'I take today as a victory' - Tour de France leader Tadej Pogačar puts 2023 ghosts to rest on Col de la Loze

Three out of three. After a knock-out blow on the Hautacam and keeping arch-rival Jonas Vingegaard in control on the Mont Ventoux, Tour de France leader Tadej Pogačar remained firmly in control of the yellow jersey on the Col de la Loze at the finish of stage 18 on Thursday.

Two years ago, the Col de la Loze was where Pogačar cracked badly and lost more than six minutes to Vingegaard, but on stage 18 of the 2025 Tour de France, the boot was definitely on the other foot.

Despite being isolated from his teammates on the preceding climb, the Col de la Madeleine, by a series of blistering attacks by Visma-Lease a Bike, an unexpected drop in pace in the yellow jersey group enabled UAE Team Emirates-XRG climbers of the calibre of Jhonnatan Narváez and Adam Yates to regain contact with their team leader before the final climb.

As a result, Pogačar was more than adequately protected by his squad on the hardest ascent of the day, and he ended it with a brief blaze off the front in the last kilometre. It was enough to gain only nine seconds on Vingegard after plans to fight for the stage win, Pogačar told reporters later, had gone up in smoke thanks to the Dutch team's assault on the Madeleine.

The biggest goal of the day for the world champion was to defend the yellow jersey and defeat the ghosts of his past. Doing so in the face of Visma's assault meant that he "would take today as a victory."

"I'm very happy to be in yellow, it was a good day today," Pogačar, now 4:26 ahead in the Tour de France GC standings, told reporters afterwards. "Let's see what happens tomorrow [Friday], but today Visma tried everything and they didn't succeed.

"We're still strong as a team, so we'll try to survive another day. Maybe we can race into the Champs Elysées with this jersey."

If this was Pogačar's first clear reference in this year's Tour to the possibility of an overall victory, there was also a degree of caution in his post-stage press conference statements, saying repeatedly that there were still three days to go.

"I will just try my best tomorrow [Friday] and the day after and the day after," he added. "In the end, everything was under control.

"They tried everything on the Col de la Madeleine, but I was there without any problems, and I could count on great support from the team - Johnny, Adam and Marc [Soler].

"In the end, there was not too much stress, so let's hope it's the same tomorrow, because probably they [Visma] will try again."

Friday's stage to La Plagne certainly looks almost equally daunting, with 4,550 metres of elevation gain, and two hors-categorie ascents, the Col du Pré and final climb to La Plagne packed into just 129 kilometres. Pogačar will surely start the final mountainous leg of the 2025 race with considerably heightened morale.

While Pogačar benefitted from a certain amount of good luck when things calmed down between the Madeleine and the Col de la Loze in the leader's group, enabling his teammates to regain contact, he also did not look to be suffering at all whenever Vingegaard attacked and no matter what Visma threw at him.

"Visma attacked on the Madeleine, so our tactics fell apart and we couldn't go for the stage today," Pogačar said.

"I would have loved to win, but the more important thing was to keep the jersey. In the end, I'm super happy I even extended my lead, so all I need to say is congrats to Ben [O'Connor, stage winner] and Jayco-AlUla, he did an amazing ride today.

"If things go in the other direction [tomorrow], they go in the other direction, but about how I rode today - I take it as a victory."

The vast bulk of the Tour de France is over, and if a fourth victory is not quite definitively in Pogačar's grasp, he is certainly a lot closer to taking it than he was 24 hours earlier.

Post stage 18, there was even time for him to admit that he was looking forward to it all being over, but for now at least, he is looking set to end the race in the way he wanted.

"Yes, it's a point that I ask myself, why am I still here? These three weeks are so long," he said.

"I just count the kilometres to Paris, and I cannot wait for it to be all over, so I can do some other nice stuff.

"But then I try to enjoy every day on the bike, even though it's hard, and so many fans really help. When you ride on the big climbs and people cheer you on, it's nice to ride in the third week if you are really tired and just want to go home. You realise - it's not so bad to be here."

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