Vingegaard and Pogacar battle in first Alpine stage

Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard crossed swords again in their vintage duel on the Tour de France on Saturday as the defending champion gained just one second over the two-time winner at the end of an epic, incident-marred stage.

Slovenian Pogacar beat Vingegaard in the sprint for second place behind 14th stage winner Carlos Rodriguez of Spain but now trails the Dane, who picked up an extra bonus second, by a mere 10 seconds.

Pogacar, who briefly dropped his wiry opponent with a brutal attack in the breathtaking ascent to the Col de Joux Plane (11.6km at 8.5%), almost bumped into a race motorbike as he launched a fierce sprint for bonus seconds at the top before being caught off guard by Vingegaard 300 metres further up.

The Jumbo Visma leader, whose team had set a devilish pace on the Col de la Ramaz (13.9km at 7.1%), took eight bonus seconds and Pogacar five.

The UAE Emirates rider then got a six-second bonus for second place on the stage while Vingegaard took four.

The 2020 and 2021 Tour winner put pressure on Vingegaard in the tricky descent into Morzine, but the Danish rider took all the risks to stay in his slipstream as Rodriguez pulled away for his first Tour stage win and to take third place overall, albeit a massive 4:43 off the pace.

Australian Jai Hindley, who cracked on the Col de Joux Plane, dropped to fourth, one second behind Ineos-Grenadiers rider Rodriguez.

The stage was stopped for almost half an hour shortly after the start because of a massive pile-up that forced five riders to abandon before another two, including Frenchman and former Tour podium finisher Romain Bardet, also crashed out.