Pogacar dropped Jonas Vingegaard on the final climb, finishing one minute and eight seconds ahead of the Dane, his closest rival, to win his third stage on the Tour this year and his second straight stage victory since Saturday.
Vingegaard attacked with just over 10km left, with Pogacar sticking to his wheel as the pair surged ahead of the leading group, to set up what promised to be an enthralling duel to the finish line.
But with 5.3km to go, Vingegaard knew he had run out of gas and looked forlornly over his shoulder at Pogacar and the Slovenian immediately made his move, overtaking the Visma–Lease a Bike rider, before disappearing into the distance.
As Pogacar crossed the line with no other rider in sight, he held his arms aloft, as he extended his overall lead over Vingegaard to three minutes and nine seconds.
Remco Evenepoel, who is third in the general classification, finished nearly three minutes behind the Slovenian, and the Soudal-QuickStep rider is now over five minutes behind Pogacar in the overall standings.
Such was Pogacar's dominance that only 36 riders had crossed the finish line half an hour after the Team UAE Emirates rider had completed the stage.
