Slovenia's cycling superstar claims 101st career victory

Tadej Pogačar clinched his second stage win at the Tour de France in four days, beating his main general classification rival Dane Jonas Vingegaard in the sprint up the famous Mur-de-Bretagne climb in Brittany, CE Report quotes The Slovenia Times.

The Slovenian UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider reclaimed the yellow jersey after passing it to Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) in Stage 6 the day before.

This is the 101th career win for the 26-year-old Slovenian, including 19 stage wins at the French grand tour, which he has won three times, most recently in 2024.

Pogačar did not attack on the last climb, but saved his strength for the final sprint that had been set up for him by his Ecuadorian teammate Jhonatan Narvaez.

He started sprinting a few hundred metres before the finish line. The only rider able to follow was Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), who finished second. Scottish cyclist Oscar Onley (Team Picnic-PostNL) came in two seconds behind Pogačar to take third place. Van der Poel fell far behind.

Pogačar now has a 54-second advantage ahead of the closest pursuer, Remco Evenepoel of Belgium (Soudal Quick-Step), who finished Stage 7 sixth. Kevin Vauquelin of France (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) sits in third, over a minute adrift.

"I'm super happy with the win today, we did it almost perfect. Unfortunately Joao crashed, I hope he's OK, if he is OK, it's a perfect day, if he's not OK, then this victory is for him," Pogačar said after the race, referring to his Portuguese hill climbing domestique Almeida, who suffered a nasty crash, although he was able to get to the finish line.

"I think me and Mathieu [van der Poel] both know this place very well, we have nice memories of it and we both wanted the same, to win on this iconic climb. But maybe he left out too much on the road yesterday so we couldn't have a re-match. But for me, the day went like we planned and the win is amazing," he added.

Another Slovenian GC contender, Primož Roglič (Red Bull-BORA-Hansgrohe) lost another 21 seconds, and is now ninth overall, three minutes and six seconds behind his compatriot Pogačar.