Vingegaard’s battle against Evenepoel puts passive Pogacar in the seat for a fifth Tour stage win

Tadej Pogacar also won the 20th stage of the Tour de France. In a stage that gave the UAE Team Emirates the stage win for the runaways, the battle for second place between Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel ensured that the yellow colour would reach the finish on the seat. Pogacar remained very passive, continued to follow Vingegaard and defeated him convincingly in the Sprint-á-deux to take his fifth stage win of the Tour.

After Friday’s stage won by Tadej Pogacar, the peloton arrived in Nice on Saturday morning, where the Tour de France will also conclude on Sunday with a time trial. But there is still a hellish mountain stage to ride, with Praus, Turenne, Colmienne and the Col du Coyol. It is over four thousand metres in altitude, spread over 133 kilometres.

Due to traffic around Nice, the stage in the hot south of France was delayed by twenty minutes, but they were in front from the start. With Rui Costa and Nelson Pauwels attacking, EF Education-EasyPost immediately made clear their intentions regarding Richard Carapaz’s polka dot jersey, which could be secured at this stage. Meanwhile, Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) suffered a puncture and had to chase for the entire journey.

Classification men must pass the opening stage.

At the foot of the Col de Braos, ten kilometres away at 6.6 per cent, there was no break yet, so the best climbers set off up the climb. This included Carapaz of course, but also the men who were still in good shape in the world rankings. Nice native Mathieu Jorgenson (Visma | Lease a Bike) was the most active, but it also prompted a reaction from Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech), Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek), Adam Yates (UAE-Team Emirates), among others. ) and even Mikel Landa (Soudal Quick Step).

As a result, the pace was logically very high, which had the direct consequence of causing some of the classification men to get into trouble. Sixth-placed Carlos Rodriguez (INEOS Grenadiers) and eleventh-placed Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) were half a minute behind on this first climb of the day, as the race was more like a junior race. Meanwhile, Pogacar had plenty of time to play, Watch the joke With his fiancée Urska Zegart.

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Carapaz joined Kelderman.

In the descent, the big names decided not to take any risks, giving Wilco Kelderman (Visma), Bruno Armeril (Decathlon AG2R) and Enric Mas (Movistar) a sort of safe behaviour. He was followed by Carapaz, Romain Bardet (DSM PostNL), Clément Champoussin (Arkéa – B&B Hotels), Kelderman’s teammates Jan Tratnik and Marc Soler (UAE).

Rodriguez and Buitrago were back in the meantime, but their moment of weakness was exploited by some of their rivals. Ciccone and Gee immediately accelerated up the climb again, but were caught again. Meanwhile, the Carapaz group struggled to get to the front, so they had to put in an extra effort on Turini to get to the front with a select group. It eventually worked, albeit without Champsin.

Carapaz takes the polka dot jersey, Soudal-Quick Step follows a strong leading group

In Torini, we ended up with the status quo, where some persistent pursuers were still able to communicate with the front pursuers. Local hero Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek) led the impact, with Kevin Niets (Groupama-FDJ) and Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X) following in his wake. That’s how we ended up with ten in the first group. That’s how Carapaz had the perfect opportunity to take the crucial mountain points for his polka dot jersey.

After a fast descent, the Col de la Colmienne followed, 7.5km at 7.1%. The leader had a four-minute lead here and it was at this point that Soudal-Quick Step increased the pace of the Evenepol team. Gianni Moscon was not going much faster than the strong climbers at the front, but Elan van Wilder reduced the gap to less than three minutes in the second part. There was a full-on attack on the front by Visma | Rented bike Kelderman and Tratnik, from Soller, from Bardet…

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All brakes off on the last climb of the day.

What followed after three climbs was the Col de la Couillole: 15.7 kilometres at 7.1 percent. The ten leaders started with a lead of just under three minutes over a peloton that had been significantly weakened by Van Wilder. At Visma | they played Lease a Bike with Kelderman’s card, with Tratnik setting the pace from the foot. Kelderman remained twelve kilometres from the summit with Carapaz, Mas, Bardet, Johansen and Soler. Among the favourites, INEOS leader Rodriguez had lost it. wolf pack Off quickly, ready to demolish. Was first in the top ten..

He was waiting for the attacks. Mas was in the lead group.Carapaz was the only one who could go with the Spaniard. The favourites really accelerated when Mikel Landa took care of the last ten kilometres. Suddenly, only Pogacar, Vingaard, Evenepoel, Joao Almeida and Jorgenson remained. The American from Visma | And so Lease a Bike managed to do some serious work, with Adam Yates, Gee, Ciccone and Buitrago also at sea after Rodriguez.

Evenepoel was tackled by Vingegaard and Pogacar in the number five seat?

A lot happened in the last six kilometres. Carapaz tried to free Mas, but he didn’t succeed. It was the same in the opposite direction. Their lead over the classification men was only a minute thanks to Landa’s attack in the first half from Evenepoel and then Almeida’s speed for Pogacar. At five kilometres there was still a minute left, the moment when Evenepoel had to start again. It wasn’t hard enough, as Vingegaard observed. The Belgian saved Suddenly he and Pogacar were the only two left.

Pogacar looked like he had a perfect chance to win stage five, but he said no to Vingegaard first. With the gap still half a minute between Mas and Carapaz, the yellow team took over. Evenepoel let the two do it and seemed to be thinking about Sunday’s time trial. He took third. And who would have won on his own? Carapaz and Mass joined the fighting roosters 2.5km from the finish, but Mass was knocked out by Vingegaard’s speed. Three men entering the final kilometre, ready to race? Make that two. Carapaz had to leave after all and Vingegaard forced Pogacar to the front for the sprint. Pogacar started and simply took Vingegaard off the wheel. Five-pack for him!

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Results of stage 20 of the Tour de France 2024

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