The Slovenian from the UAE team took over the yellow jersey on Saturday as fourth of the eighth leg of Oyonnax over 150.8 kilometers and three first-category passes to Le Grand-Bornand with a lead of almost two minutes. Before the first day of rest, he can set himself apart from his rivals on Sunday when he arrives at the top of the mountain in Tignes.
The day’s victory was secured by Belgian Dylan Teuns, who was uninteresting in the overall standings and ensured the Bahrain team’s second success in a row. Teuns had already won the first mountain tour stage in 2019. Around three quarters of a minute behind the Belgian, the fifth-placed Pogacar reached the destination where he had to wait a long time for his toughest rivals in the overall standings. The 22-year-old is now 1:48 minutes ahead of the Belgian classic specialist Wout van Aert, who will fall further behind in the mountains.
The strong climbers Alexej Luzenko (Astana) and Rigoberto Uran (EF) are already more than four minutes behind in positions three and four. The previous leader Mathieu van der Poel fell far behind.
While Pogacar, who won the time trial on Wednesday, launched a successful solo attack on the hard and, due to wet roads, particularly dangerous route over the Cote de Mont-Saxonnex, the Col de Romme and the Col de la Colombiere in the penultimate climb, other stars were long left behind. Only Richard Carapaz (Ineos) managed to keep up with the Slovenian attack for a short time, but the former Giro winner was also soon left behind, the Ecuadorian is five minutes behind Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo) overall sixth.
Primoz Roglic, who was runner-up from last year, who was already far behind in the overall standings, again had a lot of time. The Slovenian fell a few days ago and had wounds all over his body. The ex-overall winner Geraint Thomas, who was also affected by a fall injury, came to the finish line a long way behind, as did the Lower Austrian Patrick Konrad, who was seventh the day before. There were a few crashes on the wet roads, Michael Gogl also hit the asphalt hard, but the Upper Austrian was able to continue.
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