The battle for the Tour de France’s yellow jersey lasted 12 days, but really it lasted about five minutes. That’s how long Tadej Pogacar waited before attacking Jonas Vingegaard on the Hautacam, the first hors-categorie mountain of the Tour, with an acceleration that made the Danish double champion look like a weekend rider who’d taken a wrong turn.
There is still a week’s racing to come in the Alps, featuring a couple of menacing stages including Tuesday’s summit finish atop Mont Ventoux. But Ventoux is more likely to be where Pogacar writes another piece of Tour history than where Vingegaard trims his four-and-a-half-minute deficit.
