Tour de France: Felix Gall conquers Col de la Loze as Tadej Pogacar explodes and Jonas Vingegaard seals yellow jersey

Tadej Pogacar completely exploded on the Col de la Loze, and on the queen stage of the Tour de France Jonas Vingegaard most likely sealed the overall win in a dramatic stage. Felix Gall won from the day's breakaway with a solo attack.

The riders faced a decisive climb with over 5400 meters of climbing. Early on the pace immediately began to be pushed, on the Col des Saisies a strong breakaway went up the road but Jumbo-Visma kept a very strong pace and a small group then bridged across to the front near the summit, ultimately closing down the move into the downhill.

Then at the start of the Cormet de Roseland a group did manage to move clear. 33 riders went up the road. This included GC contenders Simon Yates, Pello Bilbao, Felix Gall, David Gaudu and Guillaume Martin, all within or at the door of the Top10. Plenty domestiques among those riders kept the pace high throughout the tough terrain, both Jumbo-Visma and UAE Team Emirates had two men in front each with Soler and Majka on one side, Kelderman and Benoot in the other.

Jumbo-Visma kept a tight leash in the group nevertheless, and in the run-up to the Col de la Loze both INEOS Grenadiers and BORA - hansgrohe gave a helping hand so as to control the dangerous GC riders who were up the road. The gap was brought down to 2:30 minutes at the bottom of the final ascent, the two groups virtually with the same numbers.

Ben O'Connor and Jack Haig did a tremendous effort to keep the gap stable throughout the first half of the climb, whilst INEOS took control of the pace in the peloton. There were clear intentions to save legs until the final 10 kilometers of the climb, where the gradients were steeper and would rise to over 20% in certain points.

Team Jayco AlUla hit the front and the breakaway split to four riders as Chris Harper's pace saw only Simon Yates, Felix Gall and Rafal Majka follow. Fearlessly Gall attacked the Australian team's duo with 13 kilometers to go. Behind shock struck the peloton, in the beginning of the climb's tough section Tadej Pogacar cracked, the Tour de France victory slipping between his fingers. The Slovenian had a small tumble earlier in the day.

Jumbo-Visma quickly understood the situation and Sepp Kuss hit the front of the group, splitting it until no-one could keep up, Vingegaard did not need to attack but instead paced away on his own with 11 kilometers to go, the rest of the competition distanced. Simon Yates in the meantime had set off in pursuit of Gall.

It was no easy ride for Vingegaard still, who was forced to put a foot down in the climb as an organization car blocked the road due to the crowds and huge gradients. A dramatic moment but he quickly recovered. Gall crossed the Col de la Loze in the head of the race with a short gap over Yates whilst Vingegaard himself distanced the rest of the competition and bridged across to a few more riders who had survived the climb close to the front.

And in that same way the stage finished. Gall crossed the line victorious on the race's queen stage. Simon Yates finished second, whilst Pello Bilbao had the legs to drop Jonas Vingegaard on the final ramp and finish third. The Dane was fourth and has virtually sealed the GC win.

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