Sunday won't be the traditionally 'easy' day that it often is, with the inclusion of the Montmartre stage making the Paris finale much punchier than the classic Champs-Élysées route, and Pogačar obliged to do his winner's press conference on Sunday evening, rather than the traditional Saturday evening.

W atching stage 19 of the Tour de France in a freezing La Plagne, just beyond the finish line, everyone was counting down the kilometres until Tadej Pogačar would launch his usual stinging attack. Would it be 5km to go? 3km? Even 1km? He has the speed.

Tour de France overall leader Tadej Pogačar suffered a big scare when he bumped into the team car of chief rival Jonas Vingegaard before the start of the 18th stage then went on to cement his grip on the yellow jersey.

Pogačar did not deliver any last-minute fireworks as the rain and hail teemed down at La Plagne, his one attack halfway up the climb reducing the front group to the four top names on the GC, after which he seemed content to lead at a steady but not relentless pace ahead of Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike).

Tadej Pogačar is once again the man to beat in this year's Tour de France. His bike of choice has been Colnago's radically aero Y1Rs

The only issue was, Pogačar stuck with him all the way up the climb, and ended up taking two more seconds on his rival in the final sprint atop Ventoux. While Pogačar was on the back-foot, responding to attacks, this ended up being a comfortable place for him to be.

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