Pogacar dominates to win his fifth stage of Tour

Tadej Pogacar continued his fairytale Tour de France with a fifth stage win to further extend his dominant lead with just one day remaining.

The Slovenian, riding for UAE Team Emirates, sprinted away from defending champion Jonas Vingegaard inside the final 500 metres on the Col de la Couillole.

He extended his advantage over the Visma–Lease a Bike rider by seven seconds and now leads the general classification by five minutes and 14 seconds.

Pogacar has become the first rider to win five stages at a single Tour de France since German sprinter Marcel Kittel in 2017.

Sunday’s time trial in Nice is the final stage of this year’s tour, and Pogacar is likely to put even more time into his rivals.

Richard Carapaz crossed the line in third, having already collected enough points to secure the King of the Mountains jersey earlier in the stage.

Unlike on Friday, where Pogacar attacked early on the way to victory, on Saturday he was able to keep his nose out of the wind as Soudal Quick-Step set the pace hoping to leapfrog their rider Remco Evenepoel into third, above Vingegaard in the overall standings.

But with five kilometres to go, Vingegaard countered an Evenepoel attack and only Pogacar could follow the two-time champion as the pair quickly cut the breakaway group’s lead.

Leaders Carapaz and Enric Mas – the last two from the day’s initial break – were caught just outside the final three kilometres and though Carapaz initially followed, the pace in the sweltering heat was too high.

Pogacar, who is hoping to become the first man since Marco Pantani in 1998 to win the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France in the same year, easily outsprinted Vingegaard at the finish, avenging his second-place finish on stage 11.

The 25-year-old is at the peak of his powers – and is dominating men’s road cycling this summer. He adds his five stage victories at this year’s Tour to the six stages he won in May’s Giro.