Tadej Pogacar wins summit finish at Peyragudes as Jonas Vingegaard protects Tour de France lead

The second day in the Pyrenees made for astounding differences, however once again between all rider except for Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard who were on a superior level and had a sprint battle up the brutal gradients of Peyragudes, where the Slovenian took the stage win.

With less than 130 kilometers on the menu and the first 50 being flat, a breakaway did not have much of an opportunity to go up the road early on, as the peloton remained relatively compact until the start of the first climb of the day, where Thibaut Pinot and Alexey Lutsenko went up the road.

The duo led the race over the first two climbs of the day, having a chasing group always less than a minute behind, and the peloton always less than two minutes behind as Jumbo-Visma controlled the race, and then Mikkel Bjerg destroyed the peloton at the Hourquette d'Ancizan. The breakaway's faith wasn't good in the end, as the Col de Val Louron-Azet saw Bjerg and Brandon McNulty set a strong pace that sweeped all the survivors from the groups ahead.

The American's pace was far superior to anything he's shown over the rest of the race, one by one dropping every single rider in the peloton besides Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard who remained inseparable, even as the Slovenian sprinted to the summit to try and make the difference.

It was unsuccessful however, as then McNulty rode the pace of the group all the way down the descent and up the final climb, until the final steep ramp of the Peyragudes aerodrome. Jonas Vingegaard was the first to launch the sprint, but Pogacar had the better of the race leader towards the line and took a gruelling win over the finale.

Brandon McNulty finished third, with Geraint Thomas extending his podium position behind, and several gaps behind in the Top10 being meaningful - with Adam Yates shedding important time.