The Slovenian became the eighth rider to achieve this feat.
read more…
UAE Team Emirates star Tadej Pogacar celebrates his victory on the podium. — AFP
Reuters
Release date: Sunday, July 21, 2024 at 10:42 pm
UAE Team Emirates star Tadej Pogacar won his third Tour on Sunday to become the first rider since 1998 to win both the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France titles, and he proved so dominant by winning the final stage for his sixth stage win.
The Slovenian won by 6 minutes 17 seconds, beating defending champions Jonas Wingegaard of Denmark and Remco Evenepoel of Belgium, who came second and third overall in the final stage.
“I am very happy. Two tough years at the Tour de France, there were always mistakes but this year everything was perfect. I can’t put it into words how happy I am,” Pogacar said.
Pogacar outshone his rivals by winning the 33.7-kilometre individual time trial from Monaco to Nice in 45 minutes 24 seconds, beating two-time Tour winner Wingegaard by just one minute and three seconds.
The winner started the final day with a commanding lead over Vingegaard and could have easily played it safe, but he was ruthless again, starting from the start and chasing a third consecutive stage win to finish the Tour in style.
Eritrea’s Biniam Ghirmay won the green jersey for the points classification, while Ecuador’s Richard Carapaz won the polka-dot jersey for the mountains classification.
Pogacar’s UAE Team Emirates won the team event, while Evenepoel won the stage seven time trial and finished 9 minutes 18 seconds behind the winner, taking the white jersey for the best young rider in his first Tour.
The Tour finished outside Paris for the first time in its 121-year history due to the Olympic Games, and ended with a time trial for the first time since 1989, when Greg LeMond overtook Laurent Fignon on the final day.
However, given Pogacar’s commanding lead and apparent dominance of the race, this should never have been dramatic.
Pogacar had been leading since winning the fourth stage, and extended his lead to more than three minutes with wins in stages 14 and 15, before adding two consecutive wins in stages 19 and 20 to all but secure the overall victory.
Wingegaard came into this year’s event having missed three months of racing after suffering a collapsed lung and broken ribs at the Tour of the Basque Country, but he went on to win a stage despite being unlikely to defend his title.
Vingegaard beat Pogačar to win the 11th stage, then finished second to Pogačar in the 14th stage and overtook Evenepoel for second place.
Evenepoel was chasing another time-trial stage win but was overtaken by Vingegaard at the first intermediate checkpoint, but once Pogacar set off it was clear he was gunning for a stage win to demonstrate his total dominance of the Tour.
No rider has won the Giro and Tour since the late Marco Pantani, but Pogacar also won six stages on his way to victory in the Giro, becoming just the eighth rider to achieve the feat.
“I think this is the first Grand Tour where I felt completely confident every day. I remember in the Giro I had one bad day, but I can’t say which one it was,” Pogacar said.
“This year’s Tour de France was amazing. I had a lot of fun from day one until now.”