Pogačar takes Tour de France lead after winning Pyrenean stage by two seconds

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Tadej Pogačar seized the yellow jersey at the Tour de France on Monday after winning the third stage in a gripping Pyrenean showdown, edging out Jonas Vingegaard by two seconds to claim the race lead in a contest decided by fractions. The Slovenian world champion, who had already surrendered the opening team time trial to Visma-Lease a Bike on Sunday, turned the tables in Les Angles with a perfectly timed sprint that erased Vingegaard’s six-second deficit and added four bonus seconds to his own tally .
Pogačar’s UAE Team Emirates squad orchestrated the finale, with Mexican teammate Isaac Del Toro leading out the sprint before the 27-year-old launched his winning bid on the final climb. “In the middle of the race we decided the stage win was possible,” Pogačar said. “I’m very happy we started the Tour this way.” His victory came on a 195.9-kilometre route from Granollers in Spain to Les Angles in the French Pyrenees, where temperatures soared above 40°C and wildfires raged just 70 kilometres from the finish line .
The stage’s punishing profile—four climbs and 3,850 metres of elevation gain—thinned the peloton early, leaving only a handful of contenders to contest the finale. Ecuador’s Richard Carapaz outsprinted French teenager Paul Seixas for third place, while Germany’s Florian Lipowitz finished seventh at four seconds, moving into seventh overall. Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel, eighth on the day, remains third in the general classification at 23 seconds behind Pogačar .
Pogačar and Vingegaard now sit level on time, but the Slovenian’s superior finishing positions across the opening three stages—coupled with the bonus seconds—hand him the lead by a razor-thin margin. The margin is so narrow that some reports cite it as just 870 milliseconds, underscoring the razor’s edge on which this Tour is being contested .
Organisers had pleaded with fans to stay away from the final kilometres due to the wildfires, but crowds still lined the roads, particularly near the summit finish. Firefighters and emergency services remained focused on containing the blaze, while the traditional publicity caravan also skipped the Pyrenean sections .
With the Tour now entering its most gruelling terrain, the fourth stage from Carcassonne to Foix looms as a potential breakaway opportunity, though riders will again face extreme heat. Pogačar, who has now claimed his 22nd Tour stage win, suggested his team’s cohesion was key to the triumph. “Because of Isaac I had a bit of extra power today,” he said. “He gave more than 100%, and the whole team did the same” .
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