On the legendary Olympic hill of Montjuic in Barcelona, the 113th Tour de France has written a remarkable chapter: Tadej Pogacar, world champion and defending title holder, flew up the final ramp together with his trusted domestique Isaac del Toro and gave the Mexican rider precedence in a one-two finish. It was only the second stage victory by a Mexican rider at the Tour overall – after Raúl Alcalá in 1989. At the same time, the UAE Emirates XRG team sent a clear response to Jonas Vingegaard’s strong showing during the Grand Départ weekend.
Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) successfully defended the yellow jersey in fourth place, but conceded six seconds: his lead over Pogacar shrank from twelve to six seconds. Third over the 168.5 kilometres between Tarragona and the Catalan capital was Remco Evenepoel, co-captain of Florian Lipowitz. The Ulm native from the Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe team had no answer to the explosiveness of the best climbers and crossed the line in 16th place, ten seconds behind del Toro.
In the general classification, Lipowitz continues to occupy eighth place, 45 seconds behind Vingegaard. French hopeful Paul Seixas (Decathlon-CMA CGM) moved ahead of Lipowitz after finishing eighth on the stage, three seconds behind the UAE one-two.
The road to this spectacular finale was considerably quieter for many hours. German champion Felix Engelhardt (Jayco AlUla) attracted early attention by initiating a first breakaway attempt, with the leading trio building a gap of nearly four minutes. Meanwhile, a crash in the peloton affected eight riders – including top sprinter Biniam Girmay. All those who fell continued the race with abrasions.
Engelhardt was caught around 31 kilometres from the finish and will wear the golden race number as the most combative rider on the third stage. As the peloton turned into the circuit in Barcelona – three laps had to be completed – the favourites drastically increased the pace, and the field thinned noticeably with each crossing of Montjuic.
On Monday, the riders face the first small summit finish of this year’s Tour: 195.9 kilometres from Granollers to Les Angles in the Pyrenees, four categorised climbs, with a final ascent of 1.7 kilometres at an average gradient of 6.5 percent. Whether the third stage can take place as planned was still uncertain on Sunday evening – a rapidly spreading wildfire near the finish venue overshadowed the planning, with a decision still expected during the evening.
