Vintage duel continues as Vingegaard, Pogacar draw on first Alpine stage

MORZINE, France : Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard crossed swords again in their vintage duel on the Tour de France on Saturday as the defending champion gained just one second over the two-time winner at the end of an epic, incident-marred stage.

Slovenian Pogacar beat Vingegaard in the sprint for second place behind 14th stage winner Carlos Rodriguez of Spain but now trails the Dane, who picked up an extra bonus second, by a mere 10 seconds.

Pogacar, who briefly dropped his wiry opponent with a brutal attack in the breathtaking ascent to the Col de Joux Plane (11.6km at 8.5 per cent), almost bumped into a race motorbike as he launched a fierce sprint for bonus seconds at the top before being caught off guard by Vingegaard 300 metres further up.

The Jumbo Visma leader, whose team had set a devilish pace on the Col de la Ramaz (13.9km at 7.1 per cent), took eight bonus seconds and Pogacar five.

The UAE Emirates rider then got a six-second bonus for second place on the stage while Vingegaard took four.

"It's pretty hard to drop him," said Pogacar at the end of the punishing 152-km trek from Annemasse, and although Vingegaard gained time, he might feel his team's investment into the day did not pay off, and almost backfired.

"Jumbo Visma did a super job, I tried but Jonas was strong enough to come back and eventually I could not drop him but when I draw a line, I felt good all day. We can take a lot of confidence into the next days," said Pogacar.

The swashbuckling Pogacar was the first to attack, 3.7km from the top of the Col de Joux Plane, one of the hardest climbs of the French Alps, and opened a five-second gap.

IMPASSIVE VINGEGAARD

Pogacar looked back repeatedly, hoping to make Vingegaard crack, but each time could see his