Tour de France leader Jonas Vingegaard edged closer to winning the event after taking stage 18. However, he did so while displaying some excellent sportsmanship as he waited for rival Tadej Pogacar after a crash.
As the 23-year-old looked to close the gap on the Dane, he hit the deck after misjudging a tight corner and his back tyre slid on roadside gravel, just moments after Vingegaard had suffered an almost identical fate. But when the formidable leader of Jumbo-Visma's powerful train slowed to allow the Slovenian to catch up, the two-time champion stretched out a hand to thank his rival before reinstating their race.
Vingegaard, brilliantly led out by team-mate Wout Van Aert on the final climb to Hautacam, promptly disappeared up the final climb to stretch his overall lead to 3min 26sec. And it would take a major upset on the flat stage 19 route from Castelnau-Magnoac to Cahors, or Saturday's 25-mile time trial, to deny Vingegaard a triumphal roll into Paris.
Pogacar said: "There couldn't be a better way to lose the Tour de France than this. I will leave the race with no regrets, and I have nothing but respect to Jonas Vingegaard. I think we respect each other a lot...it was fine for him to wait. It's me who wanted to go fast on the descent, but I pushed it too far and crashed – I can't blame anyone for that.”
Britain's Geraint Thomas remains third, closing in on a podium finish but eight minutes behind the Dane. He joked: “Nothing is straightforward in this race, but it's all good preparation for the Commonwealth Games.” Following his latest victory, Vingegaard explained his kind gesture. “I am so really happy they I won the stage, now there is more days to come,” he began. “I think [Pogacar] kind of missed the corner and then he went down into the gravel. The bike disappeared. I waited for him.
“Tadej went a bit too quick into one corner and he was out in the ditch and some gravel, then tried to get back on the road and the bike flipped.” The duo left their challengers in their wake and they went back and forth on the narrow climb of the Col de Spandelles, during the penultimate ascent of the day.
As the descent came, the Slovenian, trying to apply the pressure on his opponent, forced the pace and saw the race leader’s back wheel slide out on one bend, but Vingegaard somehow recovered and stayed upright. “I dropped my chain and I tried to pedal,” the Dane said. “Of course, you don’t have friction so my back wheel slipped and it was a bit of a mistake, but I was able to make it back to Tadej.”
The 25-year-old winning stage 18 saw him increase his lead to 3min 26sec with only three stages of this year’s race remaining. Following another impressive performance, the elated cyclist said: “It’s incredible. This morning, I said to my girlfriend and my girlfriend that I wanted to win for them and I did. This one is for my two girls back home,” the Dane said. “I was just happy that it finally ended. I was just happy it finally ended.
“It was incredibly hard. I’m also really happy I won the stage. Now there’s still two more days to come before we are in Paris so we need to keep focus and we’ll take it day by day again. Luckily I have to thank all my teammates. You see Wout van Aert dropped Pogacar in the end. Everyone was incredible. They were all incredible. Thanks so much to my teammates. Don't want to talk about it. Let’s talk about it in two days.”
