Pogacar extends Tour de France lead with uphill time-trial win

Tadej Pogacar won a time trial on stage 13 of the Tour de France on Friday to extend his lead at the top of the overall standings to four minutes and seven seconds.

Jonas Vingegard and Remco Evenepoel kept their places in the overall top three, but this 10.9km time-trial triumph was defending champion Pogacar’s second crushing win in two days.

Pogacar was last down the start ramp of the 171 riders setting off from the bottom of the Peyragudes mountain.

Decked out in his overall leader’s yellow kit, the 26-year-old Team UAE rider was faster from the off despite his exertions from the previous day, when he finished over two minutes ahead of main rival Vingegaard.

By the time he finished at the Peyragudes Altiport where the opening scene of the James Bond movie “Tomorrow Never Dies” was shot, Pogacar was 36sec faster than Vingegaard, while Primoz Roglic was third at 1min 20sec.

Riders warmed up for the time trial wearing ice jackets to combat the sizzling 30C temperature at the foot of the climb.

Australian champion Luke Plapp set the early pace and sat in the hot seat all day before suddenly packing his case and vacating it on seeing Vingegaard storm up the mountain.

Pogacar was even faster.

At 1580m altitude the ride remained beneath the clouds and below the treeline, but even atop the hill it was punishingly hot.

American Quinn Simmons gave hundreds of high-fives on the home straight as one of the rare riders appearing to enjoy the climb.

Saturday’s stage 14 is another punishing affair with around 50km of climbing, starting with the famous Col de Tourmalet and ending at the Luchon-Superbagneres ski resort.