Tadej Pogacar may be concentrating intensely on winning his fourth Tour de France, but in the middle of Saturday's stage eight he was just as focused on how his partner Urska Zigart was performing in the Giro d'Italia Women.

Mattia Cattaneo, a key teammate of Tour de France contender Remco Evenepoel, has withdrawn from the race. The versatile Cattaneo, who rides for E

Pogacar was happy to cruise around the peloton and stay safe on stage eight and still leads the general classification by 54 seconds from Remco Evenepoel, with Frenchman Kevin Vauquelin a further 17 seconds down and Jonas Vingegaard 1:17 adrift of his big rival.

Instead, it was his Classics rival Pogacar who distanced him, with team UAE Emirates-XRG setting an infernal pace up the final slope to whittle the field down to a select group of climbers, including Remco Evenepoel, local boy Kevin Vauquelin, and Briton Oscar Onley, who ultimately finished third.

The biggest race of the year has started: the Tour de France. On Saturday, July 5, the peloton started from Lille, with the race set to conclude three weeks later with the (not so) traditional finish in the French capital,

Just three days into the race, it’s clear we’re about to be treated to an epic duel between Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard for the yellow jersey.