Jonas Vingegaard is on the brink of retaining his Tour de France title after opening up a lead of more than seven minutes on a gruelling stage 17.
The Dane powered up the final climb of the queen stage of the Tour but saw his main rival, Tadej Pogacar, crumble.
Two-time winner Pogacar was dropped with 15km left, and told his team radio: “I’m gone, I’m dead.”
Felix Gall broke clear to win the stage, 34 seconds ahead of Britain’s Simon Yates with Vingegaard fourth.
Vingegaard had extended his lead from 10 seconds to almost two minutes with a blistering ride in the individual time trial on Tuesday’s stage 16, but this feels like a decisive blow in what has been a fascinating battle.
The Jumbo-Visma rider, 26, celebrated by kissing his hand as he crossed the line in Courchevel and now leads Pogacar by seven minutes and 35 seconds with three stages to go before Sunday’s processional stage to Paris.
“I’m relieved to have more than seven minutes but we’re not in Paris yet, there’s some tricky stages left, still,” said Vingegaard.
Stage 17 – as it happened
“It was the day, when the route was announced, that we said was going to be our day, the day when we wanted to put the Tour upside down and make it really hard,” added Jumbo-Visma’s sports director Griescha Niermann.
“That did happen, although we did not think it would happen this way. Jonas won the Tour today, I think, barring bad luck.”
The moment Pogagar cracked came 8km from the summit of the giant Col de la Loze, which at 2,034m is the highest climb of this year’s race.
Pogacar has been at Vingegaard’s side for most of this Tour but he could no longer match his pace, with the Slovenian telling his UAE team to focus on keeping Adam Yates in the podium positions instead.
Pain was etched on Pogacar’s face when he finally crossed the line with his jersey unzipped some six minutes after Vingegaard, and he also had a cut knee following a minor crash earlier in the day.
Vingegaard had a tangle too, being delayed by a stalled motorbike which had forced an organisers’ car to halt and blocked the road in the final kilometres, but he zig-zagged through and continued to ride strongly.
Adam Yates does remain third in the general classification standings while twin brother Simon’s display sees him climb from eighth overall to fifth.
Simon Yates and Gall were part of a 33-man breakaway that formed with more than 100km to go, with Austrian rider Gall mounting a solo attack on the way up the Col de la Loze and staying clear to the end.
Stage 17 results
1. Felix Gall (Aut/AG2R-Citroen) 4hrs 49mins
2. Simon Yates (GB/Team Jayco-AlUla) +34secs
3. Pello Bilbao (Spa/Bahrain Victorious) +1min 38secs
4. Jonas Vingegaard (Den/Jumbo-Visma) +1min 52secs
5. David Gaudu (Fra/Groupama-FDJ) +2min 9secs
6. Tobias Johannessen (Nor/Uno-X) +2min 39secs
7. Chris Harper (Aus/Team Jayco-AlUla) +2min 50secs
8. Rafal Majka (Pol/UAE Team Emirates) +3min 43secs
9. Adam Yates (GB/UAE Team Emirates) +3min 43secs
10. Wilco Kelderman (Ned/Jumbo-Visma) +3min 49secs
General classification after stage 17
1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den/Jumbo-Visma) 67hrs 57mins 51secs
2. Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Team Emirates) +7min 35secs
3. Adam Yates (GB/UAE Team Emirates) +10mins 45secs
4. Carlos Rodriguez Cano (Spa/Ineos Grenadiers) +12mins 1sec
5. Simon Yates (GB/Team Jayco-AlUla) +12mins 19secs
6. Pello Bilbao (Spa/Bahrain Victorious) +12mins 50secs
7. Jai Hindley (Aus/Bora-Hansgrohe) +13mins 50secs
8. Felix Gall (Aut/AG2R) +16mins 11secs
9. Sepp Kuss (US/Jumbo-Visma) +16mins 49secs
10. David Gaudu (Fra/Groupama-FDJ) +17mins 57secs
