Slovenian on the brink of Tour victory

Pogacar also triumphs in last mountain finish

Tadej Pogacar

(Bild: Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Tadej Pogacar has won the penultimate stage of the 111th Tour de France and is on the verge of his third overall victory. The Slovenian won after a crisp 132.8 kilometers from Nice to the Col de Couillole ahead of defending champion Jonas Vingegaard and Richard Carapaz.

Ahead of the final time trial on Sunday over 33.7 hilly kilometers from Monaco to Nice, Pogacar has a 5:14-minute lead over Vingegaard. As on the previous day, Felix Gall was unable to keep up with the best.

In his living room in the hinterland of Monaco, dominator Pogacar was once again untouchable on the final mountain stage. Shortly before the finish, the 25-year-old pulled away from Vingegaard and secured his fifth stage win in this year's Tour of France and 16th stage win overall. "You don't slow down in cycling," said Pogacar with a grin. "If someone had told me before the Tour that it would all happen like this, I wouldn't have believed it. This is out of this world."

Only a crash can prevent Pogacar from achieving the historic double of victories at the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France in the same year, which was last achieved by the deceased icon Marco Pantani in 1998. With his third triumph, he will catch up with Greg LeMond. The record winners with five victories each are Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, Jacques Anquetil and Miguel Indurain. Lance Armstrong was stripped of his seven victories due to doping.

Vingegaard had "a little hope"
However, Pogacar will have to do without the jersey of the best professional climber, which he also held for a long time. The coveted white jersey with the red dots goes to Olympic champion Carapaz from Ecuador. In the battle for second place, Vingegaard increased his lead over the strong time trialist Remco Evenepoel to 2:50 minutes, which will probably be enough. The Dane had hoped for a little pity from Pogacar in the final meters. "I had a little hope that he would let me take the win. I knew that I wouldn't have a chance in the sprint as I was already at the limit," said Vingegaard. He wasn't upset at all: "I probably would have done the same."

Gall in 26th place
Gall had tried unsuccessfully to become part of a breakaway group in a chaotic early phase. At the start of the final climb, the East Tyrolean was unable to keep up with the pace of the group of top riders, eventually finishing in 26th place, 7:11 minutes behind Pogacar. However, Gall made up one place in the overall standings and goes into the final stage in 13th place, 38:41 minutes behind Pogacar. "Last stage, full throttle from the start as expected. I tried to get into the group, but my legs weren't quite up to it. I felt okay at the start, then very bad in between, and I rode my own pace on the final climb," Gall summed up the day.

Before the stage, Vingegaard's Visma team announced that it would refuse access to its radio traffic due to anger at the TV broadcasts. The team argued that team strategies were too often revealed. The British team Ineos also pulled out of the deal. Three employees of the Tour organizer ASO receive the radio traffic of 15 teams and select what is shown during the stage. Normally, the radio messages are shown with a delay of 15 to 30 minutes. The teams receive 5,000 euros for this. This comparatively low sum had also caused disgruntlement.