Pogačar lands another blow as Visma's Dauphiné plan fizzles out on Queen Stage
Jonas Vingegaard and his team Visma-Lease a Bike inevitably hit the Queen Stage with a plan to overturn their defeat suffered 24 hours earlier at the hands of Tadej Pogačar. But to no avail, the race leader scored back-to-back stage victories to strengthen his grip on yellow with one day to go.
After a lengthy battle for the day's move, Visma's Sepp Kuss made it into the day's breakaway, ready to help out with the first phase of attacks over the summit of the Croix de Fer, and the team was later well represented in the reduced yellow jersey group by the climb to the line. However, Pogačar seemed content just to let them tire themselves out before launching his own attack 12 km from the top of the Montée de Valmeinier. Vingegaard tried to follow, but his rival slipped from his grasp.
If there's any consolation that Visma-Lease a Bike can take from the day, it's that the Dane only crossed the line 14 seconds down, although Pogačar didn't need to do any more than keep Vingegaard at arm's reach. Behind them, Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe) was best of the rest 1:21 down, and Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) out-climbed Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) over a minute further down.
[race_result id=15 stage_id=86658 count=5 gc=0 year=2025]
[race_result id=15 stage_id=86658 count=5 gc=5 year=2025]
