Tour de France Stage Report: Tadej Pogačar… What can you say? With a nice lead and two hard stages and the final time trial on the menu, the yellow jersey, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) could just sit back and watch the others, but that wouldn’t the way of the Slovenian. On the final climb to Isola 2000, Pogačar attacked the other favourites, chased down the few riders ahead of him and won the stage and added to his lead. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) are now at 5:03 and 7:01.
*** Full ‘Tour Stage Report’ very soon. ***
Stage 19 finish
Tadej Pogačar cleaned the table and took the chairs. Visma | Lease a Bike seemed to be on its way to stage victory in Isola 2000 with Matteo Jorgenson, but the American was passed in the final kilometres by the flying yellow Slovenian. Pogačar also dealt a big blow to Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel.
Is the 2024 Tour over? It looks that way
Christian Prudhomme, Tour de France general director: “The menu for this ultra-mountain stage could well make you dizzy, but it’ll also whet the appetite of the very best climbers. Although the stage is less than 150km long, the riders will climb above 2,000 metres on three occasions, the biggest test the climb to the summit of La Bonette, the highest road in France at an altitude of 2,802 metres. Its 360-degree panorama is breath-taking.”
Stage 19 profile
Stage 19 starts in Embrun then crosses two Alpine giants to finish on the climb to Isola 2000. This short stage of 145 kilometres has 4,500 metres of elevation. From Embrun, the road is undulating to the base of the Col de Vars (18.8km at 5.7%). A descent takes the race to the Cime de la Bonette (22.9km at 6.9%), the top of the Tour. The Cime de la Bonette is an extension of the Col de la Bonette. It is a circular route from the col, that takes you to the height of 2,802 metres. They claim this is the highest altitudes via asphalted roads in Europe. A total of 24 hairpin bends bring you to the summit, but there is still the road to Isola 2000 come. From the top of the Cime de la Bonette, there is a descent of 40 kilometres to the start of the final climb. The Isola 2000 (16.1km at 7.1%) rises at an average of just over 7%. In the first 8 kilometres, the gradient is above 8% most of the time. The climb then levels off to around 6%. The finish ramps up again to 8.5%.
Everyone seemed happy with victor Campenaerts’ win on Thursday
Visma | Lease a Bike had a plan today. The Dutch team hoped to put pressure on leader Tadej Pogac3ar and so Christophe Laporte, Wilco Kelderman and Matteo Jorgenson went on the attack. They were the instigators of a sizeable break, with Michal Kwiatkowski (INEOS Grenadiers), Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious), Ilan van Wilder (Soudal Quick-Step), Jai Hindley (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) and Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost).
Let battle commence
EF Education-EasyPost was, despite Powless being in the break, not satisfied with the 22-man leading group and tried to pull it back for Richard Carapaz. At the foot of the first climb of the day, the Col de Vars, the break’s lead was small enough for Carapaz, Egan Bernal, Romain Bardet and Simon Yates to counter-attack in the hope of bridge to the leaders. The gaps were still noticeable at that time, because the peloton was not that far behind. On the 20 kilometre long Col de Vars, the pace was high and the leading group split. Nine riders managed to survive the selection: Jorgenson, Kelderman, Van Wilder, Hindley, Carapaz, Simon Yates, Oscar Onley, Nicolas Prodhomme and Cristian Rodríguez.
Scotland’s Oscar Onley (dsm-firmenich-PostNL) was in the break again
The peloton was led by UAE Team Emirates and had been reduced to about 40 riders. Marc Soler and Pavel Sivakov set a strong pace, but the difference to the leading group increased to more than 3 minutes. With just over a 100 kilometres to go, the 9 leaders reached the top of the Col de Vars. Carapaz was the first to reach the summit and was able to add 20 KOM points to his total. The Ecuadorian was chasing the polka dot jersey.
Jai Hindley (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) and Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) in the action again
After the descent of the Col de Vars, the escapees had a lead of about 4 minutes at the start of the long and very high Cime de la Bonette. Jorgenson decided to open the throttle, which was disastrous for Onley, Prodhomme and Van Wilder. These three couldn’t follow, leaving six riders at the front of the race. In the group of GC favourites, one rider after another was dropped due to the power of Nils Politt. The German, who is not known as a climber, managed to ride out of his skin on the Cime de la Bonette and thinned out the group. It was too fast for some climbers; Louis Meintjes, Tiesj Benoot, Geraint Thomas and Felix Gall, who was 11th overall at the start. The Austrian was hunting a Top-10 place, but today wasn’t going well and he dropped down the overall ladder.
