Vingegaard holds off Pogacar to retain Tour de France lead as Houle wins stage

Tadej Pogacar was true to his promise to attack all the way to Paris, doing his best in the first Pyrenean stage of this year’s Tour de France to reduce his deficit to the race leader, Jonas Vingegaard of Jumbo-Visma. But for all his efforts, he was unable to disrupt the status quo in the leading standings.

Pogacar (UAE Emirates), seeking to make inroads into the Dane’s overall lead, was the main animator of the stage among the favourites. His first attacks came shortly before the summit of the Port du Lers, and forced a selection on the final metres to the top of the climb. They were followed by a further jump almost immediately on the descent towards the final climb, the Mur de Péguère.

On each occasion, however, Vingegaard was his equal, with Geraint Thomas following a few metres behind, until the Welshman lost some ground on the Péguère, before catching up on the descent. Ahead, the Canadian Hugo Houle (Israel-Premier Tech) raced into Foix to take his first Tour stage win, and his team’s second in this year’s race.

An emotional Houle dedicated his win to his late brother, Pierrick, who was killed by a drunk driver in December 2012, a loss which he has said “destroyed” him. “This one’s for my brother,” he said after crossing the line.

Although battling the intense heat was a big concern for the peloton, Covid-19 was also a factor with two riders, Aurélien Paret-Peintre and Mikaël Cherel (both AG2R-Citroën), testing positive for Covid, and withdrawing before the stage. Jakob Fuglsang (Israel-Premier Tech) quit with broken ribs while Vlasov’s teammate, Lennard Kämna, also left the race due to what his team called a persistent cold.