05:22 PM
Merckx-like Pogacar seals back-to-back Tour de France titles
Having completed the stage safely Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) has sealed the second Tour de France title of his short career. It may not have been the most exciting battle in the general classification after the 22-year-old all but put that race to bed on the road to Le Grand-Bornand two weeks ago, but it was a victory befitting of a rider that has been mentioned an awful lot lately.
Mark Cavendish may be taking all of the headlines after winning this stage today on the Champs-Élysées to break Eddy Merckx’s stage win record at the Tour, but Pogacar has just done something the Belgian did not do and has won three classification jerseys in his first two outings at the race. At times it looked as if Pogacar was toying with his rivals, particularly in the mountain stages earlier this week. Little wonder he has been described as a modern-day Cannibal.
It was an excellent coming-of-age performance, too, from
Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), the young Dane who arrived as a support rider for Primoz Roglic but will now leave as the Slovenian’s heir apparent. Anybody who has been paying attention to cycling over the last year will have known his name before the Tour, but few will have really understood the depth of his talents. They will now.
A strong climber who is able to not only hold the wheels of the best in the world, but also attack, and a rider who can also time trial. Jumbo-Visma will have been hugely disappointed when Roglic abandoned after one crash too many, but in Vingegaard they have unearthed a huge talent and, possibly, a future grand tour winner.
Richard Carapaz and his Ineos Grenadiers team may feel disappointed having failed to win a single stage, but the Ecuadorian was only rider who consistently stood up to Pogacar, facing the challenge head-on from the moment the eventual Tour champion attacked on the road to Le Grand-Bornand. True, he fell short and ultimately had to settle for third, but at least he gave it a decent crack. In the end the best climber and the strongest all-round stage cyclist won the race, that’s kind of how the Tour works.
After winning the Giro d’Italia in 2019 and finishing as runner-up at last year’s shortened Vuelta a España to Roglic, Caparaz’s third place means the 28-year-old has just joined a select group of riders who have taken podium places in all three grand tours.
In addition to taking home his second yellow jersey as overall winner, Pogacar also won the polka-dots in the mountains classification – a competition often referred to as the ‘king of the mountains’ – after taking 40 points atop the hors catégorie summit finishes of Col de Portet and Luz Ardiden during stages 17 and 18.
The third jersey Pogacar won was the white jersey as the best young rider. Which really needs no explanation, he was not only the best young rider and the best in the mountains but the best overall. It was, almost, a clean sweep from the prodigiously talented rider which is either a magnificent achievement, or hugely depressing, but I’m not here to judge – you can do that in the comments below!
05:21 PM
Van Aert wins stage 21 at the Tour
WVA wins
05:19 PM
1km to go
These riders are absolutely flying now. Seconds away from discovering the stage winner.
05:18 PM
2km to go
Cofidis and BikeExhange are riding on the opposite side of the road to Deceuninck-Quick Step and lead them slightly, but it’s marginal.
05:17 PM
3km to go
Nervous times.=Can Mark Cavendish win this stage?
05:16 PM
4km to go
Mark Cavendish is shifting up the pack after team-mate Julian Alaphillipe peels off, his day done.
05:15 PM
5.5km to go
Around the Arc de Triomphe for the final time. It will be a very fast downhill run down the back straight. Xandro Meurisse is drilling it in the front for Alpecin-Fenix who will be hoping Jasper Phulipsen can challenge for the stage.
05:14 PM
6km to go
Nils Pollitt attacks, but the German is closed down by Kasper Asgreen
05:13 PM
7km to go | One lap to go
Brent Van Moer, Ide Schelling and Michael Valgren are hanging in there, but the blue train of Deceuninck-Quick Step is closing in, The man they call El Tractor pulling hard.
05:09 PM
10km to go
André Greipel’s team-mates are getting involved up near the front, but it is the world champion Julian Alaphilippe who is now pulling on the front for Deceuninck-Quick Step in an effort to rein in Franck Bonnamour. Brent Van Moer, Ide Schelling and Michael Valgren still lead, but is has dropped to around 15sec.
