, Nathan van Hooydonck and Sepp Kuss around their man in yellow.

By contrast, Pogacar quickly found himself with only Brandon McNulty in support after Mikkel Bjerg and Marc Hirschi went off the back well before the first of three climbs.

With Germany’s Simon Geschke (Cofidis) missing the move, Italy’s Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo) spotted an opportunity and crested the Aubisque on the front of the break to revive his hopes of an unlikely polka dot jersey. Had the Italian held on to take the maximum points over the Cat.1 Col de Spandelles, he would have taken over the jersey regardless of the result on Hautacam – but that was not to be.

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With 40km remaining, Van Aert began to turn the screw on the front of the race, upping the tempo considerably to blow the break apart on a climb making its first ever appearance on the Tour. And it was the Belgian who went over the top ahead of Dani Martinez (Ineos Grenadiers) and Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) to put himself in the frame for polka dots along with the green he had put out of mathematical reach of anyone else 24 hours earlier.

Behind, McNulty came to the front for Pogacar as UAE tried the same tactics as they employed in Stage 17. Once the American called time on his shift, Pogacar then made the first of a series of attacks which never troubled Vingegaard but showed the never-say-die attitude of the man in white.

A brief lull allowed Thomas back into the fold – and the Welshman even went clear after an attack of his own before a fifth acceleration from Pogacar saw white and yellow go clear ahead of the summit. Trailing the leading trio by one and a half minutes going onto the descent, Pogacar tried his best to put Vingegaard under pressure – and the Dane almost came a cropper when his rear wheel locked up and he was forced into an acrobatic save when rounding a sweeping bend.

No sooner had Vingegaard clipped back in and caught up with Pogacar than the shoe was on the other foot – and this time, the Slovenian was not so lucky. Overcooking a bend, Pogacar skidded in the gravel verge of the road and went down on his side – tearing a hole in his shorts and grazing his left hip.

‘Wow’ – Vingegaard allows Pogacar to catch up after crash in ‘incredible’ gesture

In a gesture of fairplay that defines this wonderful rivalry between the two young stars, Vingegaard slowed up and waited for Pogacar – the pair then shaking hands before resuming the descent. Their battle was put on hold for the remainder of the descent and the likes of Thomas, Kuss, Benoot and Louis Meintjes (Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert) had ridden back on before the foot of the climb to Hautacam.

Meanwhile, the leading trio of Van Aert, Martinez and Pinot started the final 13.6km ascent with a two-minute gap and faint hopes that they could hold on to contest the win. But the pacing of Benoot, who had dropped back from the break, and Kuss behind saw their advantage drop to under a minute by the time Van Aert’s acceleration snuffed out Pinot’s hopes of ending the French stage drought at this year’s Tour.

Kuss’s tempo behind saw Thomas dropped as the riders in yellow and white caught Pinot shortly after the other two remaining escapees up the road – Kazakhstan’s Alexey Lutsenko (Astana-Qazaqstan) and Spain’s Carlos Verona (Movistar). With the trio closing in, Van Aert eased up with 5.5km remaining before Martinez dropped back to help teammate Thomas.

Van Aert powers Vingegaard to cusp of Tour title with explosive attack

Through gritted teeth, Van Aert took up pacing duties from Kuss as Pogacar stuck to the wheel of Vingegaard knowing that with every pedal stroke his hopes of a third successive Tour title were getting further and further away. The final nail in Pogacar’s coffin came with 4.5km remaining when the Slovenian gave up the ghost – cracked by the pace of the man in green.

Belgium’s modern-day Merckx revelled in putting on a show on the final climb as Jumbo-Visma showed off their colours – yellow and green – with the world watching. He then sat up to allow Vingegaard the honour of riding to a maiden stage win in yellow – the colour he will be wearing in three days’ time in Paris.

Only one more major test stands between Vingegaard and victory in the world’s biggest bike race – but although Pogacar has form in humiliating Jumbo-Visma on penultimate day time trials, even he won’t be able to close a gap of over three minutes on the largely flat road to Rocamadour on Saturday.

Before then, the Tour continues on Friday with a rare day for the sprinters – a largely flat 188.3km ride from Castelnau-Magnoac to Cahors. Althogh it would take a brave man to bet against Van Aert continuing his freakish race by completing a hat-trick of wins.

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