UAE Team Emirates rider <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/sport/2024/06/26/tadej-pogacar-on-tour-de-france-ive-never-felt-so-good-on-the-bike/" target="_blank">Tadej Pogacar</a> took a giant step towards clinching a third Tour de France title after winning another tough mountain stage on Friday. Pogacar climbed to a convincing victory on stage 19, extending his overall lead over defending champion Jonas Vingegaard. With two stages remaining, the <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/sport/2024/06/25/tadej-pogacars-road-to-tour-de-france-from-classics-success-to-giro-ditalia-dominance/" target="_blank">2020 and 2021 champion </a>Pogacar leads Vingegaard by over five minutes, while Remco Evenepoel remains third at around seven minutes. After six riders broke away, it was Matteo Jorgenson who made the first move to surge ahead, but with 10 km left, Richard Carapaz looked to catch up to the American with Simon Yates not too far behind. Pogacar had been following three minutes back and he launched his attack less than nine km from the finish, leaving Vingegaard and Evenepoel behind. As Vingegaard and Evenepoel battled it out for second place in the overall standings, Pogacar was on a mission to catch up to Jorgensen as he pedalled furiously and passed Olympic champion Carapaz with 3.5 km left and Yates 500 metres later. Jorgenson had done well to hold on to his advantage for as long as he could but he could only watch as Pogacar passed him with ease, erasing the three-minute gap within the last few kilometres of the stage. Pogacar eventually crossed the line all by himself, raising his fists before taking a bow with his arms outstretched and then showing four fingers - the number of stages he has won this year. It looks like only some drastic misfortune over the final weekend can deny the 25-year-old a third Tour crown and stop Pogacar from becoming the first man to complete the Giro-Tour double since Marco Pantani in 1998. "I'm super happy that I had good legs today," Pogacar said. "We were here training for a whole month between the Giro and the Tour, it was a hard period, every day you need to go up the climb, so we knew it well and I was planning with my team-mates already how we wanted to race this day. "We did it exactly like we said, it went 100 per cent perfect. "It's looking better than ever. I'm super happy, it's quite a margin now and tomorrow I can just enjoy the stage, let the breakaway go and maybe enjoy the roads where we were training. Let's enjoy tomorrow and hope nothing serious happens." Pogacar said he was running on empty towards the end but decided to push through as victory was within sight. "I was a little bit empty in the last 2 km. When I caught Carapaz and Simon Yates, there was already a limit. But then when I see that Matteo was also losing a bit, I tried to push through. "And then when I tried to pass him with the speed a little bit, I killed my legs. And then I was thinking maybe he will come back and out-sprint me or something. He was really strong today, chapeau to Matteo and all the breakaway guys." The Tour's penultimate stage on Saturday is another mountain stage, a 133 km ride from Nice to Col de la Couillole, before Sunday's time trial from Monaco to Nice. 1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates): 4:04:03 2. Matteo Jorgenson (Team Visma - Lease a Bike): +21 3. Simon Yates (Team Jayco - AlUla): +40 4. Richard Carapaz ((EF Education - EasyPost): +1:11 5. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal - Quick-Step): +1:42 1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates): 78:49:20 2. Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma - Lease a Bike): +5:03 3. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal - Quick-Step): +7:01 4. Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates): +15:07 5. Mikel Landa (Soudal - Quick-Step): +15:34