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Tadej Pogacar defends yellow in Le Lioran

  • Ron 

In Le Lioran, Tadej Pogačar took 2nd in a head to head sprint with Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) in Stage 11 of the 2024 Tour de France.

The duo formed after that UAE Team Emirates’s captain attacked from the head group at 800 to the top of the Puy Mary Pas de Peyrol (30 km to the arrival), becoming solo leader with an advantage that, on the following descent, raised to 35”; then on the Col de Pertus, Vingegaard fought to  bridge the gap and the duo pedalled to the arrival maintaining a good advantage on the chasing pair of Roglic and Evenepoel.

Almeida and Yates, after having forced the pace on the climb of Puy Mary Pas de Payrol, completed the stage respectively in 6th and 7th place (+1’49”)

Vingegaard and Pogačar sprinted for the stage success, with the Danish rider preceding the Slovenian.
Pogačar is still in yellow (+1’06” on Evenepoel, +1’14” on Vingegaard) and he became leader of the climbers classification.

Pogačar: “It has been a very good day. My team did a super job. I felt good in the Puy Mary and tried to pull a long-range attack. I was feeling pretty good on the descent, too, until my bike slipped and went sideways. I lost a bit of confidence there and I feel I spent too much energy on the following kilometers on the way to the Col de Pertus. Jonas did a great effort there to bridge back with me, proving that he is in top shape. I waited a bit as I wanted to sprint and secure the bonus seconds at the summit. Afterwards, I knew the last climb was not hard enough to launch a new attack, so I waited for the final sprint.

“Chapeau to Jonas for the victory, we can see we’re pretty well matched, I need to keep this gap I have which is pretty solid. Let’s wait for the Pyrenees,” he concluded.

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