Tadej Pogačar’s (UAE Team Emirates) dominance of the Tour de France continued on stage 20, the race’s final road stage, as the race leader outsprinted Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) at the top of the Col de la Couillole to take his fifth stage victory.
The pair had come to the top of final climb alone, having caught and passed and caught the best of the day’s breakaway along the way following an earlier hard pace set by Soudal-QuickStep.
The Belgian team had hoped to launch Remco Evenepoel away and closer to Vingegaard in the general classification, but his ambitions were turned on their head as the Dane countered to draw himself and Pogačar clear heading into the final 5km.
The two GC leaders caught breakaway survivors Enric Mas (Movistar) and Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) on the way to the line, with the Ecuadorian hanging on into the final kilometre before dropping. He’d eventually round out the stage podium in third, 23 seconds down.
Evenepoel was fourth at 53 seconds, shedding a total of 52 seconds to Vingegaard, who couldn’t respond to Pogačar’s final sprint, and finished seven seconds down on his great rival.
Pogačar’s win – coming with little work to chase the break from his own UAE Team Emirates squad – cemented his superiority over the rest of the contenders at this year’s Tour. He heads into Sunday’s closing time trial, another chance to win, at 5:14 up on Vingegaard having completed a clean sweep of all the high-mountain stages in the race – Valloire, Pla d’Adet, Plateau de Beille, Isola 2000, and now the Col de la Couillole.
“I enjoyed it very much. It didn’t go as we planned but I couldn’t be happier with it. Another stage win; I’m really happy. Just one more day, tomorrow it’s the time and I think I’m going to enjoy it as well,” Pogačar said after the stage.
“I was really surprised with how the race exploded on the Col de Braus, one of my favourite climbs to train on in this area, but our guys did a super good job. We came all together to Sospel and then Soler went in the breakaway. That was good for us and then we tried to take it easy as much as possible to bring as many guys as possible to the final. But Soudal-QuickStep decided to try and take some time on Jonas, I guess, or to win the stage. That really played into my hands.
“If you told me this before the Tour, I wouldn’t believe it,” he said of his quintet of stage wins. “It’s out of this world and I’m so happy. I hope that I can share this win and tomorrow with my teammates.
“[Five stages] is more than enough. One would be enough. Just the yellow jersey would be enough. But it is how it is – you don’t brake in cycling. Let’s see if I have really good legs, but I think tomorrow is just about coming safe to Nice. It’s quite a dangerous time trial so I can enjoy the crowds a bit more tomorrow, maybe.”
How it unfolded
The penultimate stage of the Tour de France, would also, for the first time since 1989, feature as the race’s final road stage, bringing with it a 132.8km run over four classified climbs to the grand finale at the Col de la Couillole (15.7km at 7.1%).
Along the way, with climbing almost from the very start of the day in Nice, the riders would have to tackle the Col de Braus (10km at 6.6%), the Col de Turini (20.7km at 5.7%), and the Col de la Colmiane (7.5km at 7.1%). The four climbs would total 4,700 metres of climbing though none of them reached out over 2,000 metres in altitude.
With so many climbs on the route and potential for another breakaway stage win, the attacks flew to start the day, with riders including Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility), Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), and Rui Costa (EF Education-EasyPost) among the riders on the move.
The fast start provoked a split in the peloton on the way up the Col de Braus, with a 14-man break going clear before race leader Pogačar attacked across the gap, in turn bringing the remainder of the GC contenders and their helpers along.
From the new, select lead group it was Enric Mas (Movistar) who made the first big move, 20km into the stage. He’d be joined out front by Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Wilco Kelderman (Visma-Lease A Bike), with the trio forming the basis for the group which would evolve into the break of the day.
A counterattack on the way down towards the start of the Col de Turini would fill out the lead group. Kelderman’s teammate Jan Tratnik was in there, as was UAE Team Emirates’ Marc Soler and mountain classification leader Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EastPost).
Romain Bardet (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) and Clément Champoussin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) would also bridge across.
