Vingegaard marches towards Tour de France title as Pogacar cracks

COURCHEVEL, France :Jonas Vingegaard took a giant stride towards a second consecutive Tour de France title when crash-hit rival Tadej Pogacar cracked in unexpected and spectacular fashion on Wednesday's 17 stage, the toughest of the race.

A day after crushing Pogacar in the individual time trial, Vingegaard went solo some five kilometres from the top of the Col de la Loze (28.1km at 6 per cent) and did not look back despite being slowed down by an organisers' car and a race motorbike.

He could not catch stage winner Felix Gall of Austria, who attacked from the breakaway 6.4km from the top to move up to eighth overall, but his fourth place at the end of the 165.7-km trek from Saint Gervais was more than enough for Vingegaard to prepare to celebrate in Paris on Sunday.

What was a 10-second gap two days ago is now an unbridgeable 7:35 gap after Pogacar, who crashed early in the stage and suffered a cut on his knee, huffed and puffed over the line more than five minutes behind Jumbo-Visma leader Vingegaard.

The Dane has devoured his main rival, sending him into an abyss of doubt after beating him two years in a row, delivering brutal blows when it mattered most.

"I'm relieved to have more than seven minutes but we're not in Paris yet, there's some tricky stages left, still," said Vingegaard.

He again faced questions about trust in cycling, a sport that has been marred by doping scandals in the past.

"I understand it's hard to trust in cycling but I think everyone is different than 20 years ago and I can tell from my heart that I don't take anything I would not give my daughter and I would not give her any drugs," Vingegaard told a news conference.

As Pogacar reached the top of the brutal hill where the finish line was drawn, he