Tour de France: Bernal defense on the rocks
September 13, 2020
Egan Bernal's defence of the Tour de France was left in tatters after the Colombian lost several minutes on the first major mountain of the race on Sunday.
The Colombian was dropped 13 kilometers from the finish at the top of the Col du Grand Colombier, an unforgiving 17.4-kilometer ascent, and lost seven minutes, 20 seconds on the line.
Two-time runner-up and fellow Colombian Nairo Quintana also quickly lost contact with the leading group led by Roglic's Jumbo-Visma teammates, who set a frantic tempo from the bottom of the climb.
Pogacar, however, was the freshest man in the finale and the rookie out-sprinted Roglic for the victory at the end of a punishing 174.5-kilometer trek in the Jura mountains.
"Tadej is very strong, I have to say he has great legs. My team mates did a great job today as I really wanted to win but I have to admit Tadej was slightly stronger," said Roglic, who still had the support of team mates Tom Dumoulin and Sepp Kuss with two kilometres to go.
"Today was a tough day, Jumbo-Visma controlled the race and set super high temp. A lot of riders were dropped and I wanted to focus on the finale," said the 21-year-old Pogacar.
mds/dv (AFP, Reuters)