Tadej Pogačar all but seals Tour de France victory with stage 20 win on Col de la Couillole

Race leader Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) climbed to victory atop the Col de la Couillole on stage 20 of the Tour de France, all but sealing his overall win ahead of Sunday’s final time trial.

A fatigued Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) took second after sticking with Pogačar on the final climb, taking some time on Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) to solidify his position in second overall, but losing another few seconds to his Slovenian rival who is now set to complete the Giro-Tour double.

Third on the day went to Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), who did enough on the final road stage to secure victory in the mountains classification.

After Vingegaard attacked to close in on the remaining breakaway riders, the Dane was little match for Pogačar in the final uphill sprint, with the yellow jersey riding away with ease to take his fifth stage victory of this race.

It was late disappointment for the final breakaway survivors, Carapaz and Enric Mas (Movistar), who were caught in the final 3km after attacking each other up the climb.

A breakaway of 10 riders - Carapaz, Mas, Wilco Kelderman, Jan Tratnik (Visma-Lease a Bike), Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates), Bruno Armirail (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale), Romain Bardet (dsm-firmenich PostNL), Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek), Kevin Geniets (Groupama-FDJ) and Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) - had been away for most of the stage, and it looked like the stage victory could go their way, but once again it was the GC riders who took the honours. 

“I enjoyed it very much,” Pogačar said at the finish. “It didn’t go as we planned, but I couldn’t be happier with that, another stage win, I’m really happy. Just one more day, the time trial. Tomorrow I think I’m going to enjoy as well.”

HOW IT HAPPENED

 The final road stage of the 2024 Tour de France was a short and punchy day at just 133km, but with four categorised climbs packed into the stage, and essentially no road that wasn’t either a climb or a descent for the whole distance.

A small group briefly got up the road in the first 10km, but with the King of the Mountains classification to seal up, EF Education-EasyPost wanted to keep Richard Carapaz in contention onto the first climb. On the Col de Braus, the really tough pace saw the sprinters’ group distanced early, and things split and regroup repeatedly at the front as the yellow jersey group became very selective very quickly. Halfway up the climb, a trio did get off the front, made up of Wilco Kelderman (Visma-Lease a Bike), Bruno Armirail (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) and Enric Mas (Movistar), and they pulled out a lead of a minute. 

In the bunch, UAE Team Emirates attempted to allow Carapaz to take the final remaining mountain point over the top of the climb, but the Ecuadorian was pipped by Visma-Lease a Bike’s Matteo Jorgenson, which put an end to the détente in the group and saw the action kick off again. 

Motivated to secure the next points, Carapaz set off in a chasing group with Jan Tratnik (Visma-Lease a Bike), Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates), Romain Bardet (dsm-firmenich PostNL) and Clément Champoussin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) as the peloton finally let the break build a gap over three minutes, as two chasing groups tried to make the junction.

Around halfway up the Col de Turini, with 82km to go, the Carapaz group joined the leaders, and 8km later the other chasers - Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek), Kevin Geniets (Groupama-FDJ) Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility), Nans Peters (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) and Nelson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) - also made the catch. The pace in the break was tough, though, and Powless, Peters, and Champoussin were soon dropped, leaving a group of 10 in the lead as they started the third climb, the Col de la Colmiane.

Going through the 50km to go mark, the break was four minutes ahead of the bunch, which was being controlled by Remco Evenepoel’s Soudal Quick-Step team. The lead group were putting pressure on each other on the Col de la Colmiane, but without properly splitting up. At the top, Carapaz took maximum points, to all but secure the polka dot jersey. With 35km and the Col de la Couillole still to go, the leaders had a 2:45 gap, making it fairly touch-and-go whether they could survive.

Hitting the final climb, Armirail was the first breakaway rider to drop away, followed by Soler, as Visma-Lease a Bike used their numbers to set a difficult pace. Geniets was the next victim, whilst Soler put in a good ride to pace back onto the group as Stuyven started to struggle.

GC riders continue to battle on the Col de la Couillole 

 In what remained of the peloton, Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers) was being distanced for the second time in the stage, alongside Simon Yates (Jayco AlUla), as the gap to the leaders was ticking down slowly towards two minutes. 

With 11.5km remaining, Mas put in an attack, which only Carapaz and Bardet could match, soon making it three at the front of the race, then two as the Frenchman lost ground quickly. It was now the leading pair versus the yellow jersey group, with only 2:15 separating them with 10km to go.

Behind, Mikel Landa took over pacing duties in the GC group, which blew things apart almost immediately, cutting the group down to just himself and Pogačar, Evenepoel, Vingegaard, Jorgenson and Almeida, and eating into the leaders’ advantage. With 7km to go, Evenepoel put in his first acceleration, but couldn’t really get away from Vingegaard and Pogačar, prompting Almeida to start pacing.

With 5km to go, Mas and Carapaz were just 55 seconds in front of the yellow jersey group, and they were glued together despite attack attempts from both of them. Behind, Vingegaard launched off of an acceleration from Evenepoel to push on, dropping the Belgian but with the yellow jersey stuck to his wheel.

Heading towards the final kilometres, Pogačar and Vingegaard were speeding towards the leaders, and they caught them with 2.5km to go, with Carapaz holding onto the pair the longest before being distanced in the final kilometre. Heading towards something of a sprint, Pogačar took up the race from the front, initially with cagey looks at Vingegaard, but as soon as he accelerated the Dane had nothing left to give, sailing to his fifth victory of this Tour.

Carapaz held on for third behind Vingegaard, whilst Evenepoel conceded 46 seconds to the Visma-Lease a Bike rider, though there is still time for seconds or minutes to change hands between second and third in Sunday’s time trial.

Pogačar now leads the GC by 5:14 over Vingegaard, and 8:04 to Evenepoel. The only changes in the GC top 10 were that Adam Yates swapped with Carlos Rodríguez to move into sixth, whilst Jorgenson did the same leapfrog on Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech) to move into eighth with the Canadian holding onto ninth. 

Results

TOUR DE FRANCE 2024, STAGE 20: NICE > COl de la Couillole (133km) 

1. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates, in 4:04:22
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, +7s
3. Richard Carapaz (Ecu) EF Education-EasyPost, +23s
4. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step, +53s
5. Enric Mas (Esp) Movistar, +1:07
6. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates, +1:28
7. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +1:33
8. Mikel Landa (Esp) Soudal Quick-Step, +1:41
9. Adam Yates (GBr) UAE Team Emirates, +1:43
10. Romain Bardet (Fra) dsm-firmenich PostNL, +1:51

General classification after stage 20

1. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates, in 82:53:32
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, +5:14
3. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step, +8:04
4. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates, +16:45
5. Mikel Landa (Esp) Soudal-Quick Step, +17:25
6. Adam Yates (GBr) UAE Team Emirates, +21:11
7. Carlos Rodríguez (Esp) Ineos Grenadiers, +21:12
8. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +24:26
9. Derek Gee (Can) Israel-Premier Tech, +24:50
10. Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Lidl-Trek, +25:58