Pogacar defeats Vingegaard in La Loze, where O'Connor wins

Halfway up the mountain, in Courchevel, everything is comfort. The elite ski resort, where luxury has a French accent, is surrounded by wooden chalets, five-star hotels, and ski jumps where professionals soar in winter. But all that exclusivity is revealed as the road winds along the slope toward the summit. The trees give way to the rock. 26 kilometers of asphalt seem endless. Yesterday, the usual silence of a road that until 2019 was nothing more than a maintenance track was interrupted by hundreds of fans. It's the Col de la Loze, the toughest climb of this year's edition, which didn't exist until five years ago but has become the modern legend of the Tour de France.

And there, along a road designed solely for sporting events, where the air is thin and legs tremble, the battle promised by Vingegaard to defeat Pogacar never comes . The favorites don't launch a single attack until the final kilometer. The fatigue accumulated from the previous climbs on the Col du Glandon and the Col de la Madeleine takes over. Ben O'Connor takes advantage of the opportunity, repeating his victory in the Alps after his victory in Tignes in 2021. The Slovenian leader's usual final attack perhaps definitively ends this Tour and also a Jonas Vingegaard who crosses the finish line completely exhausted.

Before the Tour, the dogged Vingegaard considered this stage crucial to his aspirations. His preparation focused on studying every millimeter of this climb, with gradients varying from 6% to 24% in a matter of meters at 2,300 meters of altitude. But the queen stage featured two other Special Category climbs beforehand: the Col du Glandon (21.7 km at 5.1%) and the Col de la Madeleine (19.2 km at 7.9%). In total, three climbs were close to or greater than 20 kilometers in length, for a total of 5,450 meters of accumulated elevation gain.

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Visma didn't want to waste any time, and they accelerated their race at La Madeleine. Their strategy was to break the Slovenian before reaching the final climb. Sepp Kuss's pace broke up the peloton. Suddenly, Vingegaard and Pogacar were alone with 72 kilometers left to the finish. And the Dane attacked. He summoned his courage and kept his promise to be suicidal no matter what. But Pogacar held on. Nothing seems to affect him in this Tour. The Dane received help from Jorgenson, who had escaped from the front, to assist him on the final part of the climb and lead the descent. But the plan had failed.

On the final climb, Ben O'Connor and Einer Rubio broke away at the front along with Jorgenson, whose strength was already dwindling. The Australian was stronger and made a decisive break from a distance, as he did in Tignes in 2021, when he attacked with 17 kilometers remaining to win his first stage in the Tour. This time, the threat from behind was greater, but the kilometers ticked by and Vingegaard, exhausted, didn't move. Faced with Visma's passivity, Pogacar ordered the lead for another military march. At the finish, the Slovenian finally defeated his rival, as brave as he was harmless in the face of the clear superiority of the race's master.

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And while Pogacar, who will still have to defend one more mountain day with the finish in La Plagne, is heading toward his fourth Tour de France, Spanish cycling suffered one of the hardest blows in recent years. On the same day, Carlos Rodríguez, suffering a fractured pelvis, and Enric Mas, exhausted from the efforts of the last few days , decided to withdraw. These are two more examples of the deep wounds, both mental and physical, that this race can cause.