Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) led the yellow jersey group on the final mountain stage 18 to La Roche-sur-Follon on Thursday, finishing third.

The Milan-San Remo winner replaced Primoš Rogulic in the maillot jaune, and after a fast-paced climb up the Categorie pass, he escaped.

The Ineos duo of Michal Kwiatkowski and Richard Karapas escaped from an early breakaway to take the stage win.

Jumbo-Visma sent Van Aert to win the sprint for third to prevent Tadej Pogachar from eating into Roglic's 57-second overall lead and to stop the youngster's time bonus.

"I totally screwed up, but I still had to sprint to get the bonus seconds," Van Aert told Sporza (open in new tab) after the finish. I've done more difficult sprints before."

As a result, Roglic finished ahead of Pogachar and in fourth place.

Tom Dumoulin was the temporary lead-out man for VanArt, explaining that the Belgian was the best man to stop Pogachar's bonus seconds. Dumoulin said, "Primosch was pretty fast, but Wout was safer."

Van Aert's sprint came after he led the yellow jersey group on the Glières plateau and helped attacker Mikel Landa's advantage not exceed 30 seconds.

"It was very difficult again," said Landa. When they attacked me on the last climb, I was done. But I had to keep going to help Primoz in the final."

Van Aert, who has already won two stages in the Tour's first week of sprints in Prevas and Lavaur, appears to have the form to win any of the remaining three days, including Saturday's time trial to La Planche des Belle Filles, but he Denied, Van Aert, who is favored to win the world championship road race in Imola, Italy, on September 27 and would be a favorite to win the time trial as well,

said, "I don't want to think about the next few days yet."

"Let's see what's left tomorrow. The World Championships are scheduled for next week, and I want to do well there. The biggest mistake is wanting it all."

But since the season resumed in August after a hiatus due to a coronavirus outbreak, Van Aert has done just about everything. His stage wins in Strade Bianche, Milan-San Remo, and the pre-Tour Criterium du Dauphiné, as well as his performance in the mountains supporting Roglic, suggest that the three-time cyclo-cross world champion could develop further in the future.

Asked if there is a chance of winning a mountain stage in the Tour in the future, Van Aert replied, "Maybe."