Imperious Pogacar wins time trial to extend lead

Tadej Pogacar once again asserted his dominance of the Tour de France as he claimed his fourth stage win of this year's edition on Friday.

The reigning champion, who regained the overall lead by winning stage 12 on Thursday, produced another commanding ride to win the mountain time trail on stage 13.

The Slovenian, 26, completed the 10.9km route from Loudenvielle to the Peyragudes airfield in the Pyrenees in exactly 23 minutes.

That was 36 seconds faster than his main rival Jonas Vingegaard and he has increased his overall lead to four minutes seven seconds.

World and Olympic time-trial champion Remco Evenepoel, who started the day third in the general classification, won the other time trial on this year's Tour.

But the Belgian was already struggling when he was distracted by a minor mechanical issue, with Vingegaard passing him on the steep final climb.

Despite going 2mins 39secs slower than Pogacar, Evenepoel held on to third in the GC standings, although he now trails the defending champion by well over seven minutes.

Primoz Roglic was third on the day while British youngster Oscar Onley gained 29 seconds on Kevin Vauquelin to leapfrog the Frenchman into fifth overall.

Pogacar won six stages as he reclaimed the Tour title from two-time winner Vingegaard last year and is now up to 21 in total.

He is now sixth on the all-time list, with Sir Mark Cavendish having set the record of 35 last year, and there are still eight stages remaining on this year's edition.

"I'm super happy," said Pogacar. "This time trial was quite a big question mark already in December for me. I wanted everything to be perfect.

"I was really targeting to go from start to finish all out and tried to smash it as much as possible on the pedals.

"I almost blew up in the end but I saw the timer at the top and it gave me an extra push because I saw that I was going to win."

Australian time-trial champion Luke Plapp set an early benchmark and his time stood for most of the day as riders struggled on the punishing finish.

The 8km climb to the line had an average gradient of 7.8% but the final 300m were 16%.

The riders were sent off at two-minute intervals, and after shipping 2mins 10secs to Pogacar on Thursday, Vingegaard managed to catch Evenepoel 50m from the line.

"Yesterday was probably one of my worst performances but today was one of my best so it's nice to come back like this," said the Dane.

Vingegaard and Evenepoel were among a handful of riders that chose to go with adapted time-trial bikes but Pogacar, who opted for a road bike, was quickest at each of the two time-checks before powering up the final section.

After a gruelling mountain stage on Thursday, the peloton is set for another on Saturday along a 182.6km route from Pau to a summit finish at Luchon-Superbagneres.

Stage 13 results

1. Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Emirates-XRG) 23mins
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Den/Visma-Lease a Bike) +36secs
3. Primoz Roglic (Slo/Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), +1min 20secs
4. Florian Lipowitz (Ger/Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) +1min 56secs
5. Luke Plapp (Aus/Jayco AlUla) +1min 58secs
6. Matteo Jorgenson (US/Visma-Lease a Bike) +2mins 3secs
7. Oscar Onley (GB/Picnic PostNL) +2mins 6secs
8. Adam Yates (GB/UAE Emirates-XRG) +2mins 15secs
9. Lenny Martinez (Fra/Bahrain Victorious) +2mins 21secs
10. Felix Gall (Aut/Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) +2mins 22secs

General classification after stage 13

1. Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Emirates-XRG) 45hrs 45mins 51secs
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Den/Visma-Lease a Bike) +4mins 7secs
3. Remco Evenepoel (Bel/Soudal Quick-Step) +7mins 24secs
4. Florian Lipowitz (Ger/Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe) +7mins 30secs
5. Oscar Onley (GB/Picnic PostNL) +8mins 11secs
6. Kevin Vauquelin (Fra/Arkea-B&B Hotels) +8mins 15secs
7. Primoz Roglic (Slo/Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe) +8mins 50secs
8. Tobias Johannessen (Nor/Uno-X Mobility) +10mins 36secs
9. Felix Gall (Aut/Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) +11mins 43secs
10. Matteo Jorgenson (US/Visma-Lease a Bike) +14mins 15secs