Dutch rider Thymen Arensman picked up a second stage win at the Tour de France on Friday, winning stage 19 at La Plagne ski resort as defending champion Tadej Pogacar closed in on a fourth title.
Arensman crossed the finish line exhausted but delirious in the heavy rain, two seconds ahead of title contender Jonas Vingegaard and his great rival Pogacar.
Barring a collapse, Team UAE rider Pogacar should claim his fourth Tour de France title aged just 26 years in Paris later today.
Photo: AFP
The attack-minded Pogacar explained how he had played it safe with just two days left until the race finish on the Champs Elysees.
“When Arensman attacked I let him go, setting my own rhythm. It was close, I did want to win, but I’m just glad it’s over,” Pogacar said. “It was a good win from Thymen, he deserved it.”
The Slovenian exits the Alps with a lead of 4 minutes, 24 seconds on second-placed Vingegaard.
Vingegaard for once finished ahead of Pogacar, but this was a fourth second-place finish on this 21-day slog.
Pogacar has dominated this year’s Tour de France, winning stages on rolling runs in the north and west at Rouen and the Mur de Bretagne in the first week, then twice on the mountain slopes of the Pyrenees in week two.
As the Tour entered its endgame Pogacar unexpectedly simply protected his lead through the Alps rather than go on his trademark all-out attacks.
The 2022 and 2023 champion Vingegaard had two off-days, first on a time trial and second in the Pyrenees, leaving Pogacar to surge into a position of such strength he only needed to follow.
German breakout star Florian Lipowitz strengthened his hold on overall third place and top spot in the under-25’s section on his debut Tour de France as he tracked the title rivals all the way to the summit finish for an impressive Tour debut with Red Bull Bora.
For Arensman and Ineos, this was a symbolic victory, as the British team begin their revival with the return to the helm of Dave Brailsford, the mastermind of seven wins in his previous stint.
Arensman slumped to the ground in tears at La Plagne, as he just held on with a white-knuckle struggle over the final kilometers.
“I’m totally destroyed,” said Arensman, who also won stage 14 at Superbagneres in the Pyrenees.
Mirroring Ben O’Connor’s winning tactic on the thrilling stage 18, climber Arensman attacked at the bottom of the final climb, with the title rivals more concerned with tracking each other.
This time, the breakaway stage winner had to sweat out the run in with the top trio closing fast.
“It feels like a dream, that’s Jonas and Tadej and everyone knows they are the best in the world,” he said.
The 25-year-old Ineos man fell over into the barriers exhausted at the line and broke into sobs of relief.
This final mountain stage was shortened overnight due to an outbreak of a cattle infection along the route, reduced to just 93km, which ran to a rowdy finish at 2,050m altitude.
The stage was largely uncontested in comparison with Thursday’s epic cat-and-mouse between Pogacar and Vingegaard, who attacked the champion 71km from the finish line without ever dislodging him.
Yesterday’s stage 20 was to be a hilly run through the Jura, while today’s run to the French capital also features a potentially chaotic run up the cobbled lanes of Montmartre.
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