05:07 PM
11.5km to go
B&B Hotels p/b KTM team-mates Franck Bonnamour and Cyril Gautier clip off the front, the Frenchmen doing their best to cause an upset.
05:06 PM
12.5km to go | Two laps to go
Deceuninck-Quick Step, DSM and Alpecin-Fenix are all riding on the front of the chasing group, measuring their efforts as the wait to reel in the three-man breakaway.
05:04 PM
15km to go
The three-man breakaway is holding onto a narrow lead by its fingertips: just 22sec.
05:00 PM
17.5km to go
Tim Declercq – who else? – is riding on the front of the peloton which trails the three-man breakaway of Brent Van Moer, Ide Schelling and Michael Valgren by 24sec.
04:58 PM
20km to go | Three laps to go
Mark Cavendish has Deceuninck-Quick Step team-mates surrounding him – Tim Declercq and Julian Alaphilippe are a few wheels forward, while his right-hand men Davide Ballerini and Michael Morkov are in front of him, shielding him from any wind.
04:54 PM
22.5km to go
Sitting and waiting as Brent Van Moer (Lotto-Soudal), Ide Schelling (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Michael Valgren (EF Eductaion-Nippo) gain a few second on the peloton, but their lead is just 22sec which can disappear in a nanosecond once the sprint trains of Deceuninck-Quick Step, Alpecin-Fenix and DSM kick into action.
04:49 PM
27.5km to go | Five laps to go
André Greipel is spotted riding down the Champs-Élysées, but no idea where he was in the group. I’m assuming not at the pointy end of proceedings.
04:47 PM
30km to go
Brent Van Moer, Ide Schelling and Michael Valgren now lead and have just a few seconds on the peloton as it re-emerges out of the tunnel down by the Place de la Concorde.
04:44 PM
32km to go
As the Champs-Élysées drags slightly uphill, a flurry of riders attempt to attack off the front, but world champion Julian Alaphilippe is all over every move for his Deceuninck-Quick Step team-mate Mark Cavendish.
04:41 PM
34km to go | Five laps to go
Harry Sweeny takes a look over his left shoulder, the pleoton looming close behind. Tadej Pogacar give the TV cameras the thumbs up and the French air force fly overhead letting out plumes of red, white and blue smoke.
04:38 PM
Cavendish looking good for green
For Michael Matthews to win the green jersey he must win this stage and hope Mark Cavendish does not finish in the top seven.
04:36 PM
37.5km to go
As a result of the injection in pace put in by those sprint teams chasing the points at the intermediate, the three-man breakaway’s advantage has dropped to just 22sec.
04:34 PM
40km to go
Mark Cavendish is absolutely glued to the wheel of Michael Morkov, his leadout man and a key part in the Deceuninck-Quick Step blue train that again and again delivers their sprinters to the line. Cavendish wins the intermediate sprint with the ease of a man at the absolute top of his game.
04:31 PM
42km to go
Patrick Konrad (Bora-Hansgrohe) has replaced Casper Pedersen (DSM) in the three-man break, the Austrian road champion having joined Stefan Bissegger (EF Education-Nippo) and Harry Sweeny (Lotto-Soudal) up the road. That trio leads by 30sec, nothing for Mark Cavendish et al to worry about just yet.
04:27 PM
45km to go
Deceuninck-Quick Step are sat up near the front of the peloton, as are BikeExchange who will be thinking about the points on offer at the intermediate sprint that comes with 40km of the race remaining. Remember, if Michael Matthews is the only rider who can mathematically beat Mark Cavendish in the points classification providing the Briton finishes this stage within the time limit.
04:21 PM
50km to go
A small three-man group clipped off the front, but it was marked out by Deceuninck-Quick Step before another three riders – Stefan Bissegger (EF Education-Nippo), Casper Pedersen (DSM) and Harry Sweeny (Lotto-Soudal) – counter-attack.
04:17 PM
54.2km to go | Eight laps to go
Tadej Pogacar and his squad of UAE Team Emirates support riders roll over the finishing line for the first of eight times today. Up towards the Arc de Triomphe, round the back of the old monument, then back down the other side of the Champs-Élysées before looping arond at the bottom and then re-entering the finishing straight off the Place de la Concorde
04:14 PM
56km to go
Through the Louvre Museum the peloton goes, as you do, as the get nearer and nearer to the Champs-Élysées when we will start to see some action as the pace winds up over eight laps.
