Marking The Spot

On a fast and furious stage of the Tour de France, where the racing belied the hot conditions and challenging parkour, Tadej Pogačar showed his dominance on the final category 1 climb, taking a commanding lead and getting revenge for his loss to Jonas Vingegaard in Le Lioran two years ago. Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe) was seen to be suffering big time on the final climb, fighting for his GC position, but he pulled off an miraculous recovery to launch the sprint for second place, which he won.

Mathieu van der Poel won an enthralling ninth stage of the Tour de France on Sunday, sprinting to the line after a chaotic day in the Massif Central. The Alpecin-Premier Tech rider had been part of a huge breakaway which eventually formed after 60km of aggressive racing in the boiling centre of France. Only four of the group survived to compete for the win, with Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) taking second place, while Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5) was third.