Tadej Pogacar (UAE-Team Emirates) has won this Thursday the eighteenth stage of the Tour de France, disputed between Pau and Luz Ardiden of 129.7 kilometers.
The Slovenian cyclist shone with his own light and left his rivals without options with two consecutive victories in the Pyrenees.
It was a day in which Enric Mas (Movistar Team) rubbed shoulders with the members of the possible final podium in Paris.
The brutal acceleration of the Slovenian 500 meters from the line, atop Luz Ardiden, could not be matched by his rivals, as the Danish Jonas Vingegaard and the Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz finished two seconds behind in second and third place, respectively. . Overall, Pogacar now has a huge five minute 45 second lead over Vingegaard with Carapaz in third place overall, six seconds behind. Colombian Rigoberto Uran, fourth overall at the start, broke on the penultimate ascent of Col du Tourmalet to get out of the top 10.
Pogacar links this victory in Luz Ardiden with that of the last stage in Col du Portet, and now yes, except for an accident, he will win on the Champs Elysees and will be crowned as two-time champion, consecutively, of a Tour de France that seems to have The podium was already done, with Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) and Richard Carapaz (INEOS Grenadiers) vying for the runner-up.
This time, the Spanish Enric Mas (Movistar Team) was stronger and held on with the best three until practically the finish line.
In addition, he tried twice to win the stage but Pogacar, ambitious, went for him knowing that he had numbers to win the stage, and his predictions were fulfilled.
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