04:10 PM
Froome – aka Mr Nice Guy – wins award
According to the Tour de France website, Chris Froome has been handed the award for being “the nicest and most polite rider of the Tour de France” by the televission crew that follows and broadcasts the race,
“Merci beaucoup, thank you. The support this year has been fantastic, out on the roads. Even though I’ve been suffering a lot this Tour, it’s been a pleasure to be here,” Froome politely said in response before adding that he hopes to return in 2022.
04:04 PM
62.5km to go
Not too far from the Champs-Élysées now, UAE Team Emirates have moved up to the front of the field, riding in formation ready to hit the famous old cobbled boulevard where they will, one suspects, show the maillot jaune off to the waiting fans on what looks like a beautiful afternoon in Paris.
03:56 PM
Where (van) Aert thou?
While much of the pre-stage focus has centred around Mark Cavendish, it is probably worth remembering that there are others that could win today. Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), who has won a mountain stage and yesterday’s time trial would complete the set if he were to triumph on the Champs-Élysées later on today. Cobbles, a slighter longer finishing straight – the line has been moved back 300 metres from where Cavendish won his four previous stages in Paris – may play into the hands of the Belgian. Van Aert may, however, struggle given that half of his team have already gone home.
03:42 PM
75km to go
There are plenty of riders still chatting away in the peloton as it inches around Versailles. Deceuninck-Quick Step have moved their riders towards the head of the pack, clearly in no mood to allow Mark Cavendish to become unstuck by a moment of misfortune should there be any late spills on the approach to the centre of Paris.
03:38 PM
Greipel ready to bow out
German fastman Rick Zabel, whose father Erik finished third on the day when Mark Cavendish won his first Tour de France stage in Châteauroux back in 2008, has been riding along with compatriots Nils Politt (Bora-Hansgrohe) and André Greipel (ISN). Greipel, who won this stage on Champs-Élysées in 2016 and has an incredible 11 Tour de France stage wins on his palmarès, is retiring at the end of the season, as he announced on Saturday.
What a story that would be if Greipel were able to go head-to-head with his old adversary and sparring partner Cavendish.
03:26 PM
Missing you, wish you were here . . .
. . . or maybe not. There was a nice moment a few minutes ago when the three remaining Slovenians in the race, Matej Mohoric (left), Tadej Pogacar (centre) and Luka Mezgec moved to the front of the slow-moving field of riders before the champion elect whipped out the departed Primoz Roglic’s race number. Roglic, of course, abandoned ahead of stage nine having crashed one time too many which was both a shame for him and the race.
03:19 PM
Final checks
Ever the perfectionist, Mark Cavendish had yet another close look at his bike ahead of the start of today’s stage. With the possibility of a fifth stage win at this year’s Tour today, the sprinter will not want any mechanical issues on his Specialized Tarmac.
03:11 PM
Bjerg adds some pennies to the pot
In case you were wondering, Mikkel Bjerg was the UAE Team Emirates rider who took the single point on offer in the mountains classification atop the côte des Grès. The former under-23 world time trial champion, a little theatrically, rolled off the front before celebrating wildly having opened his account on the mountains classification and adding €300 to the team’s bulging prize pot.
03:06 PM
Super Franck!
Franck Bonnamour (B&B Hotels p/b KTM), the 26-year-old Frenchman who will complete his first ever grand tour this afternoon, has hugely impressed over the last three weeks. There have been very few soft breakaways in this year’s Tour and Bonnamour managed to regularly get into them. He managed four top-10 finishes, but was unable to take a stage win. It was not all for nothing, though, and was named super combative rider of the Tour.
02:55 PM
101.5km to go
The entire UAE Team Emirates squad is fanned out across the road – Mikkel Bjerg, Rui Costa, Davide Formolo, Marc Hirschi, Vegard Stake Laengen, Rafal Majka, Brandon McNulty and Tadej Pogacar – dressed in their special one-off Tour de France winning jerseys, as they head up the final climb of the race, the côte des Grès.
