Arensman soloes to Tour stage victory as Pogacar edges Vingegaard for second
Slovenian Tadej Pogacar retained the overall leader's yellow jersey as he took second place by beating chief rival Jonas Vingegaard, in a two-man sprint finish 1 minute 12 seconds behind Ineos Grenadiers rider Arensman.
Defending champion Pogacar extended his lead over Dane Vingegaard in the general classification by six seconds to 4:13 at the end of the Pyrenean stage.
The day belonged to Arensman, however, as the Dutchman went solo from the day's breakaway in the penultimate climb to the Col de Peyresourde (7.1 km at 7.8%) before his team car hit and knocked down a spectator amid the usual roadside chaos on the Tour.
Arensman never looked back and held firm on his way up to Superbagneres (12.4 km at 7.3%) as Vingegaard attacked several times in an attempt to drop Pogacar.
But the world champion did not flinch and easily beat his rival in the final metres to further cement his domination.
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The Independent
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BBC News
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Telegraph
15 minutes ago
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Why so many penalties are being missed at Euro 2025
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Sweden's Jennifer Falk had information about England's penalty-takers on her water bottle, a technique Jordan Pickford has used in numerous shoot-outs for England's men's team. Ann-Katrin Berger had similar on her bottle for Germany's shoot-out against France. Those notes said dive left for the decisive last penalty; she did and she saved, having pulled off another spectacular stop in extra-time. England goalkeeper Hannah Hampton also referenced the importance of data, joking that she did not have any on Falk when the Sweden goalkeeper surprisingly stepped up – and missed – in the shoot-out. There are undoubtedly greater resources available to female goalkeepers now than in 2011 and the standard of players in that position has increased significantly. There is also much more data and research available. 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'None of the players in the England v Sweden shoot-out did so, and those goalkeepers were successful because they moved very early to a side, and hence could quite easily make their saves because the penalty-takers rigidly stuck to their pre-decided corner. 'However, Spain's Mariona Caldentey actually used the goalkeeper-dependent technique against Switzerland, looking at the goalkeeper as she moved towards the ball. 'The Swiss goalkeeper had definitely studied Caldentey because she came equipped with the antidote against this type of strategy by standing still for an extremely long time, forcing the forward to just go for a side – and the shot was not particularly strong.' Not one, but two missed penalties 😬 It didn't matter in the end, but a couple of moments to forget for Spain! — ITV Football (@itvfootball) July 18, 2025 It is interesting that the conversion rate at the men's Euro 2024 tournament was up by nearly 10 per cent from the 2022 World Cup and 17 per cent from Euro 2020. That perhaps has to do with the increased use of the goalkeeper-independent technique. 'In the men's game, the best penalty- takers are now fully flexible and unpredictable,' says Jordet. 'Specialist penalty-takers such as Harry Kane and Robert Lewandowski alternate technique, sometimes goalkeeper-independent – pre-decided corner – and sometimes goalkeeper-dependent – react to goalkeeper. I expect we will see this also in the women's game going forward.'
