Ice-cool Roglic strengthens lead, exhausted Bernal fades

PUY MARY (France), Sept 11

Primoz Roglic tightened his grip on the Tour de France overall lead as he dropped defending champion Egan Bernal in the final ascent of a gruelling 13th stage in the Massif Central today.

Colombian Dani Martinez prevailed from the breakaway at the end of a punishing 191.5-km trek from Chatel-Guyon before the big guns battled it out in the finale of the short, yet brutal, climb up to the Puy de Mary, where the average gradient rose above 11%.

Ineos-Grenadiers Colombian leader Bernal, who fares better on longer ascents, could not sustain the pace when Tadej Pogacar accelerated, with fellow Slovenian Roglic the only rider able to follow. The duo crossed the line 38 seconds ahead of a grimacing Bernal, who slipped to third in the general classification, 59 seconds off the pace. The 21-year-old Pogacar is now second, 44 seconds behind Roglic. — Reuters