Jonas Vingegaard took a razor-thin lead in the Tour de France and blew it up the last two days. The Team Jumbo-Visma leader only led Tadej Pogacar of UAE Team Emirates by 10 seconds in the general classification after Stage 15, but Vingegaard extended it to 1:35 with a victory in the Stage 16 time trial.
On Stage 17 on Wednesday, the race’s queen stage, Vingegaard and his team took an iron grip on the yellow leader’s jersey, building his lead over Pogacar to 7:35 with a fourth-place finish.
Pogacar got off to a rough start in the stage, bumping wheels with another cyclist and crashing. Pogacar resumed the race, but Vingegaard left him behind early on the Col de la Loze climb to the finish.
Team Jumbo-Visma responded to early attacks from UAE Team Emirates, which resulted in Tiesj Benoot and Wilco Kelderman being placed in a solid lead group. Behind them, Christophe Laporte and Nathan Van Hooydonck quickly took control on the first climbs. Despite the heat, the pace was consistently high.
At the foot of the Col de la Loze, the lead group with Benoot and Kelderman was three minutes ahead of the peloton. Vingegaard still had Sepp Kuss with him and sent the Durangoan to the front when it became clear that Pogacar was struggling. Vingegaard then took off and continued to pull away on the climb. Vingegaard could not close the gap on eventual winner, Felix Gall of AG2R Citroen Team, but his efforts gave him a firm grip on the yellow jersey with just four stages remaining.
“I'm super happy,” Vingegaard said. “We didn't expect the lead to be more than seven minutes, even though we wanted to take some time today. We didn't change our strategy after I won the time trial. The whole team rode great, and that was the deciding factor. We executed our plan perfectly.”
Kuss finished 16th on the stage, but stage-winner Gall, runner-up, Simon Yates of Team Jayco AlUla, and the third-place finisher, Pello Bilboa of Bahrain-Victorious, all passed him in the GC. Kuss is now ninth overall, 16:49 behind Vingegaard.
Pogacar eventually finished 22nd on the stage, crossing 7:37 after Gall.
Giulio Ciccone of Lidl-Trek scored 25 climbing points to hold on to the polka-dot king of the mountain jersey, which he took on Stage 15 from American Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost). Gall also had a big day climbing, scoring 50 points and passing four riders to move into second behind Ciccone, 88-82.
“For a climber, winning this jersey is maybe one of the best things you could ask for in this life because it is the pinnacle,” Ciccone said. “When I was young I always saw this jersey on the TV and now that I am wearing it, it's great and I really like this feeling.”
Jasper Philipsen’s four stage wins still have in the green points jersey. The Alpecin-Deceuninck rider leads with 323, followed Mads Pedersen of Lidl-Trek in second with 186,
Jumbo-Visma, meanwhile, now leads the team race by 9:42 over the INEOS Grenadiers in second.
“We're not in Paris yet,” Vingegaard said. “We have a challenging mountain stage on Saturday, so we must stay focused. I expect attacks. But we are in an excellent position.”
