Tour de France 2024

Pogacar crushes the competition on stage 19!

Tadej Pogacar

(Bild: Associated Press)

Top favorite Tadej Pogacar has made a preliminary decision on his way to a third triumph at the Tour de France!

The 25-year-old Slovenian from the UAE team delivered a demonstration of power on the 144.6 kilometers from Embrun up to the Isola 2000 ski resort on Friday and took his fourth stage win in the current Tour of France with his success in the 19th stage. In the overall standings, he extended his lead over Jonas Vingegaard (Visma) to 5:03 minutes.

The Dane was unable to follow his arch-rival Pogacar and crossed the finish line in sixth place, 1:42 minutes behind third overall Remco Evenepoel (Soudal), on the difficult Alpine stage with 4400 meters of climbing. Second place went to the US American Matteo Jorgenson (+21 seconds) ahead of the Brit Simon Yates (+40). Richard Carapaz from Ecuador took the lead in the mountains classification in fourth place.

"I'm super happy that I had good legs today!"
"I'm super happy that I had good legs today," said Pogacar after his 15th Tour stage win. "I look better than ever before." The yellow jersey wearer only has to survive two more days to become the first rider in 26 years to win the double of the Giro d'Italia and Tour. "It's looking good. Tomorrow I will enjoy the stage and hope that nothing serious happens," emphasized Pogacar. He is the strongest, emphasized Vingegaard's sports director Grischa Niermann and added with regard to his protégé. "He is very unlikely to win."

"The disappointment is naturally huge after this day!"
The red-white-red hopeful Felix Gall had to abandon on the penultimate climb and was 12:06 minutes behind in 22nd place. It was a bitter setback in the battle for the top ten on the third-to-last stage, with the Decathlon pro slipping to 14th place. "The disappointment is naturally huge after this day," said Gall. He did not feel good. "I can't say what the reason is. It's just a shame, the team did a great job."

The final section in the high mountains is on the program on Saturday. More than 4700 meters of climbing and four ascents await the riders at the mountain arrival in the Alps at the Col de la Couillole, followed by a hilly individual time trial on Sunday. Vingegaard's last hope for the yellow jersey is a blackout, illness or a crash by Pogacar.

Pogacar controlled the race with his team
On the first of the day's three climbs up the Col de Vars, a nine-man breakaway group broke away, which included Jorgenson and Wilco Kelderman, Vingegaard's two most important helpers in the high mountains. Pogacar and his team controlled the action behind them, with a gap of around four minutes over long stretches. On the second climb, the breakaway group was reduced to six riders. When the peloton also headed for the roof of the Tour, Gall was no longer able to keep up with the leading group.

Over the highest point of the Tour on the Cime de la Bonette (2802 meters above sea level), the 26-year-old East Tyrolean rolled over the peloton with a gap of more than two minutes to the leading riders. Gall, who won the queen stage last year, started the third-last stage in eleventh place overall, meaning that the hoped-for jump into the top ten was a long way off.

On the 16-kilometre final climb, Jorgenson launched an attack for the stage win. Pogacar attacked around ten kilometers before the finish, Vingegaard was unable to follow and stayed on Evenepoel's wheel. The UAE star was out of sight of his rivals in no time at all and finished just ahead of Jorgenson.

The result of the 19th stage:
1st Tadej Pogacar (SLO) UAE 4:04:03 hrs.
2nd Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma +0:21 min.
3rd Simon Yates (GBR) Jayco +0:40
Further:
5th Remco Evenepoel (BEL) Soudal +1:42
6th Jonas Vingegaard (DEN) Visma - same time
22nd Felix Gall (AUT) Decathlon +12:06
30th Gregor Mühlberger (AUT) Movistar +18:05
52nd Marco Haller (AUT) Red Bull +30:13

The standings in the overall standings:
1st Tadej Pogacar (SLO) UAE 78:49:20 hrs.
2nd Jonas Vingegaard (DEN) Visma +5:03 min.
3rd Remco Evenepoel (BEL) Soudal +7:01
Further:
14th Felix Gall (AUT) Decathlon +31:20
54th Gregor Mühlberger (AUT) Movistar +3:07:44 hrs.
81st Marco Haller (AUT) Red Bull +3:41:25