![]() ![]() Three pursuers, including Tom Pidcock, chased Pinot to the foot of the Tour’s last mountain, the Col du Platzerwasel. The French rider, who said before the stage that “it would be hard to know these roads better than I do”, led the yellow jersey group, containing Vingegaard, by a minute and a half as he reached the top of the penultimate climb, the Petit Ballon. His lone move was cheered on by thousands of fans, as “Pinotmania” gripped the Vosges. The Ineos Grenadiers rider Rodríguez, bloodied on his left side and on his brow, fought hard to hang on to fourth place but on the final climb was unable to prevent Simon Yates from moving ahead of him overall.Ĭompeting in his last Tour and riding on local roads, Pinot made good his promise to try to win the stage. The stage was marred by a series of crashes, with three riders in the top 10 – Carlos Rodríguez, Vingegaard’s key climbing lieutenant Sepp Kuss and Thibaut Pinot’s co-leader, David Gaudu – among the fallers. Tadej Pogacar crosses the line to win stage 20 but his revival came too late. With Yates leading Pogacar into the final kilometre to set up his stage-winning sprint and his twin brother, Simon, climbing up the classification and claiming fourth overall, the Yates twins ended this Tour very much as they began it in Bilbao, riding together to the finish line. It’s not easy to stay consistent over three weeks and we did a pretty good job.” “I found my level and also it was a good ride as a team. “The team knew I was good and maybe that helped a little with my consistency. “I definitely came in with less pressure, both external and internal,” Yates said of his first podium finish in a Grand Tour. But he was boosted by seeing his UAE Team Emirates lieutenant Adam Yates finish third. Pogacar’s resurgence came far too late to change the status quo, and with one of the biggest victory margins of the modern era, he was beaten overall by 7min 29sec, by a dominant Vingegaard. ![]() Probably, I will try to win it again next year.” “The Tour is the biggest race in the world and it is something special. Not everyone understood our plan, but we understood ourselves and in the end it paid off. “We knew my strengths and we knew how to get the best out of my strengths. I really appreciated the battle I had with Tadej. It was my big goal of the year and once again I must thank my team a lot. Vingegaard said: “I’m very happy to win my second Tour de France. “It was good to feel good again, from start to finish, after many days of suffering.” “I finally feel like myself again,” he said. ![]()
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