The Tour’s final GC standings (before Paris)
The Tour’s final GC standings (before Paris)
Nothing is ever certain at the Tour de France, this year’s in particular. But with no major upsets behind Wout van Aert’s stage 20 win, the top three on GC remains the same and the top 10 is all but decided.
This is how the GC looks now, and this is how it will most likely look in 24 hours. Only a catastrophic dose of bad luck can prevent it.
General classification after stage 20
- Jonas Vingegaard
- Tadej Pogačar +3:34
- Geraint Thomas +8:13
- David Gaudu +13:56
- Aleksandr Vlasov +16:37
- Nairo Quintana + 17:24
- Romain Bardet +19:02
- Louis Meintjes +19:12
- Alexey Lutsenko +23:47
- Adam Yates +25:43
Setting the scene
Despite Tadej Pogačar’s best efforts to crack Jonas Vingegaard in the Pyrenees, just as Pogačar himself was broken in the Alps, the Dane carried what was surely an unassailable margin into the penultimate stage ITT. But no one could be 100% sure, least of all Jumbo-Visma given past experience.
With no pro TT wins to his name, Vingegaard may not be quite as known for his prowess against the clock as his rival, but he’s pretty damn good. He was the best GC rider behind Pogačar in the flat 13.2 km opening TT in Copenhagen and a second faster than teammate and Olympic champ Primož Roglič. More saliently, the Dane was 25 seconds faster than Pogačar in the final TT last year, a pretty flat 30.8 km test in which Vingegaard finished third behind stage winner Wout van Aert.
Granted, Pogačar’s advantage was 5:20 in 2021 so perhaps he wasn’t going full gas in that TT, but when have we ever known the Slovenian to take his foot off the gas?
So, while the gap was always likely to change after the 40-kilometre test, which way it would swing was anyone’s guess. Vingegaard’s race lead, though, was expected to remain intact before the final ride into Paris. And stay intact it did.
Both the top two screamed out of the blocks at the start of the TT, but by the finish in Rocamadour, Vingegaard was second on the stage and Pogačar third, losing eight seconds to his rival. With Geraint Thomas finishing fourth on the stage, the top three on GC finished in the order they’ll dress the podium tomorrow, as David Gaudu consolidated fourth overall.
Making moves
The only moves were made lower down, as expected, with Vlasov overturning a couple of months riddled with bad luck – COVID-19 at the Tour de Suisse, then an early crash at the Tour – with a leap up into the top five.
Romain Bardet also put in a strong performance to finish seventh overall, pushing Louis Meintjes out of the way by just 10 seconds.
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