Tadej Pogacar delivered another big blow to defending champion Jonas Vingegaard as he stormed to a Bastille Day victory on stage 15 of the Tour de France to extend his commanding advantage in yellow.
Pogacar left his main rival behind five kilometres from the summit of the climb up to the Plateau de Beille and rode clear to win by 68 seconds, taking his overall advantage to three minutes and nine seconds going into Monday's rest day.
After coming off second best in Saturday's skirmish in Saint-Lary-Soulan, Vingegaard had said the finale of this brute of a Pyrenean stage out of Loudenvielle, including more than 4,800m of climbing, suited him more than it did Pogacar but when it came to it, it was Pogacar who profited.
Six stages now stand between the 25-year-old and a third Tour crown, one that would make him the first rider to complete a Giro-Tour double since Marco Pantani in 1998.
"I would never have imagined this kind of outcome after the second week at the beginning," Pogacar said. "I'm super happy with my shape... I've had a lot of stage victories in the Pyrenees. Somehow I like them and they like me back so I'm pretty satisfied."
Ben Healy, who dared to dream of stage victory yesterday before being reeled in with 5km to go, again showed his strength in the mountains. He crossed the line in 19th position, 13' 31" on Pogacar and moves above Simon Yates in the GC to 13th, almost 30 minutes down on Poagacar.
Sprinter Sam Bennett was among the sprinters well down the field today and he is 16th in the green jersey points standings
Simon Yates was part of a 16-strong breakaway that got away on the second climb of the day, the Col de Mente, building a lead of around three minutes before Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe engineered a split on the valley road midway through the stage in a bid to set up Jai Hindley for victory.
But Vingegaard had his Visma-Lease a Bike team-mates on the front of the ever-reducing peloton from the start with an eye on challenging Pogacar on the double-digit gradients of the climb up to the Plateau de Beille, and never afforded the break the sort of advantage they would need.
Vingegaard went on the attack with 11km of the climb still to go, with Pogacar immediately latching on to his wheel but nobody else - Remco Evenepoel included - able to stay with them.
They swept past the remnants of the breakaway with nine kilometres remaining as it once again came down to a head-to-head between the outstanding riders of the last four Tours - the 10th stage in which they have been the riders to finish as the top two.
When Vingegaard took a look behind at his rival all in yellow, Pogacar read it as a moment of weakness and stuck in the knife, racing clear of a man who is riding his first race since suffering horrible injuries in a crash in April.
"(Visma) decided to control today and make it a hard pace on the climbs but I was never worried, I just kept in mind keeping cool, hydrating and eating," Pogacar said.
"When we came to the bottom of the last climb I was a little bit on the limit but when Jonas tried to drop me I could see he was also suffering. Now it's looking really good. We have a comfortable lead and we just need to keep focused in the last six days."
Evenepoel came in two minutes 51 seconds after Pogacar, remaining third overall with a deficit of five minutes and 19 seconds to yellow.
