Vingegaard has Tour title in the bag after crushing Pogacar again

COURCHEVEL FRANCE: Jonas Vingegaard climbed into a rock-solid lead in the Tour de France on Wednesday as his main rival Tadej Pogacar lost almost six minutes on the toughest climb on the 21 stages.

Austrian Felix Gall of the AG2R-Citroen team won stage 17, billed as the “Queen” stage with 69km of Alpine climbing, ahead of Simon Yates.

Defending champion Vingegaard of Jumbo Visma increased his lead in the overall standings to a crushing 7min 35sec, with Pogacar still second and his UAE teammate Adam Yates up to third at 10min 45sec.

After the race, Vingegaard strolled around the paddock with his daughter in his arms, while his defeated rival sat on a pile of tires staring head down at the ground.

“I don’t know what happened, I was empty at the bottom of the climb. I’m extremely disappointed,” said Pogacar, who fell early in the stage.

The incident happened when an escape was forming. Vingegaard waited for Pogacar to rejoin the pack.

After kissing his wedding ring while crossing the finish line, Vingegaard was asked if he felt he had clinched the Tour.

“I think so. I have more than seven minutes lead now so I’m very happy,” said the 26-year-old who won the Tour in 2022.

“But we’re not in Paris yet. Tadej will never give up. You know that,” he said.

Ineos rider Carlos Rodriguez slipped to fourth on Tuesday but let slip a little more time here. He is 1min 16sec behind Adam Yates and 18sec ahead of twin Simon Yates of Jayco Alula.

After Vingegaard pulverized Pogacar in the individual time trial the day before, the Slovenian vowed to fight back, saying he was hoping for bad weather.

But the forecast storms passed in the early hours of the morning and the run from Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc to Courchevel took place in