Pogačar Rips Yellow From Vingegaard at Les Angles — Del Toro’s Lead-Out Decides Stage 3

July 6, 2026 | Stage 3 Result | Tour de France 2026

Tadej Pogačar took the maillot jaune from Jonas Vingegaard on stage 3 of the 2026 Tour de France after sprinting 2 seconds clear at the summit finish in Les Angles (1,801m). Isaac del Toro drove the final kilometre at full gas, Pogačar went inside the last 150 metres, and Vingegaard had nothing to counter. After 195.9km from Granollers, the World Champion arrived in the Pyrenees and left wearing yellow.

Vingegaard crossed 2 seconds later, with Richard Carapaz and Paul Seixas finishing at the same time. Remco Evenepoel came in at the same time as Seixas in eighth. The two-second gap, combined with the 10-second time bonus for the stage win, handed Pogačar the yellow jersey by virtue of countback, both riders now sit on the exact same accumulated GC time.

“It’s because of Isaac today,” Pogačar said immediately after the finish. “He committed more than 1000% on the final climb. All the team did.”

How the Stage Was Won — UAE Did the Dirty Work So Pogačar Could Sprint

The break took over an hour to form. More than 50 riders tested the front before 19 eventually got clear: Louis Vervaeke, Magnus Cort, Nelson Oliveira, and Mattéo Vercher broke first, then Luke Plapp, Mauro Schmid, George Bennett, and Mads Pedersen bridged. A second wave — Nicolas Prodhomme, Harold Tejada, Alex Aranburu, Michael Storer, Joris Delbove, Abel Balderstone, Alex Baudin, Vlad Van Mechelen, Raúl García Pierna, Clément Braz Afonso, and Egan Bernal — swelled the escape to 19.

Bernal’s luck ran out fast. A puncture sent him back to the peloton and ended his day in the break before the racing had truly started.

The advantage stretched to over three minutes. Then, UAE Team Emirates-XRG moved. Florian Vermeersch took the first long turn at the front, then Tim Wellens and Nils Politt shared the load through the valley roads. The gap came back under 2 minutes going into the first major climb.

On the Col de Toses, García Pierna attacked alone and rode clear. Van Mechelen and Vercher chased and made contact halfway up. With 2km left to the summit, Baudin, Bennett, and Prodhomme came back to the front. Baudin crested first, collecting the polka-dot jersey from Alex Molenaar, who had worn it since stage 1.

On the Col du Calvaire, the penultimate classified climb, Baudin attacked again. Prodhomme bridged across. Baudin added more mountain points at the summit. By then, the peloton sat 43 seconds behind. The break’s days were numbered.

On the descent, Prodhomme sat up and waited for the main group, leaving Baudin out front as the sole survivor. UAE kept pace through the valley, and with 11km to the finish, Baudin was caught. Stage over for the escapees.

Then came the final climb to Les Angles — short, punchy, perfect for Pogačar.

Del Toro hit the front inside the final kilometre and drove all the way to the 300-metre mark. The group behind had Vingegaard, Carapaz, Seixas, Evenepoel, and Ayuso all in contact. When Pogačar launched from Del Toro’s wheel, he was gone. Metres opened immediately. Vingegaard gave chase and failed. Two seconds at the line.

“In the middle of the stage, we decided it was possible to go for the stage win,” Pogačar said. “I’m really happy we started to ride like that.”

Stage 3 Result — Granollers to Les Angles (195.9km)

GC Standings After Stage 3 — Two Riders Level, Race Decided by Countback

Romain Grégoire dropped out of the leading group on the Col de Toses and fell outside the top 15. Mathieu van der Poel finished 40 minutes down — he is racing for sprint stages, not GC, and the Pyrenees confirmed it.

Other Jersey Standings After Stage 3

Green jersey (points): Pogačar leads on 55 points. Vingegaard second on 44. Del Toro drops to third on 39.

Polka-dot jersey (mountains): Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost) leads with 12 points after sweeping the Col de Toses and Col du Calvaire. Nicolas Prodhomme second on 9. Molenaar drops to fourth.

White jersey (best young rider): Del Toro leads on the same time as Pogačar overall. Ayuso 3 seconds back. Seixas at 24 seconds. The three-way youth battle is the second-best story in this race right now.

The Del Toro Factor — UAE’s Second Weapon Is Not a Secret Anymore

Stage 2, Montjuïc: Pogačar gives Del Toro the win with a late sit-up. Stage 3, Les Angles: Del Toro drives the final kilometre so Pogačar can sprint past Vingegaard and take yellow.

This is not coincidence. This is a plan.

Del Toro, 21 years old and in his first Tour, has already delivered back-to-back stage-winning performances. Pogačar credited him without hesitation after both stages. Visma’s problem is not just that Pogačar is fast; it is that Pogačar now has a domestique-cum-co-leader who can win stages on his own if Pogačar decides to gift them and can pace the final 1km at maximum output when the race is real.

Sepp Kuss, speaking to TV 2 Sport after the stage, refused to treat the yellow jersey loss as a crisis. “To finish second on the stage is already pretty good, because Pogačar is close to impossible to beat on a finish like this,” Kuss said. He also confirmed that Visma had not planned to control the break: “We expected a breakaway to go all the way, so we had no plans to control.”

That is both a fair reading and a slightly uncomfortable one. Visma had a legitimate reason to let UAE do the chasing work on a hot Pyrenean day. But UAE now has Pogačar in yellow and a squad depth they have demonstrated through three stages.

What Stage 3 Proved About This Tour

Three stages in, three things are confirmed.

Pogačar and Vingegaard remain inseparable when the road goes up at a moderate gradient and moderate pace. Both riders look at the top of their form — no signs of weakness in either camp despite the heat (over 35°C in the valley stages).

Del Toro is the real deal. Not a promising youngster, not a future GC rider, not a project. He is racing right now, in this Tour, as a genuine weapon that Pogačar deploys with precision.

Evenepoel at 23 seconds keeps himself in this race, but stage 3’s finish — short, punchy, explosive — was never his terrain. His stage comes in week two at the individual time trial. If he is within a minute of yellow by then, he has a chance to put Vingegaard and possibly even Pogačar under pressure.

Paul Seixas, 19 years old, finished fourth on the first summit finish of his Grand Tour career. He is now 48 seconds down in sixth overall. He hasn’t cracked. He hasn’t panicked. Watch him in the Alps.

The Pyrenees continue tomorrow with stage 4. The race is level at the top. Eleven seconds separate the top five. This Tour has barely started.