Tour de France Stage Report: Another day, another Tour stage win for Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates). As if we didn’t need more confirmation, the Slovenian won the penultimate stage of the 2024 Tour de France. Pogačar didn’t attack and his team wasn’t in control all day, but the yellow jersey followed all the moves and out-sprinted Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) at the finish. Time trial win tomorrow?
Stage 20 final
On Saturday Tadej Pogačar took his fifth stage victory in the 2024 Tour de France. In the last mountain stage of the French Grand Tour he beat Jonas Vingegaard in a sprint at the top of the Col de la Couillole. Earlier on that climb, Remco Evenepoel had put in an attack to drop Vingegaard, but the Belgian was then dropped by the top two..
Tour in the bag for Tadej Pogačar
Christian Prudhomme, Tour de France general director: “The Paris-Nice regulars will be racing over familiar terrain, but that won’t make things any easier if the contest for the Yellow Jersey is still raging, particularly over such a short distance. Battle could commence as early as the climb to the Col de Braus. There will then be no respite on the climbs of the Cols de Turini, de la Colmiane and finally de la Couillole, the final ascent extending for 15.7km at an average gradient of 7.1%. We’ll all be holding our breath!”
Stage 20 profile
From Place Masséna, in the heart of Nice, stage 20 goes in-land for 4,700 metres of climbing. After fifteen kilometres there is the Col de Braus (10km at 6.6%). This is just a warm-up for the rest of the stage. A descent of 10 kilometres brings the riders to the start of the very hard Col de Turini (20.7km at 5.7%). A fast descent leads to Roquebillière and the next climb; the Col de La Colmiane (7.5km at 7.1%). The climb actually starts from Roquebillière and is more like 20 kilometres at 5%, but ASO does think the first 13 kilometres are steep enough to be counted. After this climb, the riders still have one last climb. A descent of 20 kilometres to Saint-Sauveur-sur-Tinée takes the route to the final climb. The Col de la Couillole (15.7km at 7.1%) is long, although not too steep, but it never flattens out. The last summit finish of the 2024 Tour could be decisive, or will the GC men be thinking of the final TT?
The start in Nice
going towards the first climb of the day there was a short, flat run-up and some big engines tried to take advantage. Uno-X Mobility had plans, because Jonas Abrahamsen, Søren Wærenskjold and Magnus Cort all tried to get away, one after the other. Cort briefly led a promising group, but at the foot of the Col de Braus everything was back together, but that didn’t last long.
A special ’35 wins’ jersey for Mark Cavendish
When the road started to go uphill, the peloton split. It was Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) who increased the pace for the KOM, Richard Carapaz. A small group got away, including Wilco Kelderman, who had good legs again. The Visma | Lease a Bike rider attacked and was eventually joined by Bruno Armirail. Later Enric Mas also crossed. The Spaniard then pushed so hard that Kelderman was dropped 2 kilometres from the top. He managed to get again on the descent.
These jersey are all fairly safe
The severely thinned peloton, where UAE Team Emirates had now taken the lead, was 1 minute behind Mas, Armirail and Kelderman, in that order. Carlos Rodríguez was further behind, the 6th overall had to let the other GC riders go on the Col de Braus and needed the descent to return to the yellow jersey group. Jan Tratnik (Visma | Lease a Bike), Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates), Clement Champoussin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Romain Bardet (dsm-firmenich-PostNL) and Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) had now escaped.
Richard Carapaz will need to do some work to hold on to the KOM jersey
The five were 40 seconds behind the Kelderman group on the Col de Turini, but bridged the gap on the climb. Champoussin had already been dropped by then. The Frenchman was overtaken and left behind by another group of pursuers. Also a very strong Jasper Stuyven, who ultimately survived with Tobias Halland Johannessen and Kevin Niets. This trio was able to join just before the top. There was now ten men at the front, with a lead of more than 4 minutes. In the group of favourites they had taken the climb fairly steady.
Two young riders who have had good Tours – Frank van den Broek and Oscar Onley, both of dsm-firmenich-PostNL
Going up the climb, Soudal Quick-Step took over from UAE Team Emirates. Remco Evenepoel’s teammates then continued to lead the thinned out peloton for a long time. Yet they didn’t really get any closer. At the foot of the Col de La Colmiane (7.5km at 7.1%), the escapees still had 4 minutes. On this climb we saw attempts by Mas, Tratnik and Soler, but no one managed to get away. Carapaz was the first to cross the top and secured the overall victory in the KOM classification.
Will Remco Evenepoel try something today, or rest up for the final time trial?
