Tour de France
Back in yellow: Pogacar triumphs in Brittany
Mathieu van der Poel fights in Brittany to defend his yellow jersey in a second due to Tadej Pogacar. But the efforts remain ineffective. The defending champion is too strong.
Rad star Tadej Pogacar left no doubt as to who is currently doing the tone on the 112nd Tour de France. The defending champion conquered the yellow jersey on the seventh stage. In Brittany, the Slovenian exceptional driver rushed up the steep final ramp into the village of Mûr-de-Bretagne, then duped his competitors in the sprint and celebrated his second stage victory at this year’s tour of France.
Pogacar also ended the second two -fighter with Mathieu van der Poel. The day before, classic specialist van der Poel had backed up the yellow jersey thanks to the tiny gap of one second. But the invalid Dutchman could not oppose anything at the steep conclusion.
“I tried to stay tun. On the Belgian double Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel in second place, the Slovenian is 54 seconds ahead. The Frenchman Kevin Vauquelin takes third place with a distance of 1:11 minutes of Pogacar.
After the hilly 197 kilometers between the coastal town of Saint-Malo and Mûr-de-Bretagne Guerlédan, Pogacar won the daily victory in the sprint in front of his rival Jonas Vingegaard and the British Oscar onley. The German hope bearer Florian Lipowitz crossed the finish line as 14th at the end of the stage, several drivers rushed at the end of the top group. Among them is the Pogacar’s Portuguese helper Joao Almeida and Santiago BuiTrago from Colombia.
Special stage for van der Poel
Compared to other large rivals on the tour, the duel between Pogacar and van der Poel is garnished with plenty of humor. After the second thriller in Normandy, when the Dutch brought back yellow with just one second, van der Poel ironically commented on a picture of defending champion Pogacar on the Instagram platform with the words: “You think there is enough for me to keep it up to Paris?”
The 30-year-old knows exactly that he will not have a chance against the three-time tour champion at the latest from the big mountain challenges. Nevertheless, he should enjoy wearing the yellow outfit all the more, because four years ago the grandson of the French cycling star Raymond Poulidor celebrated his first tour victory and the yellow jersey.
At that time at a distance of six seconds on Pogacar. Van der Poel kept the coveted leadership jersey six stages – Pogacar later celebrated his second tour victory in Paris.
The private duel in the first racing third of the three-week tour of France has a high entertainment value. On the second stage, van der Poel won in front of Pogacar in Boulogne-sur-Mer, the Slovenian left the Dutch in Rouen.
Driver crossing the birthplace of Rad-Idol Hinault
The two top drivers stayed close together on tour day. At the latest when crossing the municipality of Yffiniac – the birthplace of the five -time tour winner Bernard Hinault – the French fans may have been reminded of how far the last French success on the biggest Grand tour was: the aggressive Hinault, who became known as a nickname “Le Blaireau” (the badger) almost 40 years ago celebrated a French tour.
At the weekend, the Sprinter fights for the day victory on two flat stages on Saturday and Sunday. Before the first day of rest, the cycling professionals have to cope with the demanding tenth stage on Monday with 4450 meters of altitude.
dpa
Source: Stern
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