Pogacar wins on summit finish to regain Tour lead
During Thursday's stage Tadej Pogacar had dressings on his left arm, which was bandaged by the time he got to the podium
- Published
Tadej Pogacar regained the overall lead of the Tour de France as he stormed up the Hautacam climb to win stage 12.
Jonas Vingegaard's Visma-Lease a Bike team were expected to attack the reigning champion on the first true mountain stage of this year's Tour, which ended with the first summit finish.
Pogacar was also sporting dressings on his left arm after falling at the end of Wednesday's stage, but the Slovenian showed no ill effects as he attacked on the gruelling final climb.
The three-time Tour winner went clear early on the 13.5km ascent and continued to stretch his lead, winning the stage by two minutes 10 seconds from Vingegaard - his biggest margin of victory on a Tour stage.
That meant he reclaimed the yellow jersey from Ben Healy and more than doubled his time advantage over Vingegaard, his main rival for the general classification, who is now 3 mins 31 secs behind.
Remco Evenepoel struggled on the final climbs but did enough to prevent Florian Lipowitz moving into third place overall, while British rider Oscar Onley, 22, climbed to sixth after crossing fifth on the day.
It was on this climb that Vingegaard struck the decisive blow on the 2022 Tour, taking a minute out of Pogacar as the Dane won stage 18 en route to clinching his first Tour title.
"I was trying with my head through the wall to get back the yellow jersey [in 2022] but Visma was too strong back then," said Pogacar, 26.
"I almost forgot about that. I was just looking forward to today, then all the people, all the time were, coming to me saying 'oh yeah, this is the revenge time', blah blah blah.
"Then when we approached the bottom of the climb it was the reverse story of a few years ago. One Belgian guy again on the front, Tim [Wellens], and our team. I'm super happy to take time [out of Vingegaard] and win on this climb."
The race moved into the Pyrenees on Thursday, with the Hautacam being the first hors categorie climb of this year's Tour.
Wellens and UAE Emirates-XRG team-mates Jhonatan Narvaez and Adam Yates were all at the front of the peloton to help Pogacar launch the attack that saw him overtake local rider Bruno Armirail, who led going into the final climb, and leave behind his GC rivals.
Pogacar dedicated his third stage win on this year's Tour - and his 20th overall - to Samuele Privitera, the 19-year-old Italian development rider who died after a crash at the Giro della Valle d'Aosta on Wednesday.
Evenepoel recovered from being dropped on the earlier Col du Soulor climb to reduce the damage on the 180.6km stage from Auch.
The Belgian, who finished third behind Pogacar and Vingegaard on his Tour debut last year, is now more than four minutes down but will hope to cut the gap on Friday's time trial having won the first time trial of this year's Tour.
Healy also struggled in the Pyrenees heat, which reached 34C, and the Irish breakaway specialist lost more than 13 minutes to slip back down to 11th in the GC standings.
- Published18 hours ago
Stage 12 results
Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Emirates-XRG) 4hrs 21mins 19secs
Jonas Vingegaard (Den/Visma-Lease a Bike) +2mins 10secs
Florian Lipowitz (Ger/Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) +2mins 23secs
Tobias Johannessen (Nor/Uno-X Mobility) +3mins
Oscar Onley (GB/Picnic PostNL) Same time
Kevin Vauquelin (Fra/Arkea-B&B Hotels) +3mins 33secs
Remco Evenepoel (Bel/Soudal Quick-Step) +3mins 35secs
Felix Gall (Aut/Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) +4mins 2secs
Primoz Roglic (Slo/Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) +4mins 8secs
Carlos Rodriguez (Spa/Ineos Grenadiers) +7mins 26 secs
General classification after stage 12
Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Emirates-XRG) 45hrs 22mins 51secs
Jonas Vingegaard (Den/Visma-Lease a Bike) +3mins 31secs
Remco Evenepoel (Bel/Soudal Quick-Step) +4mins 45secs
Florian Lipowitz (Ger/Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe) +5mins 34secs
Kevin Vauquelin (Fra/Arkea-B&B Hotels) +5mins 40secs
Oscar Onley (GB/Picnic PostNL) +6mins 5secs
Primoz Roglic (Slo/Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe) +7mins 30secs
Tobias Johannessen (Nor/Uno-X Mobility) +7mins 44secs
Felix Gall (Aut/Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) +9mins 21secs
Matteo Jorgenson (US/Visma-Lease a Bike) +12mins 12secs
The 2025 Tour de France ends in Paris on 27 July