Pogacar closes on victory as O’Connor wins stage 18

With the victory of stage 18, Ben O’Connor, Tadej Pogacar made a huge step toward winning his fourth Tour de France by crashing past rival Jonas Vingegaard on the mighty Col de la Loze.

With only three stages left, Pogacar, 26, extended his overall lead over Vingegaard’s two-time champion by four minutes and 26 seconds. In the final 500 meters, Pogacar, 26, sprinted past his closest competitor.

With only 16 kilometers left, he was one minute and 45 seconds behind Australian O’Connor, who went solo.

After a stellar ride, Vingegaard took third place overall, closely followed by Britain’s Oscar Onley, who is now 22 seconds behind Florian Lipowitz for the podium position in the final general classification.

In 1771.5 kilometers of racing, riders had to climb more than 5,500 meters in the queen stage of this year’s race.

The Col du Glandon and Col de la Madeleine passed before the Col de la Loze, making it the race’s toughest mountains that made three ascents.

However, he stayed in control throughout the grueling first scene and overthrow Vingegaard’s first attempt to put him under pressure on Thursday.

Within the final five kilometers of the Col de la Madeleine, Vingegaard, who won in 2022 and 2023, and his Visma-Lease a Bike team managed to break him free from his teammates.

However, with 70 kilometers still to go, he was unable to put any more pressure on and Pogacar regained its team-mates before the Col de la Loze ascent.

O’Connor and Pogacar kept fighting at the front, but with 16 kilometers of climbing ahead, he broke clear of Einer Rubio, who had previously climbed for the Team Jayco-AlUla rider, prioritizing the defense of his yellow jersey over the stage victory.

Pogacar eventually made a move in the dying moments, running away from Vingegaard to finish nine seconds clear and accumulating six more seconds to take his place ahead of his rival of four.

After watching Lipowitz struggle on the final climb, Onley, 22, managed to follow Pogacar and Vingegaard to raise their podium hopes. On Friday, he will attempt to surpass Lipowitz in another challenging stage.

When the riders complete the final five ascents of the 130km route from Albertville to La Plagne, including two more climbs that fall under the hors categorie, Pogacar will once again defend the yellow jersey.

“I’m happy that I kept the yellow jersey and had strong legs.” Today, it was challenging to make a difference. Although I was a little hesitant at this point, the day turned out to be beautiful,” Pogacar said.