Il Nuovo Postiglione - Pogacar pounces to retakes Tour de France lead

Visma's Jonas Vingegaard was second, right on Pogacar's wheel at the line with Briton Oscar Onley third after a late nine-rider pile up marred the finale.

Pogacar, the defending champion, gained four sec on Vingegaard with ten bonus seconds to the Dane's six.

In the overall standings, Remco Evenepoel is second overall 54 seconds off first as he came sixth on the day, two seconds adrift.

French starlet Kevin Vauquelin continues his bright run in third at 1min 11sec while two time champion Vingegaard is fourth at 1min 17.

The overnight leader Mathieu van der Poel rounds out the top five at 1min 29sec after wilting on the final climb, scene of his 2021 coming of age win and his first yellow jersey.

The day's action revolved around two ascents of the Mur de Bretagne, a 2km climb at an average of 6 precent, that has been written into Tour de France folklore.

With the Tour returning to Brittany after a four years gap, huge festive crowds packed the villages and pretty country lanes as the temperature hit 30 Celsius (86 Fahrenheit).

The 179 remaining riders left Saint Malo on the north-west coast passing the magnificent Sillon beach with its granite sea-wall and chic sea-front buildings.

Fewer of them will take the start line for Saturday's flat run to Laval, with doubts over key Pogacar teammate Joao Almeida and the Colombian Santiago Buitrago.

C.Albano--INP