The 33-year-old Polish rider, member of the breakaway of the day, dropped off his fellow travelers in the bends of the Grand Colombier to clinch his second stage victory on the Grande Boucle on Friday.
On the route of the Grande Boucle, July 14 is no longer the national holiday, but that of the Ineos-Grenadiers team. Because a year after Tom Pidcock’s resounding victory at Alpe d’Huez, his teammate Michal Kwiatkowski won on Friday, this time on the slopes of the Grand Colombier, in the Jura.
The Pole, world champion in 2014, had taken the good breakaway at the start of Châtillon-sur-Chalaronne, before escaping on the final ascent of this 13th stage. Behind, in the yellow jersey group, Tadej Pogacar attacked in the last meters, finishing 3rd in the stage, and taking eight seconds from his rival Jonas Vingegaard.
Pogacar makes an appointment
At the dawn of an alpine weekend with a very generous menu, and in suffocating heat, the ascent of the Grand Colombier did some damage in the peloton (the sprinter Caleb Ewan in particular gave up), but without upsetting the classification general though. By rolling his teammates all day, Tadej Pogacar had however planned everything to score a big blow. Enough to keep the breakaway in sight, while putting pressure on Jonas Vingegaard and the Jumbo-Visma. But what the Slovenian did not see coming was the number of Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers) on the slopes of the Grand Colombier, giant out of category of the Jura.
At 33, the Pole made his experience speak, by letting Quentin Pacher light the first fuse in what remained of the breakaway of 19 riders. At the train, he came out of the shadows and then dropped him and the competition on a bend. The following ? A show of force from Michal Kwiatkowski, already a stage winner on the Tour in 2020, in La Roche-sur-Foron, and often confined to supporting roles. But on this July 14, the day of glory had come for the one who more often played the role of the ideal teammate despite a prize list of choice.
The stage victory being no longer accessible, Tadej Pogacar still had one objective at the top of the Grand Colombier: to seek one of the first three places to win bonuses. And when we thought he had given up on the idea, he attacked in the last kilometer of the climb. Jonas Vingegaard cushioned the shock, conceding only five seconds on the line. But in snatching third place, Tadej Pogacar gained four seconds more than the four that separated him from his rival on the line to claw back a total of eight seconds. On the eve of the big alpine weekend, the Slovenian is thus within nine seconds of the Danish yellow jersey overall.