Key Takeaways: Tour de France Stage 20

Breaking down how yet another brutal mountain stage was won & how it firmed up the overall podium

Amidst the mountainous wilds high above the Côte d'Azur and a world away from the stage start in the glamorous Quartier du Port in Nice, Tadej Pogačar almost reluctantly won yet another mountain stage to further pad his already substantial lead in the overall classification. After closely marking a flying Jonas Vingegaard, who has counter-attacked and ridden clear of an incredibly aggressive Remco Evenepoel, Pogačar sprinted clear to take his fifth mountain stage at this Tour de France and leave no doubt surrounding his status as the sport’s premier talent. Richard Carapaz, who rode clear after an impressive bridge to the early breakaway, was caught and dispatched by the unstoppable Vingegaard/Pogačar freight train inside the final few kilometers but earned enough mountain points along the way to secure a hard-fought KOM Jersey.

Stage Top Five
1) Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) +0
2) Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) +7
3) Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) +23
4) Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) +53
5) Enric Mas (Movistar) +1’07

Polka Dot (KOM) Jersey
1) Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) 127pts
2) Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) 97pts
3) Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) 67pts

Time Select GC Contenders Gained(+)/Lost(-) on the Stage:
Pogačar +0
Vingegaard -11
Evenepoel -1’03
Almeida -1’38
Landa -1’51

Current GC Top Five:
1) Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) +0
2) Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) +5’14
3) Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) +8’04
4) João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +16’45
5) Mikel Landa (Soudal QuickStep) +17’25

Stage 20 Race Notebook

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99.7km-to-go: After yet another hot and fast start, Richard Carapaz, attempting to clinch the KOM jersey, attacks at the top of the day’s first climb (after striking out on the sprint for the last remaining points against Matteo Jorgenson, despite Jorgenson having no need for the points and Pogačar telling everyone cede the point to Carapaz), and pulls an elite group off the front of the peloton with an impressively aggressive descent. After chasing up the ensuing climb, Carapaz successfully closes the one-minute gap and joins the breakaway, which includes Enric Mas.

70.6km: After Pogačar’s UAE team holds the gap to the breakaway at just over four minutes (potentially to keep the gap close enough for Pogačar to contest the stage), Remco Evenepoel’s Soudal-QuickStep team comes to the front to increase the pace, likely in an attempt to set up an attack for Evenepoel to overtake Jonas Vingegaard in second place.

37km: Up front, Carapaz is riding aggressively, surging clear to take KOM points (and seal his win), which is hurting the group's ability to work together and has allowed the gap to drop down to three minutes to the QuickStep-led peloton.

34.2km: With Soudal-QuickStep still on the front, the gap has dropped down to 2’43 after being at four minutes just 8km earlier.

14km: When they hit the base of the final climb (Col de la Couillole), Soudal-QuickStep is still on the front for Evenepoel, but their gap to the breakaways has actually increased out to 2’48.

11.4km: Up front, Enric Mas attacks the breakaways, with only Richard Carapaz able to follow.

7.5km: After Evenepoel’s final teammate, Mikel Landa, hits the front, the GC group is whittled down to just six riders, two from each of the GC podium teams. Interestingly, Evenepoel is the only one of the three following his teammate, which is a sign of just how strong Vingegaard and Pogačar are since they don’t trust their teammates to respond to moves.

7.3km: With the time gap plunging, Carapaz attacks Mas at the front of the race. Considering that Carapaz would win a sprint over Mas if they came to the line together, the wisdom of this move is debatable since their only chance of survival is to share turns and ride as hard as possible.

7km: Evenepoel’s long-awaited attack finally comes, but he sits up after failing to drop Vingegaard on a straight stretch of road. This isn't an ideal situation because he has distanced Landa, and is now stuck on the front without any help from his team.

4.6km: Following another half-hearted attack by Evenepoel, Vingegaard sees an opportunity and counters. Pogačar follows straight away.

4.5km: The wisdom of Vingegaard’s attack versus Evenepoel’s is highlighted when he rides straight into a tight hairpin, which forces him to slow down and sprint straight back out. This stop-start acts as a screen on Evenepoel and allows him to increase his lead due to Evenepoel not being able to increase his speed back up as quickly. Pogačar and Vingegaard set off in pursuit of the leaders, who are roughly a minute up the road.

2.9km: Vingegaard continues pushing at an impressive pace and quickly builds a nearly 20-second lead on Evenepoel and closes in on Mas and Carapaz, who are still attacking despite their best course of action being to sit up and hope to recover enough to latch onto the freight train coming behind.

2.5km-800m: Vingegaard, with Pogačar latched to his wheel and giving occasional half-hearted turns, quickly catches, overtakes, and eventually drops both Mas and Carapaz. The ease at which they do this is stunning, considering that both dropped riders are some of the best climbers in the sport.

200m: After Vingegaard finally forces Pogačar to the front, the race leader winds up and unleashes a devastating sprint from a very long way out while Vingegaard literally shakes his head (it is interesting to wonder how much Pogačar’s decision to shorten his cranks affected his ability to accelerate so suddenly with such a high cadence).

Finish: Pogačar casually crosses the finish line with a seven-second gap on a defeated Vingegaard and 53 seconds on a humbled Evenepoel.

Three Key Takeaways

1) Tadej Pogačar Is Chasing & Making History: The 25-year-old race leader, who will add a third Tour de France overall title to his palmares tomorrow in Nice, has been so dominant at this Tour de France that there is not much left to say to contextualize just how good he is. Instead of a drawn-out description, just consider that on a brutal mountain stage with 4,700m (15,000+ft) of climbing, Pogačar won his fifth mountain stage of this Tour de France without putting an immense amount of work into it.