Le Tour Dispatch: Stage 20

The final mountain stage, and indeed the final proper road stage, of the 2024 Tour de France, and the beginning of the race saw jubilant crowds in Nice celebrating the riders as they will once again tomorrow at the end of the time trial, and it all felt a bit, well, weird to say the least.

Look I’m not one of these people who’s against change of any kind, but not finishing the Tour in Paris, and indeed arriving in the finish city a day early only to leave it again feels – strange. But hey, this is the 2024 Tour, it’s a unique and history-making event in so many ways already – let’s just embrace the chaos and we’ll back to watching lines of men in lycra riding their bikes side by side towards Paris like some kind of quirky synchronised novelty act next year. Until then, let’s focus on the final countdown, and today’s stage 20.

With race leader Tadej Pogačar casually announcing in his post-race interview yesterday that he’d just enjoy the stage, and let the breakaway go, it was always going to be a battle to get away, but the battle didn’t proceed in the way anyone expected. Perhaps it was because we’re three weeks deep into the greatest race on earth and everyone’s knackered, and the race route headed immediately uphill, or perhaps it’s because UAE Team Emirates launched off up the road after the early break like they’d been shot out of a gun, but of the riders who did manage to get away early today, not many of them were left by the time we reached the top of the first climb.

What’s that you say? UAE lied to us? Well, to be fair to them, Tadej said what he said in the heat of the moment, flushed with the glow of a job well done and a GC basically put out of sight. In the cold hard light of day, the idea of adding another stage win might not have been such a terrible idea after all. Or what about one for a teammate? Or really, what seemed more likely was the pace of the break just wasn’t high enough to match the rampant march of a team in world-beating form. One by one though, three riders launched themselves clear again, eking out a bit of a gap.

In the end, the rest of the group who had made it away came back together with the GC group as they approached the top of the first climb, and at the behest of their leader, UAE magnanimously let Richard Carapaz through to take what remained of the mountains points. A plan which would have worked, had yesterday’s almost-but-not-quite-winner Matteo Jorgenson not launched himself away from the group to take the final point himself. Bit awkward – but it seems likely the move was more a reaction to UAE’s attempts to exert their authority over the group than anything against Carapaz himself.

In any case, more riders made moves to get across to the leaders, among their number UAE’s Marc Soler – maybe they were just riding to launch him, all along? It seemed that way, and they eased back as the race headed for the Col de Turini, and with a 20km climb ahead, seemed content to let the race unfold ahead of them.

Three groups were on the road ahead of them, the lead trio (Enric Mas, Wilco Kelderman, and Bruno Armirail), a chase group featuring Marc Soler, Richard Carapaz, and Romain Bardet amongst others, and a late group of escapees including Tobias Johannessen, Jasper  Stuyven, and Kevin Geniets.

The first group made contact leaving the second in no-man’s land for a while, but under the head of steam built up by a man normally far more comfortable on the flat land, Jasper Stuyven, the chasing trio made it across the gap to join up with the leaders and form a powerful fighting force that, with more than four minutes advantage, looked as if it may have the capability to go all the way.

One or two fell by the wayside, including local rider Clement Champoussin, who was already dropped when a terribly timed wheel change killed off his chances completely. Every single one of these riders has their own tale to tell of what could have been.

A terrifying descent from the Col de Turini followed with tight technical turns but the riders all made it look easy, or perhaps were taking it within their limits, and that took us to the penultimate climb of the day.

Out in the breakaway, the team with the numerical advantage, Visma-Lease A Bike, tried a couple of attacks, but nothing stuck. Marc Soler went from hanging off the back to launching his own attack, in a characteristically unexpected move (or maybe expected, now), and Bruno Armirail was determined to give it one last shot despite repeatedly losing contact.

Carapaz had already sealed the deal, mathematically, but urged on by his former teammate, Enric Mas, he moved to the front and sprinted across the KOM point to confirm his position as this year's King of the Mountains.

The best laid plans, and all that. Despite saying they wouldn’t chase the break, Pogačar and UAE could hardly ignore the relentless pace-setting of the Soudal-QuickStep team on a mission to try and launch Remco Evenepoel in his bid to perhaps put some time into second-placed Jonas Vingegaard. Mikel Landa in particular climbed like a man possessed and the gap tumbled, as up ahead the breakaway disintegrated, leaving just the two former teammates, Carapaz and Mas, to launch repeated attacks on one another, and behind them Romain Bardet, giving his all to try and keep up at the final time of asking.

Domestiques who had formerly been in the break proved loyal allies on their way back, first Soler then Kelderman spraying water at their leaders (and their rivals, just for fun) as they were caught and passed. And while Carapaz repeatedly tried to shake off a dogged Enric Mas up the road, Remco Evenepoel launched a double attack of his own, but though he gave it his all, it wasn’t enough to shift the Jonas Vingegaard-shaped problem he was trying to get rid of. Instead, Vingegaard launched his own attack, and while Evenepoel couldn’t hang on to the resurgent Dane, of course the maillot jaune could. One more head-to-head battle for the road? Sure thing, but this time, it was Pogačar who went along for the ride, as Jonas proved that he was still on the road to recovery and improving every day, riding strongly all the way to the line to ease the devastation of the previous day somewhat.

It wasn’t enough to take the stage – of course, within sniffing distance of the line there was no way Tadej Pogačar wasn’t going to finish the job, and he took his fifth stage win, and confirmed that he would win his third Tour de France and complete the Giro-Tour double, the first man to do so in 26 years. Chapeau, is all that’s left to say.