02:48 PM
Fuglsang a non-starter today!
Jakob Fuglsang (Astana-Premier Tech) was a non-starter. His team tweeted that the Dane had been feeling unwell following Saturday’s time trial and with the Olympics on the horizon – the men’s road race ins next Sunday – he has decided to rest up and skip today’s stage.
02:43 PM
106.5km to go
Each of the jersey wearers – Tadej Pogacar, Mark Cavendish, Woet Poels and Jonas Vingegaard – have been chatting away to each other on the front of the slow-moving peloton. Must say, you have to feel for Poels who put so much into winning the mountains classification and now, having missed out to Pogacar who won the summit finishes of Col de Portet and Luz Ardiden during stages 17 and 18 to seal the deal, has to wear the jersey on behalf of the Slovenian.
02:40 PM
And they’re off!
Race director Christian Prudhomme has, for the last time at this year’s Tour de France, popped his head out of his shiny red Skoda and dropped his flag to signify that it is time to start racing … but nobody has attacked! That’s right folks, welcome to the final stage of the Tour which is, broadly speaking, a processional spin to Paris.
We can expect lots of celebratory photographs and high jinx from the riders who may have wolfed down too much Haribo on the train journey up from Saint-Émilion this morning. But do not let all that put you off following the ‘action’. There will be a race once the peloton reaches the Champs-Élysées when, after eight laps of the old cobbled boulevard, we are expecting a sprint finish at around 6pm.
02:28 PM
Afternoon all
It is a lovely afternoon out in France, the crowds are out in big numbers and the peloton is ambling along at a leisurely pace as it heads through the neutralised section of the stage.
02:15 PM
Merckx backing ‘deserving’ Cavendish for stage win record
Belgian legend will have no regrets if sprinter writes him out of history books on Champs-Élysées today, writes Tom Cary
There was a lovely moment in the Tour village in Mourenx on Friday morning when Eddy Merckx was being interviewed on stage, in the middle of the velodrome that bears his name following his epic stage win there in 1969. Asked about a certain Tour stage win record which he now jointly holds, he left his audience in no doubt about what he hoped might happen later that day.
“I hope he wins 35 to stop me being asked about it,” the Belgian said, smiling. “He deserves to. He is a great champion.”
Merckx has frequently been depicted during this race as being rather mean-spirited and ungracious about the prospect of Mark Cavendish surpassing his Tour stage wins record. His various observations when asked about it – pointing out that he also won five yellow jerseys in his career, or that he spent “2,800km in front, [whereas] Cavendish did that for six seconds” – have resulted in numerous memes and jokes at ‘The Cannibal’s’ expense.
“If Merckx was on @Strava, he’d be the guy flagging everything and calling Strava’s customer support twice a week,” observed former pro Phil Gaimon on Twitter.
“Breaking: Eddie [sic] Merckx says his team hotels were raided three times during his career and that getting your hotel raided was much harder in his day,” was another sarcastic tweet from @JournalVelo, gently mocking Merckx in the wake of the Bahrain Victorious police raid in Pau earlier in the week while also indirectly reminding us that Merckx had three doping violations in his career.
All of which may be true. Merckx is (justifiably) proud of his record. And he did get caught up in three doping controversies. Let the record show, though, that the 76-year-old has also been perfectly happy to lavish praise on Cavendish.
In the fullest interview he has given during this race, to the Belgian journalist Stephane Thirion, of Le Soir, Merckx was fascinating about Cavendish’s punctilious nature when the Manxman stayed at his house in Belgium during his first stint at Deceuninck-Quick Step. “He was the only one who cleaned his room and left it tidy,” Merckx recalled. “A gentleman of exemplary manners.”
Merckx added that Cavendish might well be the greatest sprinter in cycling history and that he would have no qualms should the British rider surpass his stage record in this Tour. “On the contrary,” he said. “Why would I? I sleep very well, thank you. I don’t have nightmares [about it]. I’ve never been that bothered by numbers; the history of cycling evolves and follows its own course.”
