Pogacar wins Tour stage three to take yellow jersey from Vingegaard

LES ANGLES, France, July 6 : Defending champion Tadej Pogacar's final attack paid off as the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider won his first stage of this year's Tour de France on Monday, taking the overall lead from Jonas Vingegaard, who finished second.

Pogacar and Vingegaard are tied at eight hours, 46 minutes and 55 seconds after stage three, but Pogacar's bonus seconds and countback put him in the lead as the four-time winner continues the hunt for his third straight Tour de France title.

Stage two winner and teammate Isaac del Toro led out Pogacar in the final kilometre and the Slovenian earned his 22nd Tour de France stage win with a lunge for the finish line after a gruelling 195.9-km mountainous ride in stage three.

"It's because of Isaac today, I got some extra power in the finale," said the 27-year-old Pogacar, praising his Mexican teammate.

"Actually in the middle of the stage we decided that it's possible to go for the stage win and I'm really, really happy that we started the tour like this and incredibly finished today."

Richard Carapaz came in third, while 19-year-old French debutant Paul Seixas claimed fourth place.

GRUELLING MOUNTAIN RIDE

Officials barred the public from the finishing point of the mountain stage due to a forest fire in the region. A scorching sun bore down on the riders as they started the journey from Spain's Granollers in temperatures of more than 35 degrees Celsius.

Despite the heat, early breakaway attempts pushed the peloton, with Vingegaard covering 43.6km in the first hour.

Bruno Armirail, wearing the number 13 bib upside down to ward off bad luck, was in a crash with a few others at the front of the bunch shortly after the stage started. Frenchman Armirail suffered injuries to his right arm