Team Jumbo-Visma responded to early attacks from UAE Team Emirates, which resulted in Tiesj Benoot and Wilco Kelderman being placed in a solid lead group. Behind them, Christophe Laporte and Nathan Van Hooydonck quickly took control on the first climbs. Despite the heat, the pace was consistently high.

At the foot of the Col de la Loze, the lead group with Benoot and Kelderman was three minutes ahead of the peloton. Vingegaard still had Sepp Kuss with him and sent the American to the front when it became clear that Pogacar was struggling. The yellow jersey then took off himself and continued to pull away. Vingegaard could not close the gap on eventual winner Felix Gall, but his efforts ensured he now has a firm grip on the yellow jersey.

"I'm super happy”, Vingegaard said. "We didn't expect the lead to be more than seven minutes, even though we wanted to take some time today. We didn't change our strategy after I won the time trial. The whole team rode great, and that was the deciding factor. We executed our plan perfectly.”

Vingegaard does not want to talk about having decided on the outcome of the Tour. "We're not in Paris yet. We have a challenging mountain stage on Saturday, so we must stay focused. I expect attacks. But we are in an excellent position.”

Kelderman stood by his leader in the final and was proud. "It's very nice to experience this. We've been working towards this for months, and it's incredible to see how Jonas is riding. I heard in my earpiece that Pogacar had to give up. At that moment, you know everything is going to be about Jonas. We had agreed that Tiesj would wait to set the pace. Our execution was perfect.”