CULOZ: Tadej Pogacar continued to claw back time on overall leader Jonas Vingegaard with a late, brutal uphill sprint to drop the defending champion in the finale of Friday’s 13th stage of the Tour de France at the top of the Col du Grand Colombier and put his rival under immense pressure.

The Slovenian, Tour winner in 2020 and 2021, stood on the pedals inside the last kilometre and launched a furious sprint with Denmark’s Vingegaard holding his wheel before losing the slipstream and four seconds on the line.

Pogacar, who has now beaten Vingegaard in the last three mountain stages, took third place on the day, 50 seconds behind Poland’s Michal Kwiatkowski, the best of the breakaway riders.

It was former world champion Kwiatkowski’s second stage win on the Tour after 2020, the year then defending champion and team mate Egan Bernal abandoned with back pain on the same climb to the Col du Grand Colombier.

Pogacar, who picked up four bonus seconds, trails Vingegaard by nine seconds in the general classification, keeping the Jumbo-Visma rider on his toes ahead of two awe-inspiring stages in the Alps.

The 24-year-old stayed quiet in the main bunch all day and for most of the 17.4km ascent at 7.1% before attacking, once again showing his capacity to produce a massive, short effort on a steep finish.

His UAE Emirates team-mates set the pace at the bottom of the climb, chasing the breakaway riders, but Kwiatkowski perfectly managed his stamina to give Ineos-Grenadiers their first win in this year’s Tour, a year to the day after Tom Pidcock’s on L’Alpe d’Huez.

Belgian Maxim Van Gils was the only other breakaway rider to hold off Pogacar as he zig-zagged over the line for second, his face a pale mask of pain.

In a carbon copy of last Sunday’s finale to the Puy de Dome, Vingegaard limited the damage to take fourth place with Britain’s Pidcock fifth, 1:03 off the pace.

“My goal for today was to keep the yellow jersey, I’m in yellow tonight so I’m super happy,” Jumbo-Visma rider Vingegaard, whose emotions never transpire, told a news conference.

“I know that in such a finale Tadej is more explosive than me.”

Pogacar was equally happy as he ramped up the pressure on his rival.

“It’s a good day for us. It’s even a small victory for us because we gained some time on Vingegaard. The breakaway group was fast so we did not risk wasting too much energy in chasing them before blowing things up in the final climb,” he said.

Australian Jai Hindley cemented his third place in the overall standings by taking sixth place, a further two seconds behind.

He now trails Vingegaard by 2:51 but leads Spain’s Carlos Rodriguez by 1:57.

Saturday’s 14th stage is a gruelling Alpine effort over 152 kilometres ending in Morzine after a tricky descent from the punishing Col de Joux Plane, a 11.6km ascent at 8.1%.

It will be followed by another trying mountain trek on Sunday ending with an explosive climb to Saint Gervais (7km at 7.7%).

Published in Dawn, July 15th, 2023