JONAS VINGEGAARD won stage 18 of the Tour de France in the yellow jersey yesterday, to take a potentially decisive step towards sealing his first overall title.

Tadej Pogacar, who had shook hands with the Dane when he waited for him after a crash on the descent of the Col de Spandelles earlier in the day, was left behind with four kilometres left of the climb of the Hautacam as Vingegaard won by a minute from the Slovenian.

The final mountain stage of this race delivered scenes which will go down in Tour history.

Pogacar had tried to attack on the descent of the Spandelles, and had Vingegaard under pressure when the Dane almost lost control on a left-hander, pulling one foot out of his pedal before rebalancing.

But a few corners later Pogacar ran wide, off the tarmac, and took a tumble in the gravel.

Vingegaard opted not to take advantage, waiting for his rival to ride back and accepting a shake of the hand which may well come to represent Pogacar’s concession in the fight for yellow.

Van Aert had been setting the pace for Vingegaard at the moment that Pogacar dropped off the wheel, and the yellow jersey paid tribute to his team-mates after the stage.

“It’s incredible,” he said. “I said this morning to my girlfriend and my daughter I wanted to win for them and I did. This one is for my two girls at home.

“I think [Pogacar] missed a corner and then he went into some gravel, he tried to steer it out and the bike disappeared under him. Then I waited for him.

“Today I have to thank all my team-mates. They were incredible. You see Van Aert dropping Pogacar at the end. Sepp Kuss was incredible, Tiesj [Benoot], Christophe [Laporte] and Nathan [Van Hooydonck], they were all incredible today. I couldn’t have done it without them.

“I don’t want to talk about [the overall title] yet. There is also tomorrow and a day after tomorrow and then we are in Paris, so let’s talk about it in two days.”

It was Vingegaard’s second stage win of the race, having taken yellow with victory on the Col du Granon on stage 11 when Pogacar suffered his first crisis.

The Jumbo-Visma rider now leads by more than three minutes, with tomorrow’s 41km time trial expected to be the final chance to create any significant time gaps.