Following Saturday’s victory at Pla d’Adet, Tadej Pogacar added back-to-back wins in the Pyrenees with another summit on stage 15 on the Plateau de Beille.
Although the stage seemed set for another showdown between the Slovenian and defending champion Jonas Vengergaard, Pogakar was too strong for the Dane.
This time there was no counterattack from any of the Giro d’Italia champion’s opponents, with Remco Evenepoel from Soudal Quick-Step buying more time for the rampant Pogacar.
Vengergaard and Pogacar led the dwindling field of overall contenders with 11 kilometers to go. But with 5 kilometers left in the race, Pogacar overtook his rival and again launched a ruthless attack to put distance between his rivals, as he had done 24 hours earlier.
It wasn’t another burst of power but a subtle change of pace, as Pogakar pounced after Vengergaard looked back.
As the gap between the two grew wider, Wengard looked more and more struggling, only giving up more than a minute, and now he is more than three minutes behind the yellow jersey. Even Poole fought hard to retain third place but is now more than five minutes behind the ruthless Slovenian.