Soudal Quick-Step had now reduced the difference to the leaders to less than 3 minutes. That situation had changed little when the leading group started the Col de la Couillole (15.7km at 7.1%), the final climb of the day. Tratnik pulled ahead of Kelderman on the first few sections. The first riders had to let go, but Stuyven held on strongly, as did Bardet, Carapaz, Johannessen, Kelderman, Soler and Mas. The Spaniard gave it another jump after 5 kilometres of climbing and got away with Carapaz.
Tadej Pogačar said he was going sit back and enjoy the stage – Is that possible?
KOM Carapaz had Neilson Powless to help him keep the mountains jersey
Bardet initially stayed close, Kelderman and Johannessen followed a little further back. The Dutchman and Norwegian soon had favourites behind, because there had also been a significant acceleration in pace. Mikel Landa had taken over from Jan Hirt and was setting a hard pace. Only Evenepoel, Vingegaard, Pogačar, Almeida and Jorgenson were still on the wheel of the climber 8 kilometres from the top.
The twisty climb of the Col be Braus
Carapaz was doing good work for the KOM
Evenepoel’s attack came just under 8 kilometres from the finish. The Belgian immediately got Vingegaard and Pogačar on his wheel, after which he eased up. This allowed Almeida and Jorgenson to return. The Portuguese rider took over and now did the work. He put Landa in trouble and then also dropped Jorgenson. With still 5 kilometres to go, Evenepoel made another attack. The white jersey could not get Vingegaard off his wheel and then there was a counter-attack from the Dane. Only Pogačar could follow Vingegaard.
Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek), Neilsen Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) and Kévin Geniets (Groupama-FDJ) had a little split of their own for a while
The break got together for the finale, but Soudal Quick-Step on the front of the peloton closed the gap from four minutes to three
Vingegaard and Pogačar pushed on to Carapaz and Mas, who had bombarded each other with attacks. The last 2 kilometres had 4 men together at the front. Here Mas snapped under Vingegaard’s power, but Carapaz was still able to follow, up to 900 metres from the finish. At that point he had to let go of the TOP-2. On the final climb of the Tour we had a duel for the stage victory between Vingegaard and Pogačar.
Remco Evenepoel was getting ready to make a brave move…
It wasn’t much of a duel. Pogačar was by far the better in the sprint. Vingegaard gave in at the Slovenian’s first attempt. Pogačar achieved his fifth stage victory in this Tour de France. Second place was for Vingegaard. Carapaz came third, Evenepoel was fourth, losing 53 seconds to Pogačar at the finish.
The stage would finish with a two man sprint
Stage winner and overall leader, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): “I did enjoy this day a lot, although it didn’t go according to plan. I’m really happy I got another stage win. Just one more day to go – the ITT. That one, I’m going to enjoy it too. I will just try to come home safely to Nice, as it is a very hard course. I hope I can enjoy the crowds. I was really surprised with how the race exploded at Col de Braus, which is one of my favourite training climbs. Our guys did a super good job so we all got together at the bottom of the next climb. Soler going to the breakaway was fine for us. We wanted to bring as many guys as possible to the final, but Soudal wanted to try and take time on Jonas or go for the stage and that played in my favour. If you had told me this before the Tour de France, I wouldn’t have believed to. I’m lost for words. So happy… I hope I can share this victory with my teammates today, and also tomorrow. Five stage wins are more than enough. One and the yellow jersey would have been enough, really. But you never brake in cycling. Jonas has gone through some tough days, but he showed today that he is not easy to crack and that he is a real fighter. He did a really good ride and was super strong.”
No charity from Pogačar
# The final stage 21 time trial to Nice on Sunday – stay PEZ. #
Tour de France Stage 20 Result:
1. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates in 4:04:22
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma | Lease a Bike at 0:07
3. Richard Carapaz (Ecu) EF Education-EasyPost at 0:23
4. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step at 0:53
5. Enric Mas Nicolau (Spa) Movistar at 1:07
6. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates at 1:28
7. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma | Lease a Bike at 1:33
8. Mikel Landa Meana (Spa) Soudal Quick-Step at 1:41
9. Adam Yates (GB) UAE Team Emirates at 1:43
10. Romain Bardet (Fra) dsm-firmenich-PostNL at 1:52.
Tour de France Overall After Stage 20:
1. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates in 82:53:32
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma | Lease a Bike at 5:14
3. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step at 8:04
4. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates at 16:45
5. Mikel Landa Meana (Spa) Soudal Quick-Step at 17:25
6. Adam Yates (GB) UAE Team Emirates at 21:11
7. Carlos Rodriguez Cano (Spa) INEOS Grenadiers at 21:12
8. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma | Lease a Bike at 24:26
9. Derek Gee (Can) Israel-Premier Tech at 24:50
10. Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Lidl-Trek at 25:48.
Like PEZ? Why not subscribe to our weekly newsletter to receive updates and reminders on what’s cool in road cycling?
