Thursday saw the second mountain stage in the French Pyrenees. The riders faced four categorised climbs, including the Col du Tourmalet. Like the day before, Wout van Aert attacked from the start. The Team Jumbo-Visma rider was invaluable to his team, assisting Vingegaard before and on the final climb, the Cauterets-Cambrasque. Before that, the rest of the team had guided the Danish leader up the challenging climbs all day.

Vingegaard and Pogacar fought a man-to-man battle with five kilometres to go. Ultimately, the Slovenian was the first to cross the line, and Vingegaard had to concede 24 seconds. "I wanted to win the stage, but Pogacar was very strong at the end of the last climb. Just like yesterday, we made the race hard. The goal was to test Pogacar early again. We did that on the Tourmalet, but we couldn't release him.”

Vingegaard gained over two minutes on race leader Hindley today, enough to start in the yellow jersey tomorrow. "I'm thrilled about it. It's a huge honour. The yellow jersey is the most iconic in cycling. I am where I want to be now, but the Tour de France is far from over”, he said.

"I thank the team for all their hard work. The team was great again today. It was fantastic to have Wout ahead of me in the final. Unfortunately, I could not win the stage, but I am happy with the yellow jersey”, the Dane concluded.