Defending champion Tadej Pogacar won his second Tour de France stage in a row in the first summit finish of the race to extend his lead in the yellow jersey on Friday. (More Sports News)
Pogacar caught, first, Lennard Kamna, who came agonizingly close to a breakaway win, and then Jonas Vingegaard with one last sprint at the top of La Planche des Belles Filles, a ski resort in the Vosges mountains of eastern France.
Pogacar started the day with a four-second lead over Neilson Powless and ended it with a 35-second advantage over Vingegaard.
Geraint Thomas, the 2018 Tour winner, sits third, 1 minute, 10 seconds back, and his Ineos Grenadiers teammate Adam Yates was 8 seconds further behind.
Powless, Alexander Vlasov and Daniel Martinez were among the general classification contenders who lost time.
Kämna was part of a seven-man breakaway heading into the mountains and clung on to the lead solo for almost all of the last three kilometers. He placed fourth behind Pogacar, Vingegaard and Primož Roglic.
The mountain hits a 24% gradient near the top and the last section is on gravel, making it one of the Tour's most fearsome climbs. The mountain was the site of Pogacar's breakout moment on the 2020 Tour, when he took the yellow jersey from fellow Slovenian Roglic on the penultimate stage and went on to win the race. Pogacar won the Tour again in 2021.
It's the second time Pogacar has taken back-to-back stages after victory in stages 17 and 18 in the Pyrenees last year.
