Awe-inspiring Vingegaard edges closer to Tour glory

HAUTACAM, France :Jonas Vingegaard put the hammer down on the Tour de France on Thursday, extending his lead massively with an awe-inspiring victory in the final mountain stage as defending champion Tadej Pogacar's all-in strategy backfired.

Vingegaard went solo some four kilometres from the finish at Hautacam after massive work from his Jumbo-Visma team mates, Pogacar slowly disappearing from his rear-view mirror and crossing the line in second, one minute and four seconds behind.

The 23-year-old Pogacar now trails the Dane by 3:26 ahead of Saturday's individual time trial after a flat 19th stage on Friday.

The Slovenian threw everything at Vingegaard in the penultimate climb to the Col de Spandelles, also throwing caution to the wind in the descent on a gruelling 143.2km trek from Lourdes.

Pogacar crashed after Vingegaard also came close to hitting the deck and after the duo called a brief truce, the strongest climber prevailed where his compatriot Bjarne Riis produced in 1996 one of the most astonishing efforts ever seen on the Tour.

Riis later admitted taking performance-enhancing drugs to win that Tour and his name was taken off the list of champions in 2007, only for the International Cycling Union (UCI) to add it again following legal examination of the case.

"I won the stage and I'm happy about it. There's still two stages and the time trial. I have not won the Tour yet, we have to take it day by day," Vingegaard said after his second stage win of the race.

Pogacar admitted the best man had won.

"Today Jumbo were so strong. I tried, I went all in for the yellow but in the end when I crashed I lost a bit of motivation for the final climb but I still pushed my limits. I'm proud of what I did today," he said.

Pogacar