Pogacar gains time on Vingegaard as Ben O’Connor wins queen stage at Tour de France

Tadej Pogacar edged closer to a fourth Tour de France title by gaining more time on rival Jonas Vingegaard on the punishing queen stage, which was won by Ben O’Connor. Britain's Oscar Onley moved within 22 seconds of a podium finish.

Hyderabad: Tadej Pogacar closed on a fourth Tour de France title as Jonas Vingegaard failed to make a fight of it on the queen stage, which was superbly won by Ben O’Connor. Returning to the Col de la Loze, where he famously cracked and declared “I’m gone, I’m dead” in 2023, Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) outshone his big rival Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) to take more time in the fight for yellow.

It was also a great day for Britain’s Oscar Onley (Picnic-PostNL), who produced a superb ride to move just 22 seconds off the podium after matching the big two for much of the finale.

---

The 171.5km Alpine Queen Stage, containing more climbing than any other and taking the Tour to its highest point, promised to pack in a full day of excitement. The peloton collectively agreed to suspend active hostilities until after the early intermediate sprint. Once Jonathan Milan, in the green jersey had added 20 points to his total, the racing was on.

The 171.5km Alpine Queen Stage, containing more climbing than any other and taking the Tour to its highest point, promised to pack in a full day of excitement.

The peloton collectively agreed to suspend active hostilities until after the early intermediate sprint. Once Jonathan Milan, in the green jersey had added 20 points to his total, the racing was on.

First out of the blocks was Pogacar’s UAE-Emirates team-mate, and Sunday’s stage winner, Tim Wellens. Though not a climber, by being up the road his job was to act as potential “satellite” for Pogacar, by being able to drop back and help later in the stage.

So much hard climbing meant it was not a day when a large group was likely to stay together on the climbs. The first that formed included riders such as Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R), Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers), Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), Einer Rubio (Movistar), Bruno Armirail (Decathlon), Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X), Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe) and Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious), plus O’Connor (Jayco Alula).

Various ambitions were represented from elevating general classification positions, to King of the Mountains Points to those targeting the stage. At the start of the day 15 out of the 23 teams were heading home empty handed.

A late charge from Pogacar was enough for him to displace Rubio from second, adding six seconds of bonus time on top of the nine gained over the Dane on the road. Onley took 99 seconds out of Lipowitz, leaving just 22 between them with three stages remaining.