Jonas Vingegaard pushed Tadej Pogachar to the line, but missed out on the yellow jersey on the summit of La Planche des Belles Fils on stage 7 of the Tour de France to take the stage win.

In the race's first summit finish, Vingegaard accelerated up the steep La Planche des Belles Fils and proved to be Pogachar's chief rival for the overall win.

Vingegaard caught up with Pogachar's first pursuit on the gravel road with 1km to go and caught up with UAE Team Emirates with less than 150m to go.

Pogachar passed Leonard Kemna (Bora-Hanglohe) before the line after an early breakaway, but Pogachar fought back with 20m to go and held off Vingegaard for the stage win.

"It was definitely a brutal finish, but I think you can be happy," said Pogachar. I tried to hang on at the end, but he caught me with 20m to go, and I just had to fight back."

Vingegaard finished in the same time as Pogachar and 12 seconds ahead of Jumbo Visma's teammate Primoz Roglic. In the overall standings, Vingegaard moved into second place overall, 35 seconds behind Pogachar. [Meanwhile, Roglic moved up to 13th overall, 2:45 behind Pogachar.

"It was really close, but I think I can be happy," Vingegaard said. The disappointment of missing out on a stage win was tempered by the realization that he was the best man to stop Pogachar from winning a third consecutive Tour.

"I mean, I want to be better at longer climbs. At least I hope so. My legs felt good, so I'm happy."

Pogachar missed his third consecutive Tour win.

Pogachar's UAE Team Emirates team led the category 1 climb, but Rafal Maijka swept away when the road changed from pavement to gravel in the last kilometer. From there, the maillot jaune picked up the pace, and Vingegaard put up stiff resistance, but won for the second day in a row.

After the stage, he praised the defiance of Vingegaard, who finished second overall the year before.

"I think he's one of the strongest climbers in the world right now, probably the best climber in the world, a really compact rider and a strong team around him," Pogachar said. 'So far, he's riding really well.'