All the emotions exploded at the finish line of today’s 20th stage of the Tour de France. Jumbo Visma’s Wout van Aert took the stage win, while teammate Jonas Vingegaard came home in second place, cementing his overall win.
Tadej Pogacar (UAE), Geraint Thomas and Filippo Ganna (INEOS) rounded out the top 5 on the stage.
On the GC, Aleksandr Vlasov of Bora moved into the top 5 and Romain Bardet (DSM) jumped up to 7th. Louis Meintjes (Wanty) took a drop to 8th.
Stage 19 saw Christophe Laporte claim his first plushie on a Tour de France podium to give Jumbo-Visma their fifth victory and the French their first. Can you hear La Marseillaise? The flying French Jumbo Bee jumped to the three man leading group in the last kilometre, then surged in the finale to come over the line with sheer disbelief and joy written large on his face. In a missed opportunity for the fast men, Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) pipped Team DSM’s Alberto Dainese for second place in the bunch sprint. Despite some nervous moments for due echelon action, ill timed mechanicals and yet another protest, the GC remains unchanged. Not that it stopped Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team-Emirates) from trying his luck to grab a few seconds back on the yellow jersey Jonas Vingegaard along the way.
Oh, Switzerland — the wonderful vineyards, the Tuscan roads, and. . . oh, wait. I’ve mistaken Switzerland for Italy again, haven’t I? Well, it doesn’t really matter where the race is, right? I mean, most riders can’t tell you where they are the morning of the race. What is important to know is that Mr. Magnificent, Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), won stage 8 of the Tour de France decked out in green. Michael Matthews of BikeExchange-Jayco took second place (again) and man-crush Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) delighted us once more with his antics, placing third.
The general classification remained largely unchanged with Pog snatching an additional four bonus seconds at the line. His competitors really ought to do something about him.