A stage that summed up this Tour de France, and more generally this era. The sort of à bloc racing from a generation who never knew life pre-good internet, and now provide sports entertainment befitting the times.
Many in the peloton will commiserate the lack of breakaway opportunities this race, of hopes, dreams and sponsor value crushed under the power, anxiety and psychological tug of war that has unfolded in this latest three-week epic around France.
“I really enjoyed this day even though it didn’t go as planned,” the yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar said after taking his fifth stage win this Tour on the final road stage. “I was very surprised that the race exploded on the Col de Braus, one of my favorite training passes in this region.”
Familiar roads were then greeted by an unfamiliar race situation, with Remco Evenepoel’s Soudal-Quick Step taking the pace up despite Pogačar’s desire to have an easier day. That’s forgetting the rider wedged in between the yellow and white jersey, Jonas Vingegaard, whose second place was only a couple of minutes away from Evenepoel, a challenge too enticing to avoid with tomorrow’s time trial promising extra potential gains for the ITT world champion.
“We then tried to take it as easy as possible to go to the final with a big group,” Pogačar continued. “But Soudal-Quick Step wanted to try to gain some time on Jonas, I think. Or to win the stage. That played into my hands.”
Evenepoel eventually launched up the final Col de Couillole, trying to dislodge the Dane a couple of times unsuccessfully, before Vingegaard would prove he is still very much one half of the Tour de France 2020s duopoly, countering and dropping Evenepoel, while Pogačar would ease away before the finish and finally show us all five fingers on his hand, as he did at the Giro d’Italia, to seal the most stage wins taken by the Tour’s overall winner since Gino Bartali’s seven in 1948.
“We gambled and lost but there is nothing to regret,” Evenepoel said afterwards to Sporza. “We tried to put pressure and see if Jonas’s bad day would continue. That was clearly not the case … It is great that we showed this in the last mountain stage.”
More intriguingly, over Evenepoel’s valiant attempt to squeeze himself between this rivalry for the ages, was the thought that crossed Vingegaard’s mind that maybe Pogačar might gift the Dane a consolation stage victory.
“I mean in some kind of way I was hoping he would give it to me,” Vingegaard said post-stage, “but I knew already I’d been riding so hard that if he sprinted I would have no chance as I was already on my limit. But you can always hope, it’s cycling, that’s how it is. I don’t blame him at all, I would probably do the same. I’m just happy with how I performed today and how I could come back from yesterday.”
A gift after a 2024 season where Pogačar has won exactly 24% of all Grand Tour stages so far would have been perplexing, but likely driven the new narrative to even more rarefied air. Instead, with Vingegaard’s determination to race until the final kilometre, Pogačar is left marvelling at his main rival, severely hampered in the run-in to this race, and likely already both relishing and fearing a counter-offensive of the ilk he launched this year on dossard number 1.
“He is a real fighter,” Pogačar said of Vingegaard. “He gave everything today, he rode very well and was very strong.”
Time will tell whether Pogačar seeks a sixth stage victory in the closing TT. He may decide to start the party a bit early, at least in terms of being able to soak in what he’s achieved when setting off from his home in Monaco to a finish line where his first Tour de France pedal strokes were taken in Nice five years ago in 2020.
“Five stages is more than enough,” Pogačar said, detailing the limits of his appetite. “One would have been enough, or just the yellow jersey. But it is what it is, you don’t hit the brakes in cycling. Do I still want to win tomorrow? We’ll see, if I have really good legs … But above all, I have to arrive safely in Nice. It’s a pretty dangerous time trial. Maybe I can enjoy the audience a bit more.
“It’s the perfect Tour,” he continued. “If you had said this beforehand, I wouldn’t have believed it. It’s out of this world. I’m so happy. I hope I can celebrate this victory with my teammates today and tomorrow.”
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