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Thymen Arensman claimed his second victory in this year’s Tour de France when he benefited from the top guns’ waiting game to prevail in the 19th stage, the last mountain trek of the race.
The Dutch Ineos Grenadiers rider, whose team have been facing doping questions related to their glorious days as Team Sky, went solo in the final climb to La Plagne before crossing the line two seconds ahead of Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar, who were second and third respectively.
“I’m absolutely destroyed. I can’t believe it,” Arensman said.
“Already one stage on the Tour was unbelievable, from a breakaway, but now from the GC (general classification) group, against the strongest riders in the world, it feels like I’m dreaming.”
Slovenian Pogačar retained the overall leader’s yellow jersey and leads Vingegaard by 4:24 going into the final two stages and is widely expected to win a fourth title if he avoids a major incident.
German Florian Lipowitz took fourth place on the shortened stage to cement his third place overall, stretching his advantage over fourth-placed Oscar Onley of Britain by 41 seconds to 1:03.
It would have taken a colossal coup from Vingegaard to topple Pogačar on the final mountain test in the Alps, but the Visma-Lease a Bike rider only tried within the last 100 metres to take two seconds off of the Slovenian’s lead, with Pogačar emerging as the puppet master of the peloton.
A leading trio featuring France’s Lenny Martinez and Valentin Paret Peintre as well as former Tour runner-up Primoz Roglic, reached the Col du Pre with a small gap of a chasing group after a brutal 12.2-km ascent at 7.7 per cent.
The peloton, controlled by Pogačar’s UAE Emirates-XRG, trailed by less than a minute.
With two kilometres left in the climb up to the Cormet de Roselend (5.9km at 6.9 per cent), Paret Peintre and Roglic shook off Martinez, but only briefly as the Bahrain-Victorious rider clawed his way back.
Roglic was then swallowed two kilometres before the final climb and spat out immediately.
Austrian Felix Gall, gunning for a top five finish in Paris, accelerated 14.5km from the finish with Arensman, Pogačar and Vingegaard reacting.
Pogačar made his own move 14km from the top with Vingegaard and Arensman the only riders able to get into his slipstream.
Pogačar eventually let Arensman go and seemed content with setting a decent tempo to keep the Dutchman within reach, but the Slovenian eventually did not make the effort to go for a fifth stage win this year.
Australia’s Ben O’Connor, who brilliantly won Thursday’s 18th stage, was placed 12th, ensuring he kept his overall 10th position in the GC. South Australian Callum Scotson (Decathlon Ag2r La Mondiale) was placed 24th.
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