Pogačar nears fifth Tour de France after safe penultimate stage

Control mattered more than risk

Tadej Pogačar moved to the cusp of a fifth Tour de France victory after riding a safe penultimate stage. At this point in a Grand Tour, that choice tells the story: the priority was not to create another headline, but to avoid the one incident that could still alter the outcome.

That makes the stage significant even without a detailed time gap. A safe ride on the penultimate day is the mark of a rider and team managing risk, protecting the race position they have already built, and forcing rivals to find a way to change the script rather than offering them one.

Crash reshapes the stage story

The day still carried real drama. An American rider lost the stage lead after a dramatic crash, underlining how quickly a controlled race can become unstable. For riders and teams, that is the central tension of a late Tour stage: even when the overall race appears to be settling, the road still has leverage.

Full details are at the linked ABC News (AU) source.