A puncture from Champoussin limited his time out front, forcing him out of the move, while back in the chase, a group including Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek), Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility), and Kevin Geniets (Groupama-FDJ) was coming across the gap in time for the top of the Turini.
There, Carapaz grabbed 10 points to add to his mountain points total, having earlier been denied a point by a late surge from Visma-Lease A Bike rider Matteo Jorgenson.
The breakaway eventually settled at 10 riders, while at four minutes back, Soudal-QuickStep massed at the front of the peloton to control the pace in support of Remco Evenepoel with Gianni Moscon, Ilan Van Wilder, Jan Hirt and Mikel Landa.
At the Col de la Colmiane, the attacks up front began once more, with Mas the first rider to make a move, later followed by a counter from Soler, who had appeared to be struggling with the pace.
The moves didn’t make a difference to the makeup of the group, however, with the strongest climbers easily keeping up and even the likes of Stuyven and Geniets staying in touch.
Tratnik gave it a go near the top of the climb, though Carapaz was keen to pick up 10 more mountain points. He duly took to the front of the group at the summit, leading the way and boosting his total to 121 to Pogačar’s 87.
By the top, the peloton had cut the gap to under three minutes, with the gap holding on the way down towards the final road stage climb of the Tour de France.
Col de la Couillole
Soudal-QuickStep continued the chase at the base of the climb, with the yellow jersey group hitting the start of the 15.7km run at 2:55 behind the break. Up the road, Soler and Geniets were the first men to drop out of the lead group following a Tratnik acceleration, though Classics man Stuyven hung in there.
At 14km from the top, Mas took over at the front as Tratnik dropped away to leave Kelderman to battle on. Soler has continued to battle on at his own pace in the meantime and made his way back to the front just before Stuyven dropped away.
Back in the chase, the sixth-placed overall man Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers) figured to be the big loser of the day, dropping early on the climb having earlier been in trouble on the Col de Braus.
With 11.5km to go, Mas made the first major move from the break as the peloton moved to within 2:20 of the leaders. He took Carapaz with him in the attack as Bardet led the chase behind.
The QuickStep mountain train was down to Mikel Landa at the 9.5km mark with the Basque rider immediately upping the pace and spitting several riders – Santiago Buitrao, Derek Gee, Giulio Ciccone among them – out the back.
Only the podium trio – Pogačar, Vingegaard, and Evenepoel – and three teammates – João Almeida, Jorgenson, and Landa – remained in the GC group by the 8km mark, with the elite selection already having cut the gap to Carapaz and Mas down to 1:30.
Up front, Carapaz was trying to get rid of Mas, while back down the road, Evenepoel made his move with 7km to go. Vingegaard and Pogačar were quick to mark the Belgian, with Almeida returning and taking up the pacemaking as things slowed down again when it became clear that the Dane wasn’t dropping.
At the 5km mark, Mas and Carapaz continued on, albeit only 55 seconds ahead of the GC men, while Bardet battled on in the chase 30 seconds down. Evenepoel’s second move came shortly afterwards, though once again he couldn’t distance Vingegaard with the two-time winner countering with a move of his own to leave the Belgian behind.
Pogačar sat on Vingegaard’s wheel as the pair blew past Bardet with Evenepoel chasing solo at 15 seconds down. By the time the race hit the 3km mark, Carapaz and Mas – still together despite repeated attacks and counters – lay just a few seconds up on Pogačar and Vingegaard.
There was one final flourish from Carapaz, once again failing to detach Mas, before the lead group became a quartet with the addition of the two GC leaders while Evenepoel still chased solo at 20 seconds.
Vingegaard led the group into the final, dropping Mas 1,800 metres from the line as he sought to consolidate his lead over Evenepoel. The trio raced under the flamme rouge 35 seconds up on the Belgian, though Carapaz was forced to let go with 700 metres to go.
Pogačar took to the front with half a kilometre to run and it was only a matter of time before he launched his sprint. Vingegaard had no response when the acceleration came, 200 metres from the summit, leaving the Slovenian to raise his arms in victory once again.
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