Tour de France: authoritative winner at Hautacam, Vingegaard is getting closer to a first triumph

Jonas Vingegaard certainly folded the Tour de France this Thursday.

Winner of the 18th stage in Hautacam, like Bjorn Riis in 1997, the Dane is on the royal road to succeed his compatriot on the list of winners of the Grande Boucle.

Arrived alone at the top of the terrible final ascent after a last effort by the impressive Wout Van Aert, the Jumbo-Visma climber, launched towards glory, relegated his rival Tadej Pogacar to 1'09'' more, more closer than ever to being knocked out (+3'27'' overall).

To discover

• The route of the Tour de France 2022

• The general classification of the Tour de France

Dressed in his white jersey, the Slovenian would have tried everything, as he had promised at the beginning of the week, by placing several attacks without however surprising the Yellow Jersey, warm in his wheel.

Only a fright in the descent of the Col de Spandelle will have made the Dane wince, who will wait a few meters later for his rival, victim of a slight fall.

The beautiful image of this end of the Tower and a transfer of power between the two monsters of this 109th edition.

Third in the stage, Wout Van Aert let his joy burst for his teammate, future winner of the Tour.

Still impressive, the Green Jersey turned into an ideal launching pad after working all day at the front of this last mountain stage, where Thibaut Pinot ended up breaking down on the final ascent.

The latter's teammate, David Gaudu, fifth just behind Geraint Thomas (3rd overall), took over more than two minutes from Nairo Quintana and moved into fourth place in the general classification.

More info to follow...