Tadej Pogacar wins stage 20 and takes his fifth victory at the summit of La Couillole

The Slovenian once again disgusted his rivals on Saturday to win the final stage of the 111th edition of the Grande Boucle.

Another winner, almost in spite of himself. Tadej Pogacar took his fifth victory in the 2024 Tour de France on Saturday, July 20, at the top of La Couillole on the 20th stage, while he and his team would have clearly been happy to let the breakaway fight for victory. He dominated Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a bike) in the final hectometres, after having dropped Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), the last survivor of the breakaway, one kilometre from the finish.

As he had made clear the day before, the yellow jersey allowed the baroudeurs to take a comfortable lead but ultimately benefited from the work of Remco Evenepoel’s Soudal Quick-Step team to come back within reach of the escapees on the last climb, and suffocate them on the final slopes. He now has a 5’14” lead over his runner-up Jonas Vingegaard, beaten again and who has definitively abandoned the idea of ​​making up his delay. But the Dane consolidated his second place in the general classification by taking 52 seconds back from Remco Evenepoel.

The yellow jersey was nevertheless set to keep its promise. The escapees were able to take off to fight for victory on the descent of the Col de Braus (2nd category, 10 km at 6.6%). A moment chosen by Richard Carapaz, flanked by Romain Bardet (dsm-Firmenich PostNL) who was experiencing his last mountain stage of the Tour, to join the first escapees.

It was the team in the white jersey, Remco Evenepoel, who raised the tone over the kilometres and passes, in the Colmiane (1st category, 7.5 km at 7.1%) then the Couillole (1st category, 15.7 km at 7.1%), in the hope of putting Jonas Vingegaard in difficulty, who was still within reach on the morning of the stage. The Dane never gave up, even allowing himself the luxury of counter-attacking at the right moment to secure second place on the eve of the final time trial. : he now has a 2’50” lead over the Belgian in the general classification.

For his part, Richard Carapaz was able to hope for a second victory but failed in third position behind the two favorites, after his fourth place the day before. The Ecuadorian consoles himself with the white jersey with red polka dots for best climber, which he made sure to keep until the final podium by taking the lead at the top of the Turini and Colmiane passes. Victory was promised to the yellow jersey, lurking in the shadow of his rivals until the last hectometres, where he flew away before signing with his five fingers his victories on the 111th edition of the Tour.