FEATURE: The tears of two legends

While their palmares may not stack up evenly, there’s no doubt that, for contrasting reasons, the Tour loses two legends of a generation as it bids an emotional farewell to both Mark Cavendish and Romain Bardet at the end of this edition.

Because of the nature of the race this year, with no celebratory stage in Paris, it became a bit of a confusion over when to celebrate, and when to express the emotion that no doubt will have been building for both men, over the course of the race. Tomorrow may feel like something of an anti-climax, with no summit finish line to heroically climb towards, and no teammates to ride around you as you make the time cut. So it was today, that saw both riders releasing their emotion, and the fans united in their mirrored emotions.

Today both riders finished in ways that characterised their journeys – or at least, the difficult parts of them. Cavendish in his all too familiar position at the back of the bunch, riding over the line a few minutes inside the time cut, surrounded by his teammates, some of whom have been with him in similar moments many a time before. Despite having achieved what he came for, stepping off the race would never have crossed Mark Cavendish’s mind. His 16-year-long love affair with the Tour de France has stood the test of time, and the test to his body of every arduous climb, from Alps to Pyrenees and back again. His outpouring of emotion as he finished stage 20 reflected the years of hard work and sacrifice, coming to an end.

As for Bardet, the glory of his opening stage success seemed a distant memory as his tears of disappointment over today's missed opportunity were mirrored in his words: "It's the story of my career: fighting without ever being the best, but never giving up." With distance, he will hopefully come to view this Tour for what it was: going out on a high. Fighting and losing today, yes, but also crowning his beautiful career with another stage win and even better, a first yellow jersey. A man of class and dignity, Bardet is an inspiration to the young French riders who follow in his footsteps, and indeed, he sees his work as done, as per his brief Instagram post following the stage ‘fin de travaux.’ Here is his post-race quote in more detail.

Two legends of Le Tour – specifically, riders who embraced this race in particular, and were embraced by it. The singular nature of this race and what it means to both of them, goes a long way to explaining how moved they both were, reaching the conclusion of their time there. They will be missed from its climbs and its dramatic finishes, and they will be remembered long into the future. Cav and Romain, we salute you – thanks for the memories.

Stage 20: Monaco - Nice

About tomorrow...

1-1-1 Things of the Tour de France

by Mathieu Fraisse

one food, one fact and one local rider, for every place on edition 111 of Le Tour

1 food: salade niçoise

The name says it all, this salad is from nowhere else than Nice!

It is traditionally made of tomatoes, hard-boiled eggs, Niçoise olives and anchovies or tuna, dressed with olive oil. 

It's usually a first course, typical for provençale and Mediterranean cuisine. But it can be a whole meal, depending on the quantities!

As we are and still will be French, you can accompany your salade niçoise with a glass of rosé wine from Bandol 😏

1 rider: Clément Champoussin

We couldn't end this Tour de France 1-1-1 with a more local rider than Clément Champoussin!

Born in Nice, the last three stages of this Tour de France 2024 must have felt pretty special for the Arkéa-B&B rider.

Pretty quiet during this Tour, Clément couldn't have ended this Tour without being on the breakaway. And that's what he did on today's stage 20.

We all remember Clément's incredible victory on stage 20 of 2021 La Vuelta, where the breakaway he was part of was caught back by the favourite's peloton but he hung tight and attacked the leaders from the back to win in tremendous fashion!

1 fact: FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 1903 THE TOUR DE FRANCE WON'T FINISH IN THE PARIS AREA 😮

STAGE PREVIEW

by Anna McEwen

It is the final stage of the 2024 Tour, stage 21. It really is. We’ve made it guys, we can high-five and give each other well-deserved pats on the back tomorrow, but right now let’s dive in and see what the stage has in store.

Due to a small international sporting event taking place in Paris shortly, we are finishing the Tour a little differently this year. After spending the past two days on gruelling mountain stages, the Tour organisers thought the riders should suffer some more with a 33.6 km ITT from Monaco to Nice, with a perky Cat. 2 climb to get over before the riders can glide into Nice and hang up their cleats for a well-earned rest.

There are a lot of time trial specialists left in the race who will be throwing their all behind a final effort in the tour, including the likes of Stefan Bissegger, Matteo Sobrero, Wout van Aert or Yates (either).  

But after the way he has been climbing this week, Remco is a safe bet, providing he has anything left in the legs. Pogačar will be keen to take win number six. And after his efforts in stage 20, I don’t think it sensible to fully rule out Vingegaard. So no doubt it will be the three usual suspects that are going to provide the fireworks in this Grand Tour finale.

WBR Team Predictions

Mathieu - My honest pick is: most of the riders enjoying the scenic view and some of them even stopping for a cool pic.

Peter - Kelderman to win a race at this level 🙏

Stine - F**k it, I know I said Remco, but I feel like going rogue, Simon Yates

Anna – Heart pic, Matteo Sobrero, the climb is probably a bit much for him but it would be good for someone else to get a moment to shine and I want one more fairy tale before the end of the Tour.

Katy - realism wins the day - Tadej wins his sixth stage

Before you go...

If we can't have the celebrations in Paris, we'll have them here. It's not the same, but it doesn't take anything away from the incredible achievement of Biniam Girmay and his team. They may not have been on the broadcast, as they rode in as part of the day's grupetto, but Intermarché-Wanty were still able to enjoy this beautiful moment, today.

Sometimes, it doesn't seem as if Tadej is taking this racing malarkey all that seriously, does it?

Food for thought from Benji Naesen...

And an excellent stat from Thomas on Twitter:

Until tomorrow, for one final time, au revoir!