Jonas Wingegaard (Jumbo) is one step away from winning, for the first time at the age of 25, the Tour de France on a bike. The Dane single-handedly won the mountainous stage 18 at Alto do Otacam (1520m) this Thursday and only if he has serious problems on the remaining three runs will he not climb on Sunday in the yellow jersey. on the catwalk in Paris. His closest rival, Tadej Pogacar (UAE), came in second, 1 min 04 s down and is now 3 min 26 s behind the leader overall.
The last stage in the Pyrenees (143.2 km) was also marked by the fall of Pogacar – in a turn, on the descent of Alto de Spandeles, 27 km from the finish line. He was wounded in the arms and left leg. Wingegor saw what happened and waited for “Poga”, who thanked him for it.
On the last climb of the day, 13.8 km, with an average gradient of 7.8%, Wingegaard was always accompanied by teammates – Sepp Kuss, first; and Wut van Aert, later – while Pogacar was alone. With little more than 4km to go, while Aert was pushing, the winner of the last two Tours couldn’t keep up the pace and lost contact with two Jumbos. And Wingegor threw a party at Alto do Houtacam. Pogacar nevertheless overtook Aert, who was already in decompression, and took 2nd place in the overall standings.
Stage 19 will take place this Friday: Castelnau Mag Noac-Cahors (188.3 km).
Author: Octavio Lopez
Source: CM Jornal
