Tour de France: Tadej Pogačar punctuates third GC title with dominant stage 21 win in Nice

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The 2024 Tour de France may have drawn to a close in the unfamiliar climes and format of a time trial in Nice. However, the race’s final stage winner was anything but, with Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) sealing his third overall Tour victory with his sixth triumph of this edition.

The Slovenian, the last man down the start ramp in Monaco, blitzed the hilly course at an average speed of 44.521 kph to record a closing time of 45:25, 1:02 up on second-placed man Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike).

In line with the GC result of this year’s Tour, the podium was rounded out by world time trial champion Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep). The Belgian was quickest at each checkpoint along the way before Vingegaard and Pogačar each went quicker. He’d end his day with a time of 46:38, 1:14 down on the yellow jersey.

Pogačar flew out of the gates to start the 33.7km test, setting the quickest times at both the first and second checkpoints atop the climbs of La Turbie and the Col d’Eze, the latter at 24 seconds up on Vingegaard. His pace didn’t let up on the downhill run towards Nice, where he stretched his lead over his great rival to a yawning 1:03 before capping a dominant three weeks in France with the final run into Nice and his 17th career Tour stage win.

“I’m super happy. I cannot describe how happy I am after two hard years in the Tour de France. Always some mistakes and this year everything to perfection. I’m out of words, so I’m super happy to win here, incredible," Pogačar said at the finish.

“I think this is the first Grand Tour where I was totally confident every day. Even at the Giro I remember I had one bad day, but I won’t tell which one. This year, the Tour was just amazing. I was enjoying it from day one until today and I had such great support behind me. I just couldn’t let anyone down, so I was enjoying it for them as well.

“I started with a good vibe in Monaco. It was a really lovely start on the Formula 1 grid, one of the best circuits in the world. At first, I was listening to the time gap to Remco – I didn’t have any other time gaps, but in the end I felt super good over the top of the first climb. Then in my head I heard Urška’s sentence that she hates me for doing these roads in training all the time. We did it so many times this year so I was like ‘I will not waste the preparations for today’.

“It’s incredible. I would never have through about this,” he said of his Giro-Tour double. “Maybe for some people would think the Giro was a safety net if I didn’t succeed at the Tour de France. For such it would’ve been – if I didn’t win here, it would’ve been an incredible year already, but to win the Tour is another level and to win both together is another level above that level. I’m super happy and really proud that we did it.

“Next, Van der Poel looks really good in the world champion’s jersey, but I want to take it from him this year. But we’ll see. I want one time to have the rainbow jersey on my back, but I still have time for that.”

The result, another display of dominance from easily the best rider at this year’s Tour, of course brought no change at the top of the general classification. Pogačar wins the 2024 Tour with a total time of 83:38:56, 6:17 up on Vingegaard, and 9:18 up on the debutant, third-placed Evenepoel.

There’d be very little change in the remainder of the top 10, too, with Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) in sixth easily defending his sixth overall – just one second – from Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers).

Above him, the fifth-placed man on the day João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) and seventh-placed Mikel Landa (Soudal-QuickStep) rounded out the top five.

Further back, Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) – fourth in Nice at 2:08 down – and the impressive Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech) – 2:31 down – held eighth and ninth overall. 

In the battle for the final spot of the Tour’s top 10, Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) came out victorious, managing to overhaul a 22-second deficit to Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek).

How it unfolded

The final stage of the 2024 Tour de France brought the riders an unfamiliar last-day challenge – a time trial, for the first time since that famous Greg LeMond-Laurent Fignon battle in 1989.

This time, the race headed west from Monaco to Nice, taking in a 33.7km course over the climbs of the second-category La Turbie (8.1km at 5.6%) and part of the Col d’Eze before the long descent into Nice.

The 141 riders were spread out over four hours of start times, with the battle for the lanterne rouge the first story of the day. Astana Qazaqstan teammates Davide Ballerini and Mark Cavendish were the first men out, the pair separated by 1:03 in the GC at over six hours down on Pogačar to start the day.

