Pogacar and Vingegaard set for vintage Tour de France duel

ORCINES, France: The Tour de France is expected to turn into an all-time classic as Tadej Pogacar narrowed the gap with defending champion and overall leader Jonas Vingegaard in the iconic climb to the Puy de Dome on Sunday (Jul 9).

The Slovenian jumped away from a group of top guns 1.5km from the top of the 13.3km ascent at 7.7 per cent with only Vingegaard able to follow but the Dane lost his rival's wheel some 100 metres further up.

Pogacar rolled over the line eight minutes and 19 seconds behind stage nine winner Michael Woods of Canada, and eight seconds ahead of Vingegaard, who was in full damage control mode in the final kilometre with the Auvergne volcano craters in the background.

"It would be nicer to have stayed with him and have lost no time but as I've said before the first week didn't suit me," said Vingegaard.

"In my opinion there are stages that suit me more, so being in yellow after that first block of racing is good for me. I'm looking forwards to the Alps."

Overall, Vingegaard, who had struck in the Col de Marie Blanque in the first Pyrenean stage last week before losing some ground a day later in the ascent to Cauterets-Cambasque, leads Pogacar by 17 seconds.

"I was a bit scared because the guys (the sports directors) were telling me 'it's so hard, it's so steep,' but actually it did not seem too steep, we were flying uphill today," said Pogacar, who savoured a "small victory".

The deafening cheers of the crowd made way to an eerie near silence as fans and team cars were not allowed in the final four kilometres of the climb.

Pogacar and Vingegaard kept an eye on each other, jerseys zipped up in the haze of the Giant of Auvergne before the 2020 and 2021 champion attacked, in a move reminiscent of Raymond