by Roger Childs
Tadej Pogacar sealed a sensational Tour de France-Giro d’Italia double by winning the stage 21 time trial into Nice. The UAE Team Emirates rider finished the Tour with a sixth stage victory and became the first man to win cycling’s two biggest races in the same year since Italian Marco Pantani in 1998. –BBC Sport 21 July 2024
The Tour de France 2024
Le Grand Départ was from Florence in Tuscany and this year, for the first time, the final section ended not in Paris on the Champs-Élysées, but in Nice.
Most of the 21 stages were in France starting with the latter part of number four. It then moved north to Troyes in the centre of the country, and south via Orleans and Aurillac and Pau, and on into the Pyrenees. From there the150+ bike riders travelled across Provence to the Alps bordering Italy in the east, and ultimately on to the resort of Nice. The north and west of the country didn’t feature this year.
An estimated 12 million spectators watched from the roadside in villages, cities and out in the countryside, and on the sides of mountains along the 3498 km course. Tens of millions around the world watched on television.
Jonas Vingegaard won in 2023 and his great rival Slovenian Tadej Pogacar triumphed in the two previous years. By half way through the 2024 race, it was clear that one of the two would win again this year. The only other close challenger was Belgian rider Remco Evenepoel. Unfortunately Pogacar’s compatriot Primos Roglic crashed out on Stage12 and had to retire.
Pogacar prevails in the mountains and the time trial
The Slovenian steadily increased his lead in the last week because of his strength in the mountains. He won the last two mountain stages and went into the final ride – a time trial of 33.7km from Monaco to Nice – with a lead of over 5 minutes on Vingegaard. Pogacar wanted to show his superiority in the final ride and only a serious crash would deny him first place and his third Tour win.
Out of Monaco the course climbed along the picturesque Riviera coast before dropping steeply into Nice. Pogacar rode very quickly down the final descent with a top speed of 75kph and recovered quickly from one back-wheel wobble.
As expected, the three leading riders in the general classification were first, second and third into Nice, and consequently were the men on the podium for the overall Tour.
- Tadej Pogacar – 83 hours, 38 minutes and 54 seconds
- Jonas Vingegaard – 6 minutes 17 seconds back
- Remco Evenepoel – 9 minutes 18 minutes back.
Other competition winners
Birmian Girmay from Eritrea took the sprinter’s title for the first time and was one of the revelations of the Tour. He is the most successful African and black bike rider ever to take part in the event.
Ecuadorean Richard Carapas was King of the Mountains, 25 points ahead of Pogacar, and Belgian Remco Evenepoel easily won the best young rider (under 23) competition.
Riders will move on to the third of the great European tours La Veulta, which starts in Spain on 17 August. In the meantime, many of them will be highly competitive in the road race and time trial at the Paris Olympics.