LUCHON-SUPERBAGNERES, France \u2014 Dutch rider Thymen Arensman won the Tour de France’s toughest stage after a long solo effort over mammoth climbs and defending champion Tadej Poga\u010dar increased his overall lead on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Arensman, who rides for the Ineos-Grenadiers team, posted the biggest victory of his career. After crossing the finish line in the deep fog enveloping the ski resort of Superbagn\u00e8res, Arensman lay exhausted on the road with his head in his hands.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be honest, I just wanted to experience the Tour, the biggest race in the world,” he said. “Now, to win a stage in my first Tour, and to do it this way, it\u2019s unbelievable, crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
He went solo with 37 kilometres (23 miles) left from a breakaway, and quickly opened a comfortable lead. He started the final ascent to Superbagn\u00e8res, which is more than 12 kilometers long, on his own and resisted the return of the main contenders.<\/p>\n
It was Arensman\u2019s second Grand Tour stage win, having previously won a stage at the 2022 Spanish Vuelta.<\/p>\n
As Arensman posed no threat to the overall standings, Poga\u010dar and his teammates controlled the race from the back, with the yellow jersey holder and his main challenger Jonas Vingegaard trailing by around three minutes with eight kilometers remaining.<\/p>\n
Vingegaard tried a move with four kilometres left and Poga\u010dar responded with ease. The two rivals then watched each other closely and Arensman crossed first at the summit, more than one minute ahead of the duo.<\/p>\n
Having won the previous two stages in the Pyrenees, Poga\u010dar settled for second place. He accelerated in the final section to gain more time on Vingegaard, who completed the stage podium.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can be happy and satisfied with the Pyrenees,\u201d Poga\u010dar said. \u201cToday we did a super stage, riding at our own pace all day long.\u201d<\/p>\n
Overall, Poga\u010dar increased his lead over Vingegaard to four minutes, 13 seconds, with Florian Lipowitz in third place, 7:53 off the pace after Remco Evenepoel abandoned.<\/p>\n
Evenepoel, who was third overall, struggled early on as the peloton faced another day of suffering on climbs that are part of the Tour’s lore such as the Col du Tourmalet, the Col d\u2019Aspin, Col de Peyresourde and Superbagn\u00e8res.<\/p>\n
The Olympic champion was dropped on the ascent of the Tourmalet. Evenepoel\u00a0won the opening time trial\u00a0but suffered in the Pyrenees. After struggling during Friday\u2019s uphill race against the clock to\u00a0Peyragudes, he managed to keep his third place in the general classification, more than seven minutes behind Poga\u010dar.<\/p>\n
Riders will exit high mountains during a 169-kilometre ride from Muret to the medieval city of Carcassonne. Although the route could favor sprinters, the C\u00f4te de Saint-Ferr\u00e9ol and then the Pas du Sant, a 2.9-kilometre climb at 10 per cent, could provide opportunities for bold challengers seeking a breakaway.<\/p>\n
The race finishes next weekend in Paris.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LUCHON-SUPERBAGNERES, France \u2014 Dutch rider Thymen Arensman won the Tour de France’s toughest stage after a long solo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-9739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}