Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) sprinted to victory ahead of Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) atop the Col de la Couillole on stage 20 and marked his fifth victory at this year’s Tour de France. Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), the KOM polka dot jersey leader, came in third at 23 second
Pogačar revealed afterwards that things did not go exactly as planned. “Even though it didn’t go as planned. I was very surprised that the race exploded on the Col de Braus, one of my favorite training passes in this region. But our guys did a great job. We all came together and then Soler got into the breakaway. That was good for us. We then tried to take it as easy as possible to go to the final with a big group. 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. It’s the perfect Tour. 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.”
Vingegaard was hoping for the stage win, but was realistic of his chances. “In a way I was hoping that Tadej would give me the stage win, but I didn’t necessarily expect it. I was already riding hard. If he sprinted, I wouldn’t have had a chance anyway because I was already at my limit. But you can always hope, it’s cycling and that’s how it works. I can’t blame him, I probably would have done the same. I’m already very happy with how I performed today and was able to come back from yesterday, when I had one of my worst days ever on the bike.”
Team manager Merijn Zeeman (Visma | Lease a Bike) praised his riders for doing their best. “There is no disappointment. Sport is sometimes also accepting that someone is better. Pogacar is currently better than we are. Hats off to him and his team. They are simply stronger. The only thing you can do then is keep going for it. I saw a great team. We went for it completely. We tried and if Jonas had felt good enough to attack Pogacar, we could have done it. We had the guys in front, but we could also ride for the stage. I’m very proud of the team, but Pogacar is better. He’s going to win the Tour and hats off to him.”
Evenepoel explained that his team’s tactic was to test Vingegaard. “We tried to put pressure and see if Jonas’s bad day would continue. That was clearly not the case. We gambled and lost, but there is nothing to regret. It is great that we showed this in the last mountain stage. I attacked twice, but you can see that those guys (Vingegaard and Pogacar) are two former winners with a lot more experience. Their engine is so much bigger than mine. I just have to accept that, but I’m very happy that we showed this on the penultimate day and that I never fell through. That’s also reassuring for you, I think. I would like to end this Tour with a stage win. If it doesn’t work out, I will be just as happy. I have to be super proud of what I have done. There were two riders better and they are the winners of the last four Tours. That is no shame.”
Richard Carapaz expressed his satisfaction with his performance in this year’s Tour. “It is a very good Tour for me, a great success. Today I went with the early breakaway because there was still a chance that Tadej Pogacar would win the stage and get enough mountain points to still put me in trouble. I managed to be the first to the top on two climbs along the way. I had good legs today. My condition improved a lot during the race. That’s why I wanted to go for the stage win. I tried to work together with Enric (Mas), but that didn’t go completely smoothly. Then the two strongest riders came back from behind. I tried to hang on, but that was impossible.”
RESULTS
Stage 20: Nice > Col de la Couillole (132.8km)
Results powered by FirstCycling.com
