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Pogacar retakes Tour de France lead in crushing mountain win

Tadej Pogacar reclaimed the leader’s yellow jersey at the Tour de France with an imperious stage 12 triumph on the Hautacam mountain in the Pyrenees on Thursday.

Pogacar skipped away on an 11km solo ascent of the fabled climb to finish 2min 10sec ahead of key rival Jonas Vingegaard while overnight leader Ben Healy wilted to a 13min deficit on the day.

French president Emmanuel Macron was on hand at the mountaintop finish to congratulate the Slovenian Team UAE rider.

Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel dug deep after being dropped on the first of three climbs to claw back level, before eventually losing 3min 35sec on the day’s 180.6km ride from Auch, finishing seventh.

In the overall standings Pogacar now leads the Tour de France by 3min 31sec over Denmark’s Vingegaard while Evenepoel is third at a daunting 4min 45sec.

Worse for any pretenders hoping to stop the defending champion is that Friday’s stage 13 comes in the shape of an uphill individual time-trial that the Slovenian said this week he was looking forward to.

Overnight leader Healy took a beating on his second day defending the yellow jersey as the EF rider slipped off the pace on the first climb, while doggedly trying to limit his losses.

He is now eleventh, over 13 minutes behind Pogacar.

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