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Winner of the penultimate stage, the Dane Jonas Vingegaard seems well on his way to winning the 21st and final stage of the Tour de France which ends on Sunday, at the Champs-Élysées.
Jonas Vingegaard at the gates of victory. The 25-year-old Dane will live Sunday July 24 one of the most important days of his young and dazzling career by winning, barring an improbable turnaround in the 21e and last stage, the Tour de France on the Champs-Élysées.
Nothing seems to be able to prevent Jonas Vingegaard from clinging to his prize list, at 25 and from his second participation in the most prestigious stage race on the calendar.
>> To read on France24: “Tour de France: Vingegaard cracks Pogacar and takes an option on the final victory”
On Saturday, he finished again ahead of his biggest rival, Tadej Pogacar, in the Rocamadour time trial and he has a 3 min 34 sec lead in the general classification over the Slovenian, before the final stage.
Rather than the fight for the general classification, frozen, it is a last contest between sprinters which should animate the 21e stage, a loop to the west of the capital followed by the traditional circuit of the Champs-Élysées.
Since 2005, the Grande Boucle has systematically ended with a massive sprint, perhaps the most prestigious in the world, on the famous Parisian avenue.
The green jersey for van Aert?
The Belgian Wout van Aert, winner of the stage last year, could double the bet and ideally conclude this Tour de France, during which he burst the screen by his versatility, winning in turn the 4e solo stage, the 8e in the sprint and the 20e contested in the form of a time trial.
To his victories, we must also add the yellow jersey, which he wore four days in a row, his coup de force in the ascent to Hautacam, where he dropped Pogacar, and a panache at all times.
From there to consider a destiny of leader of a team? In the meantime, the Belgian has been designated the super-combative of the Tour on Saturday and will win, barring an incident, the green jersey. [du meilleur sprinteur].
Before the final sprint, the 21e stage will be run, as is customary, at a slower pace than usual, and will even look like a parade for the Jumbo-Visma team, who should drink a glass of champagne before the peloton leaves Vingegaard enter first on the Champs-Élysées.
A shaky fifth stage
This honor will crown the supremacy of the Dane, 2e du Tour 2021, and his team throughout the race. From this edition of the Tour de France, we will remember his superiority in the Col du Granon (eleventh stage), at the top of which he won and stole the yellow jersey from Pogacar, never to let go, before confirmation in Hautacam in the Pyrenees (18e stage).
Better in the Alps and in the Pyrenees, Vingegaard finally only experienced a moment of doubt, on the cobblestones of the North of the fifth stage.
“I had a chain problem, I panicked, I changed bikes several times, a lot of stress, admitted the Dane on Saturday. It’s the only time it didn’t happen according to the plan. Everything else went really well.”
His probable final victory also rewards the Jumbo-Visma formation, imperial throughout the race despite several retirements (Primoz Roglic, Steven Kruijswijk, Nathan Van Hooydonck), and victorious six times.
The Dutch collective managed to bend Pogacar, double winner in title, who will undoubtedly experience the first real failure of his young career [le Slovène aura toutefois cette année encore le maillot blanc du meilleur jeune du Tour]. Behind the Dane and the Slovenian, the Welshman Geraint Thomas (Ineos) should complete the podium for the third time after his coronation in 2018 and his second place the following year.
But that the gap between the two prodigies and the rest of the peloton seemed large throughout the Tour…
“The two in front, Pogacar and Vingegaard, are from another generation, they are incredible,” summed up Thomas, who is more than eight minutes behind Vingegaard overall.
Vingegaard, also wearing the polka dot jersey, will be the second rider from his country to appear on the winners’ list of the race, twenty-six years after the controversial Bjarne Riis.
With AFP
