Pogačar wins Tour de France stage 7 to extend lead

LA PLANCHE DES BELLES FILLES, France (AP) — Tadej Pogačar won his second Tour de France stage in a row in the first summit finish of the race to extend his lead in the yellow jersey on Friday.

Pogačar caught, first, Lennard Kämna, who came agonizingly close to a breakaway win, and then Jonas Vingegaard with one last sprint at the top of La Planche des Belles Filles, a ski resort in the Vosges mountains of eastern France.

The mountain hits a 24% gradient near the top. It was the site of Pogačar’s breakout moment on the 2020 Tour, when he took the yellow jersey from fellow Slovenian Primož Roglič on the penultimate stage and went on to win the race. Pogačar won the Tour again in 2021.

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