Last year's runner-up Vingegaard attacked 4.9km from the finish to drop the defending champion, who had been attacked relentlessly by the Dane's Jumbo-Visma team from more than 60 kilometres out on the lower slopes of the Col du Galibier - the highest point of this year's race.

Vingegaard never looked back on his way to an iconic victory at top of the Col du Granon, a punishing 11.3-km climb at an average gradient of 9.2%.

The climb hasn't been used since 1986 when Bernard Hinault lost the yellow jersey to teammate Greg LeMond and would never see it again in his career.

History repeated itself on those brutal slopes as Pogacar - with a team capitulated by COVID-19 - cracked massively. He was passed my Geraint Thomas, Adam Yates and David Gaudu as Vingegaard continued to put more and more time into the Slovenian. 

Colombian Nairo Quintana took second place, 59 seconds behind, with France's Romain Bardet finishing third, one minute and 10 seconds off the pace.

Pogacar, who started the day 39 seconds ahead of Vingegaard in the overall rankings, crossed the line in seventh place, 2:51 behind the winner, his face a mask of exhaustion.

Overall, Vingegaard leads Bardet by 2:16 and third-placed Pogacar by 2:22. Thomas is fourth and Quintana jumps up to fifth. 

Simon Geschke, who was in the day's break, took more points in his bid to be named King of the Mountains and Wout van Aert, another man in the break, mopped up intermediate sprint points to all but secure the green jersey points classification. 

On Thursday, the riders head for the summit finish of the iconic Alpe D'Huez with another brutal 165.5km day in the Alps.