Thymen Arensman wins in La Plagne, Tadej Pogacar one step closer to fourth Tour de France

Dutchman Thymen Arensman of Ineos Grenadiers won the 19th stage of the Tour de France, from Albertville to La Plagne, the last uphill finish of the Grande Boucle, ahead of Danish Team Visma Lease a Bike’s Jonas Vingegaard and Slovenian UAE Team Emirates’ Tadej Pogacar by just 2 seconds.

The stage was shortened by more than 30 km bringing the distance to 93.1 km due to contagious bovine dermatitis, which led to the slaughter of numerous cattle. Thus, the initial ascent to Col des Saisies was cancelled; instead, Col du Pré and Cormet de Roselend were retained before the high altitude finish at 2052 meters.

Pogacar made an initial sprint with 14 km to go, pulling behind Vingegaard and Arensman, who shortly afterwards sprinted in turn and was let go. It looked as if Pogacar, after two more attacks, and Vingegaard would be able to retake the Dutchman, already a winner at Superbagneres, but surprisingly that was not the case.

At 6 seconds was fourth the third in the overall standings, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s German Florian Lipowitz, who managed to stick to the wheels of Pogacar and Vingegaard until almost the finish line but more importantly consolidated his position against Team Picnic Postnl’s Briton Oscar Onley, fifth at 47 seconds.

In the overall standings Pogacar now has a 4’24” lead over Vingegaard, 11’09” over Lipowitz and 12’12” over Onley. The big climbs are over and the Slovenian, with two stages to go, has his hands on his fourth Tour de France after those of 2020, 2021 and 2024 and the runner-up finishes of 2022 and 2023 behind Vingegaard.