Pogacar wins on Les Angles to snatch the Tour de France yellow jersey from Vingegaard

Tadej Pogacar turned the first mountain test of the 2026 Tour de France into a statement, powering away from his rivals in the closing 200 metres of the summit finish at Les Angles to win stage 3 and reclaim the yellow jersey.

The 196-kilometre stage from Granollers climbed out of Spain and back into France across the Pyrenees, packing in close to 4,000 metres of ascent before the short, sharp rise to the line. UAE Team Emirates controlled it from the front all day, reeling in the breakaway and setting a pace on the final climb that stripped the race down to the favourites. When Pogacar finally launched, no one could respond, and the world champion crossed with a two second gap to Jonas Vingegaard, Richard Carapaz and Paul Seixas. It was the 22nd Tour stage win of his career.

The overall lead came down to the finest of margins. Pogacar collected 10 bonus seconds for the win and Vingegaard six for second, leaving the pair level on 8:46:55 after three stages. Pogacar takes yellow only on countback, courtesy of his runner-up finish in Barcelona a day earlier. Remco Evenepoel sits third at 23 seconds, with Isaac del Toro, Juan Ayuso and Seixas filling out the top six.

The day was shaped by more than the racing. With a large wildfire burning around 60 kilometres away, organisers ran the final 40 kilometres inside France without the publicity caravan and asked fans to stay away from the roadside and the finish. The usual Pyrenean crowds thinned to almost nothing, a subdued backdrop to one of the race's marquee days.

Pogacar now leads the general classification and the points competition, and through del Toro his team also holds the white jersey. Whether he wants the burden of defending yellow for three weeks is another question, with Vingegaard glued to his wheel on identical time. Stage 4 heads from Carcassonne to Foix on Tuesday, a 182-kilometre run through Cathar country that looks made for the breakaway.