The truth is Merckx was simply stating the blindingly obvious when he spoke about winning five yellow jerseys and stage victories over all types of terrain. He also won six further grand tours, every monument at least twice, and the Hour Record, in a career in which he racked up over 500 wins in total. That record will never be surpassed. The Belgian is a legend of the sport.
And so is Cavendish. Some fans were left aghast when video footage emerged on social media on Friday night of the 36-year-old throwing a temper tantrum before the start of stage 19.
Clearly unhappy with the set-up of his bike, Cavendish berated an unfortunate QuickStep mechanic, in full view of fans, before storming on to his team bus shouting obscenities.
It was not a good look. But can anyone say they were really surprised? Cavendish has always been like this. Like Merckx, he is obsessed with winning. Restless. A perfectionist. Quick to anger. Highly strung. Emotional. He can act abominably. He can be kind and thoughtful. He is a complex, fascinating character.
He is also nearing the end of his first grand tour in years, and is clearly feeling the pressure, knowing the eyes of the world are on him.
That does not excuse his behaviour on Friday, but it does help to explain it – and why he has a chance of achieving a record 35th Tour stage win on the Champs-Élysées on Sunday.
Some might say that four stage victories and (in all likelihood) the green jersey, a decade after he last won it, is more than enough. That Cavendish should be thankful for what he has already got. Why, they may ask, is he so stressed out? Was it not only eight months ago that he was on the scrapheap?
But that fails to allow for the fact that riders such as Cavendish, such as Merckx, are wired differently from normal human beings. They are driven in a way most of us cannot comprehend. It is what separates the greatest from the merely great. Cavendish may have 34 stage wins, he may already have achieved one of the greatest comebacks in sporting history. But he wants more. Desperately.
Merckx, to be sure, recognised a kindred spirit at the start on Friday. “I hope you win the stage today,” he said as he embraced Cavendish before the start. It did not happen then, but Cavendish will have one last shot on Sunday. The stage is set.
07:15 AM
Bonjour!
Hello and welcome to our rolling blog from the Tour de France’s final stage, the 108.4km ride from Chatou to the Champs-Élysées in Paris.
Three weeks after setting of from Brittany and having put 3,306km into their legs, for one last day the tired and weary peloton will cock its collective leg over 142 top tubes for one more day of riding. And for some, one last day of racing. With the general, mountains and youth classifications all but sealed up – all Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) needs to do to take home all three for a second year running is finish the stage within 5min 20sec of second-placed Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) and also within the time limit – the focus today will centre around both the points classification and a certain British sprinter who if he wins will set some sort of record.
For the final time at this year’s Tour, here’s a quick reminder of who will be what what as respective leader in each of the four main classifications – in other words those that officially hold jerseys. The aforementioned Pogacar will have the maillot jaune, the leader’s yellow jersey, draped over his shoulders for a 13th day running, taking an almost unassailable lead of 5min 20sec into today’s stage. Barring a spectacular collapse, the 22-year-old will be taking home a second maillot jaune after the race finishes later on this evening.
Mark Cavendish (Deceuninck-Quick Step) will be dressed in the maillot vert, the green jersey awarded to the leader in the points classification, and would appear the favourite to take that home. It is not a given, though, that the Briton will add a second green jersey to his collection and he will have to keep an eye on Michael Matthews (BikeExchange), the only other rider who can mathematically win it.
There is a maximum of 70 points up for grabs today – 20 at the intermediate sprint and 50 for the stage win on the Champs-Élysées.
The maillot à pois, the polka dot jersey of the leader in the mountains classification, will be worn by Wout Poels (Bahrain Victorious) who had targeted the competition, but it is actually led by Pogacar. With just one point up for grabs atop the category four climb in the early part of today’s stage, all Pogacar needs to do to seal the mountains classification is complete the stage within the time limit.
As overall leader of the race, Pogacar also tops the best young rider classification, although Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) will wear the Slovenian’s maillot blanc, the white jersey, as second best.
For anybody that missed Wout van Aert’s second stage win at this year’s race on Saturday, you can relive the highlights here . . .
So, what’s on today’s menu?
