Vingegaard on verge of Tour de France triumph as Pogacar wilts

HAUTACAM, France: After 18 stages of intense struggle, Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard put one hand on the 2022 Tour de France title on Thursday as defending champion and closest rival Tadej Pogacar wilted in the Pyrenees.

Vingegaard’s solo win on the Hautacam mountain extended his lead to a daunting 3 minutes and 26 seconds while his sportsmanship, when he waited for Pogacar to catch up after a high-speed downhill fall, served to burnish his reputation.

The stage win leaves Denmark’s Vingegaard with an advantage that, barring disaster or a bad fall, should see him ride up the Champs Elysees on Sunday to win the 2022 title.

“I don’t want to talk about winning the Tour yet, let’s talk about it in Paris, there are three days to go,” Vingegaard said at the line.

The pair have been shadowing each other the entire race, with Pogacar winning three stages and taking the overall leader’s yellow jersey by stage seven, before Vingegaard took it off him in baking heat in the Alps.

“Jumbo-Visma have worked perfectly on this Tour de France. I take my hat off to them,” said Pogacar.

“And today, the best man won; Jonas was stronger than me.”

The race leader said this 18th stage and the 11th had been where he hammered home his superiority on the Tour.

“Those two displays on the Col du Granon and here showed what a great team we have,” Vingegaard said of Jumbo’s collective approach to this Tour.

Pogacar has relentlessly attacked the Dane since the Col du Granon in a stubborn effort to close the gap.

The loss of four of his UAE teammates to positive COVID tests and falls did however hurt those chances but whatever happens, the champion 2020 and 2021 will leave with his reputation entirely intact.

On Thursday, Vingegaard’s Jumbo