Vingegaard leads Tour ahead of ‘decisive’ mountains

BELLEVILLE, FRANCE: Basque rider Ion Izagirre broke away to claim stage 12 of the Tour de France on Thursday as defending champion Jonas Vingegaard retained a slender lead in his duel with Tadej Pogacar.

After a fast-paced ride through the Beaujolais vineyards Vingegaard is only 17 seconds clear of Pogacar in the overall standings ahead of three days in the mountains the Dane described as “decisive.”

For Friday’s French national holiday of July 14 the Tour has programmed a marquee mountain finish at the top of Le Grand Colombier in the Jura mountain range — a regular obstacle on recent Tours.

“Tomorrow will be a decisive day,” Vingegaard said.

“It’s a long, hard climb, it all comes down to who is feeling good and who is not,” he added.

Pogacar, the Tour winner in 2020 and 2021, said: “I want to win it. It’s a good climb, if I have the legs I’ll attack. I should be good.”

Pogacar added he wanted an early night ahead of the Grand Colombier.

On a lighter note Vingegaard admitted to enjoying a tipple in his free time when asked about the local wine as he dropped his often cagey approach to the press.

“My wife and I enjoy a bottle of wine from time to time but as a cyclist obviously not so often. Personally I prefer a bottle of white,” he said.

It was a second win for Izagirre’s team Cofidis after Victor Lafay triumphed in San Sebastian, and also a second Basque win after Pello Bilbao won stage 10 on Tuesday.

“It’s great for the Basques, three stages there and two wins for us (the Basques),” Izagirre said.

“Tonight we’re going to have a party,” said the winner who will be far from alone with France preparing for its national holiday on Friday.

There was around 25km of climbing on the run from Roanne to Belleville