Jonas Vingegaard poised for Tour de France title as Tadej Pogacar wins penultimate stage
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Jumbo-Visma rider Jonas Vingegaard (in yellow) may have lost stage 20 of the Tour de France to UAE Team Emirates' Slovenian rider Tadej Pogacar (in white) but the Dane is set to win the overall title.
PHOTO: AFP
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LE MARKSTEIN – Defending champion Jonas Vingegaard of Denmark is set to win his second Tour de France title, after keeping a close tab on his main rival and stage 20 winner Tadej Pogacar in the final mountain ride on Saturday.
Two-time winner Pogacar, whose hopes evaporated when he was crushed by Vingegaard in Tuesday’s time trial and cracked in Wednesday’s last Alpine stage, claimed victory on the day after 133.5km from Belfort, outsprinting Austrian Felix Gall for his second stage win in the race.
Overall, Jumbo-Visma’s Vingegaard leads Pogacar by 7min 29sec.. His Team UAE teammate, Briton Adam Yates, is third, 10:56 off the pace.
Italian Giulio Ciccone secured the polka dot jersey for the mountains classification and Belgian Jasper Philipsen is set to win the green jersey for the points classification, providing both cross the finish line in Paris on Sunday.
“After such a hard week, I felt like myself on the bike today. I was feeling great. I tried to go solo, but I could not so it had to be a sprint,” said Pogacar.
The Slovene attacked on the last climb of the day, the Col du Platzerwazel (7.1km at 8.4 per cent), and was followed by Vingegaard and Gall. The trio quickly caught French pair Thibaut Pinot and Warren Barguil and Briton Tom Pidcock.
They dropped the pair before battling it out for the stage win after being rejoined by the Yates twins, Simon and Adam.
Enormously popular local boy Pinot, was riding his last Tour on his training roads with thousands of fans with flags, beers and flares to support him one last time.
He went solo on the ascent to the Petit Ballon, riding as stage leader through roaring fans like a man possessed. Although he did not have the legs to take it all the way to the line, the Groupama-FDJ rider finished seventh.
“I really enjoyed it, I had a big pinch on my heart, it’s the roads where I train, it was crazy,” said Pinot, third in the 2014 Tour de France and the country’s most popular rider.
“I did not think it would move me that much, I feel like I’ve closed a chapter in my history – it’s stronger than I thought,” he added.
The 33-year-old plans to end his career after riding the Giro di Lombardia, the Monument classic he won in 2018. REUTERS
