Tour de France stage 19: Thymen Arensman holds off Vingegaard and Pogačar in final metres to claim second victory of this year's Grand Tour

Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) pulled off an exceptional performance to claim his second solo victory at the Tour de France, this time on a shortened stage 19 atop the La Plagne.

Exhausted after a massive effort on the 19.4km hors categorie ascent to La Plagne, the Dutch climber collapsed into the roadside barriers after crossing the finish line just two seconds ahead of a chase group battling for the general classification.

"I'm absolutely destroyed. I can't believe it. Already to win one stage of the Tour is incredible, from a break, but now from the GC group, and against some of the strongest riders in the world, it feels like I'm dreaming. I don't know what I just did," Arensman said.

Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) won the sprint for second place ahead of yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and fourth-place Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe). Lipowitz's efforts solidified his third place in the general classification, as he pulled time away from Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL) on the climb.

Pogačar maintained his lead in the GC standings at 4:24 ahead of Vingegaard and 11:09 ahead of Lipowitz as the race heads into the penultimate stage 20 on Saturday.

"We did a very good job until the last climb, and then some teams, some riders, think they can sprint 19km up the climb. So, the pace was incredibly hard to start, and I was thinking that maybe Jonas [Vingegaard] would want to win the stage, also, but he was just holding onto my wheel," Pogačar said at the finish.

"Arensman went on a good attack, I decided not to follow, set my rhythm that I felt comfortable with, and that was it. I'm just happy it's over and there are two more days to Paris."

Arensman was part of a select group that formed during the climb to La Plagne. He was the first to attack with 14km to go, but was initially followed by Pogačar and Vingegaard, who then appeared not to commit to the move, and Arensman rode away.

His gap hovered between 20 and 30 seconds on the rain-soaked ascent, and it wasn't until the pace from the select chase group picked up between Lipowitz, Pogačar and Vingegaard that the gap began to drop on the upper slopes.

"After the descent towards La Plagne, we were talking in the radio, Tobias [Foss] was still there with me, also tomorrow is another opportunity, and I told Tobias and the DS in the radio, 'Today is the last mountain stage and I have no GC to ride for, so today I will try to hang on a few kilometres on the climb, to see how the legs feel.' I told Tobias to 'swing off and that tomorrow is your day, and I will see what I can do today. '

"I started to climb and was quite in control, and I was like, I have no GC, maybe they look at each other. Maybe I'll try it, and don't take no for an answer. It's Tadej and Jonas, and everyone knows they are the strongest in the world; they are like almost aleins, and just as a human, I still want to try to beat them. I just can't believe I beat them."

Arensman looked over his shoulder as he crossed the line by a whisker ahead of Vingegaard and Pogačar sprinting for second place. "I tried to not look behind and go as fast as I could, and it was enough; it's just crazy."

How it unfolded

The GC battle continued with another brutal day of racing in the Alps on stage 19 from Albertville to La Plagne along a re-routed course that was shortened from 129.9km to 95km. The new route bypassed the Col des Saisies due to the discovery of an outbreak of contagious nodular dermatitis affecting cattle in a herd located in that area.

There was still ample climbing with three main ascents, two were hors categorie: Col du Pré (12.6km at 9.2%) and the mountaintop finale to La Plagne (19.4km at 7.2%).

Once the peloton was given the official start, after a ceremonial parade out of Albertville, Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) won the intermediate sprint in Villard-sur-Doron at the 12.1km mark.

It wasn't long before the peloton reached the daunting Col du Pré. There were a series of unsuccessful attacks, but it was Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), fifth in the general classification, and Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious), who cleared the field, and the pair pushed their lead out to just under a minute.

Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal-QuickStep) chased slightly further back, while Victor Campenaerts (Visma-Lease a Bike), Tobias Foss (Ineos Grenadiers), Einer Rubio (Movistar) and Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) formed a chase group of four.

Paret-Peintre joined Roglič and Martinez on the upper slopes of the Col du Pré, with Martinez claiming the KOM points over the top.

The trio then hit the lower slopes of the second ascent of the Cormet de Roselend (5.8km at 6.5%) with a 35-second advantage over the four chasers and 55 seconds to the reduced field of about 30 riders led by UAE Team Emirates-XRG with some help from Uno X Mobility.

Martinez, again, won the KOM points over the top of the Cormet de Roselend, moving ahead of Vingegaard and closer to the mountains classification leader, Pogačar.

The trio descended the narrow roads where Roglič used his well-known descending skills to open up a lead of 10 seconds over the two chasers on this descent, and almost a minute over the peloton. Paret-Peintre then went clear of Martinez, so all three breakaway riders were separated with 35km remaining.

Martinez and then Paret-Peintre were caught by the reduced field of roughly 25 riders and GC contenders, including Pogačar and Vingegaard, with UAE Team Emirates-XRG furiously chasing Roglič in the pouring rain.

Roglič's teammate, Florian Lipowitz, third overall in the general classification, safely sat on their wheels.

Roglič was immediately dropped from the back of the field after his efforts in the breakaway, unable to maintain his GC position or support Lipowitz on the final climb of La Plagne.

The road to La Plagne

The select group was whittled down to just 13 riders, as Martinez, Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), who was seventh overall in the general classification, previous day's winner Ben O'Connor and teammate Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Alexandr Vlasov (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) were part of the group.

It was Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale setting the pace on the lower slopes of the ascent for their overall contender Felix Gall, as Pogačar, Vingegaard, Lipowitz, and Arensman, Oscar Onley (Picnic-PostNL), Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost), and Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) formed the elite selection with 15km remaining.

Arensman was the first to attack at 14km to go, but he was almost immediately followed by Pogačar and Vingegaard, the trio opening a gap on their other rivals. But, it appeared that neither Pogačar nor Vingegaard wanted to commit to the move, allowing Arensman to go clear, 15 seconds ahead.

The selection behind regrouped with five riders joining Pogačar and Vingegaard with Healy, Lipowitz, Gall, Onley and Johannessen reconnecting, in addition, Frank van den Broek briefly managed to drag himself back up to the selection to help Onley.

Pogačar led the group of favourites, setting a controlled pace rather than an explosive one, and kept Arensman at about 30 seconds.

The Slovenian attacked again, 7km to the top, but he was unable to shake Vingegaard from his back wheel, and while Lipowitz and Onley could follow, Healy, Gall and Johannessen were dropped.

Arensman raced under the 3km to go banner, crowds along the sides of the rain-soaked roads waiting to catch a glimpse of the riders, look strong and all but set to take the stage win.

Pogačar made a slight increase in pace with 2km to go, but Vingegaard and Lipowitz stayed glued to his wheel, with Onley falling off pace.

Lipowitz then surged, moving to the front of the three-rider chase group, pushing the pace to stop Onley from reconnecting.

Arensman gave everything to cross the line in celebration, narrowly, after securing his second stage victory at the Tour de France, and having to sit down at the side of the road after such a big effort.

It was the battle behind that captivated the crowds as Lipowitz pulled them up the final 500 metres, and sprinting toward the finish line with Pogačar on his wheel, followed by Vingegaard. The two GC giants passed Lipowitz in the final few metres, with Vingegaard taking second, Pogačar third and Lipowitz in fourth.

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