At the top of La Turbie, Cavendish had shed 17 seconds to Ballerini, and fell a further 12 seconds back on the Col d’Eze. The lanterne rouge beckoned at the third checkpoint, with Cavendish lying 1:17 down before he crossed the line to close out his final Tour de France in last place with a time of 54:38, 1:48 down on the Italian.

Out on course, French climber Lenny Martinez (Groupama-FDJ) was tearing it up, putting two minutes into everyone over the hilly first section of the course to eventually take the hot seat as the only rider under 50 minutes with a time of 48:24.

The climbs that filled the early part of the time trial put paid to most of the early runners’ hopes of a good time – of course, they all started early due to how much time they had lost on the climbs. Matteo Vercher (TotalEnergies) was the only other rider among the first 40 to even get under 51 minutes, finishing with a time of 50:46.

Starter number 42, Raúl García Pierna (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) edged under the 50-minute barrier with a time of 49:57. The Spaniard’s teammate, stage 2 winner Kévin Vauquelin, was another to put in a strong effort with a time of 49:22. Another stage winner, Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Dstny), was the next man to take over second place, shedding just 14 seconds to Martinez to finish with a time of 48:38.

In the end, Martinez would sit in the hot seat for 77 minutes, only dislodged by a top ride from one of the Astana survivors, Harold Tejada. The Colombian, fifth on the Tour’s opening day, raced into first with a time of 48:15, nine seconds up on the young Frenchman.

By that point, the day was already looking ahead to the climbers and GC men at the end of the start order, though riders including Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s Matteo Sobrero (49:19), EF Education-EasyPost’s Neilson Powless (49:09), and Groupama-FDJ’s Quentin Pacher (48:59) all put in good rides in the meantime.

The GC Contenders

It was only towards the end of the day, with the attempts of those riders clustered towards the top of the overall standings, however, where the time of Tejada would come under major threat.

After almost two-and-a-half hours in the hot seat, the Colombian would watch as the likes of Evenepoel, Vingegaard, and Pogačar set out to begin their runs.

12th-placed man Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla) enjoyed the quickest start of those riders on the fringe of the top 10, setting out with the second-best time up La Turbie at 21:43, though Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech) soon topped the timesheets there, eight seconds up on Martinez on 21:13.

Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) – under no threat from Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers) a second behind him – and Mikel Landa (Soudal-QuickStep) both came within half a minute of Gee’s time there, though as the podium trio sped through, that benchmark was blown out of the water.

First, it was Evenepoel who went top with a time of 20:36, 37 seconds up. Two minutes later, Vingegaard’s time of 20:17 saw him go 19 seconds quicker. Then came Pogačar, quicker again at 20:10, seven seconds up.

Further up the road at the Col d’Eze, Gee was still quickest, his time of 30:17 six seconds up on Martinez and 11 up on Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), who started the day 24 seconds up in the GC.

At the second checkpoint, the pattern of the first was repeated as Evenepoel sped through, now 46 seconds up on Gee. Vingegaard, going quicker, came over the line 27 seconds up with a time of 29:03. Pogačar, meanwhile, had put even more time between him and his rivals for the win, now 24 seconds up on the Dane with a time of 28:39.

Checkpoint three, coming at the bottom of the descent of the Eze, brought a turnaround at the top of the provisional standings as Jorgenson overturned his deficit to Gee, crossing the line with a time of 41:37, now 21 seconds up on the Canadian.

Evenepoel’s time of 40:57 was the first under 41 minutes at the third checkpoint, but not the last as Vingegaard clocked a time of 40:33, having shed three seconds on the way down. Pogačar, meanwhile, wasn’t losing time to anyone, coming through with a time of 39:28 – now a massive 1:04 clear of the rest.

As the GC men came home to round out their Tours, Gee secured a top 10 overall on his debut with the provisional top spot, finally dethroning Tejada. His time of 47:56 would only last two minutes as the quickest, however, with Jorgenson defending eighth overall at a time of 47:32.

The US rider wouldn’t celebrate the stage win, though, as the big three were still out on the course, blasting along the flat run into Nice.

At the line, the story for the podium trio was the same as it had been at the three checkpoints earlier on the stage. Evenepoel top at 46:38, Vingegaard quicker again at 46:27, and then Pogačar – unbeatable – at 45:25.

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