The yellow jersey group kept the break at under 5 minutes
UAE Team Emirates had a plan and made the race hard. The yellow jersey still had Pavel Sivakov, Marc Soler, Adam Yates and João Almeida with him. While Vingegaard was already on his own, but Kelderman and Jorgenson were still ahead and could help later. This turned out not to be necessary, because the hoped-for fireworks didn’t materialise. Vingegaard stayed where he was in the group and the other GC riders also made no moves, probably because they couldn’t.
Classicsman Nils Politt has become the engine of UAE Team Emirates
In the front group, the six remaining riders rode together to the top, where Carapaz took the full 40 KOM points. He had now passed Vingegaard and Pogačar in the battle for the polka dot jersey. Carapaz was able to increase his points total even further, because at the top of the climb to Isola 2000, another ten points were up for grabs for the stage winner (if he won).
No panic for Tadej
At the foot of the 16 kilometre long final climb, the difference between the attackers and the Pogačar group was still 4 minutes and so the break could dream of the stage victory in Isola 2000. Visma | Lease a Bike was hoping for the stage victory and so Kelderman rode hard for his American teammate Jorgenson in the first uphill kilometres. Cristian Rodríguez was the first who couldn’t cope with Kelderman’s pace and not much later, Hindley was in trouble.
Visma | Lease a Bike had Wilco Kelderman and Matteo Jorgenson in the break and Soudal Quick-Step had Ilan Van Wilder, did they have a plan?
At 13.5 kilometers from the top, Jorgenson attacked. The Visma | Lease a Bike rider jumped with a big acceleration from Kelderman’s wheel and immediately had a gap. Carapaz and Yates had no answer, although the Ecuadorian wasn’t going to give up. Carapaz had the problem of Kelderman on his wheel.
Just what you need when you are racing up a mountain
It was time for Pogačar to go
No one could follow
No point looking back Tadej
Job done
Stage winner and overall leader, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): “After winning this stage, I can confirm that the Col de la Bonnette is a scary climb. When you use it in training, you can skip the last kilometre but in the race, today, it was very hard. Between the Giro and the Tour, I had a hard training period and I knew today’s last climb very well. With the team, we planned it well and we did exactly as we said. Our race was 100% perfect. My goal today was to win the stage, but as I approached the last two kilometres, I felt a little drained. I still caught Richard Carapaz and Simon Yates and I could catch up with Matteo Jorgenson. When it was time to pass him, I pushed as hard as possible to overtake him with speed. He was very strong today, as were all the guys in the breakaway. Hats off to them. I’m very happy. Reaching the score of fifteen Tour stage victories is quite formidable. Now I have a good lead. Tomorrow I can let the escape go to the end. I will do the last two days of the Tour on the roads where I have trained my entire professional career.”
There wasn’t much Vingegaard and Evenepoel could do
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Tour de France Stage 19 Result:
1. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates in 4:04:03
2. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma | Lease a Bike at 0:21
3. Simon Yates (GB) Jayco AlUla at 0:40
4. Richard Carapaz (Col) EF Education-EasyPost at 1:11
5. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step at 1:42
6. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma | Lease a Bike
7. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates at 2:00
8. Mikel Landa Meana (Spa) Soudal Quick-Step
9. Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Visma | Lease a Bike at 2:52
10. Derek Gee (Can) Israel-Premier Tech at 3:27.
Tour de France Overall After Stage 19:
1. Tadej Pogacar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates in 78:49:20
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma | Lease a Bike at 5:03
3. Remco Evenepoel Soudal Quick-Step at 7:01
4. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates at 15:07
5. Mikel Landa Meana (Spa) Soudal Quick-Step at 15:34
6. Carlos Rodriguez Cano (Spa) INEOS Grenadiers at 17:36
7. Adam Yates (GB) UAE Team Emirates at 19:18
8. Derek Gee (Can) Israel-Premier Tech at 21:52
9. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma | Lease a Bike at 22:43
10. Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Lidl-Trek at 22:46.
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