© ASO / Pauline Ballet
Tour de France: Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar engage in a historic duel
Anyone who knows the name of the person who will parade in yellow on Sunday evening on the Champs-Élysées, raise their hand?
Though Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar have been locked in a merciless fight to take control of the 110th edition since the grand départ in the Basque Country, the Tour de France remains more undecided than ever. At the start of the 16th stage this Tuesday (a mountainous time trial between Passy and Combloux), only 10-seconds separate the two men in the general classification.
The Dane and the Slovenian have not stopped elbowing each other during a breathless second week. And the 14th stage which arrived in Morzine after the ascent of the Col de Joux-Plane gave rise to a new thrilling mano-a-mano battle between the two men where Vingegaard recovered a small second thanks to gaining a bonus second ahead of Pogacar.
The next day’s stage between Les Gets and Saint-Gervais did not change the general classification, so on the rest day the final victory remains exceedingly uncertain. “I felt more in control today than the previous days. We can be happy with how the stage went. The team worked very well despite the big crash we suffered at the start of the stage. Anyway, it was again a good fight with Tadej Pogacar today,” Vingegaard, still in the yellow jersey, said at the end of the stage.
The week was also marked by the continued domination of Jasper Philipsen in the sprint stages. The Dutchman picked up a fourth victory this year and took an almost definitive lead in the fight for the green jersey.
Stages won by: A. Yates (UAE Team Emirates), Lafay (Cofidis), Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe), Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates), Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), Woods (Israel-Premier Tech), Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious), Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Izagirre (Cofidis), Kwiatkowski (INEOS Grenadier), Rodriguez (INEOS Grenadier), Poels (Bahrain-Victorious).
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