Tadej Pogacar displayed his dominant form in the climbs of the Vosges, racing to his fourth victory of this year's Tour de France at Le Markstein.
The decisive attack from Pogacar occurred 1.6 kilometers from the summit of the final climb, the Col de Haag, and 7.5 kilometers from the finish line, leaving his rivals behind.
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Jonas Vingegaard, Paul Seixas, and Florian Lipowitz were unable to match the acceleration of the Slovene, who now holds a lead of 4 minutes and 30 seconds ahead of Vingegaard.
Seixas matched Vingegaard on the rolling descent to the finish line before dropping the double winner during the final sprint to take the lead in the young rider classification.
The stage proved to be a major setback for Tom Pidcock, whose challenge came apart on the early slopes of the Col de Haag due to a relentless rhythm set by the Decathlon CMA CGM team.
Pidcock immediately lost ground as Pogacar and Vingegaard rode ahead, causing the Briton to tumble from second place overall earlier in the stage down to ninth.
Richard Carapaz, the last of the breakaway riders, was closing in on a stage win before Pogacar caught him with just over 8 kilometers remaining to foil the Ecuadorian rider.
The peloton faced extreme weather conditions, including a deluge that flooded the finish line at Le Markstein just as Pogacar's UAE Emirates XRG team closed down the day's breakaway.
