The two Latvians starting in the tour, Toms Skujiņš and Krists Neilands, finished together in 67th and 68th place.
Before the individual race on Sunday, the athletes completed the last mountain stage on Saturday, where they had to overcome one second and three first category climbs in less than 133 kilometers, the last of them at the finish.
The leading athletes reached the last climb less than 16 kilometers before the finish with a three-minute deficit against the breakaway group. The Ecuadorian Richard Carapas (“EF Education – EasyPost”) and the Spaniard Enrique Mass (“Movistar”) were the last to leave the breakaway.
Mass was the first to leave the fight for victory, but less than a kilometer before the finish line, Karapass was also caught. Half a kilometer before the destination, Pogachar (UAE) became the leader and in the last hundred meters of the finish, he overtook his direct competitor, Danish Jonas Vingegord (“Visma | Lease a Bike”).
Pogachar has won five mountain stages this season, repeating what Gino Bartali achieved in 1948.
The Slovenian finished in four hours, four minutes and 22 seconds, losing seven seconds to Wingegord and 23 seconds to Karapass. The Belgian Remko Evenepouls (“Soudal Quick-Step”) finished the stage half a minute later, and Mass finished 14 seconds later.
Skujiņš (“Lidl – Trek”) and Neilands (“Israel – Premier Tech”) finished in second place, losing 26 minutes and 48 seconds.
Pogachar is ahead of Vingegard by five minutes and 14 seconds – a time difference that is almost unrecoverable unless the leaders suffer some kind of failure. Skujiņš loses almost three hours and is in 45th place, while Neyland is in 67th position with a deficit of almost four hours.
Due to security and logistical concerns related to the 2024 Paris Olympics, the French Tour will end in Nice instead of Paris. Cyclists will cover 3,492 kilometers during the bike ride.
Skujiņš is starting his sixth “Tour de France” cycling race, while Neyland is participating in the prestigious cycling race for the fourth time.
For the last two years in a row, the Danish cyclist Jonas Wingegord has been undefeated in the Tour de France.
Source: www.diena.lv
