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Tour Stage 20 Report: The Jumbo-Visma team continued their tour de France domination by winning the stage 20 time trial, with the Green jersey wearer, Wout van Aert and taking second place with Jonas Vingegaard in yellow. Vingegaard (barring accident) will be the 2022 Tour de France winner.
The final of stage 20 TT
Jonas Vingegaard will be the overall winner of the Tour de France 2022 in Paris tomorrow. The Dane had nothing to fear from Tadej Pogačar in the final time trial and finished second behind his teammate Wout van Aert.
‘My daddy has won the Tour de France’
Tour boss, Christian Prudhomme: “Performing well in a time trial at the end of the Tour always requires a certain kind of alchemy, deriving from a rider’s degree of freshness after three weeks of racing, the extent of their motivation given their possible finishing position in the overall classification and their intrinsic qualities in this solo discipline. Added to that, in 2022 there will be a final with two climbs on the way to the high point of Rocamadour.”
Stage 20 profile
The GC riders have had enough opportunities to lose time to each other, but on the penultimate day there was still an opportunity to change the Top-10 in the individual time trial. Forty solo kilometres between Lacapelle-Marival and Rocamadour with two tough climbs in the last 5 kilometres.
Not a day for Fabio Jakobsen (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl), he will be saving himself for the Paris finish
The chrono was divided into three parts. The first section went in a north-westerly direction to the first time point in Aynac, after 10.6 kilometres. The undulating route then turned to the West, passing Gramat, where the second intermediate point was located after about 22 kilometres. After 32.6 kilometres there was a third and final time, in Couzou. Caleb Ewan, Lotto Soudal’s sprinter, was the first rider to start and finish with a time of 56:49.
Maybe a bit warm for the TT face sock – Mikkel Honore (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl)
Mikkel Bjerg, the three-time U23 World TT champion, had an excellent time trial and at the finish he set the first real target time. The Dane of UAE Team Emirates had a finish time of 50:22, an average speed of 48.5 kilometres per hour and the hot seat. Filippo Ganna, World time trial champion, of course was one of the big favourites for the stage victory.
Another man who would be saving something for the final stage – Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal)
The Italian got off to a good start, and at the first intermediate point Ganna was already 14 seconds faster than Bjerg. Yves Lampaert fared less well. The winner of the opening time trial in Copenhagen wasn’t on a good day and had to concede almost 5 minutes to Bjerg. Ganna, meanwhile, continued to set a fast time, increasing his lead at the second intermediate point and stopping the clock at 48:41, an average of 50.1 kph over the 40.7 kilometres. Ganna was 1:41 faster than Bjerg, who had to give up the hot seat to the World champion.
Starting effort by top favourite Filippo Ganna (INEOS Grenadiers)
Ganna was not yet certain of the win as several time trial big guns had still to ride. Mattia Cattaneo was the first. The Italian powerhouse of Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl kept a good pace for a long time, but lost time in the final section and was 43 seconds slower than Ganna at the finish. Also other fast riders such as Stefan Bissegger, who had more bad luck, Jan Tratnik and Fred Wright, with a fast start, couldn’t get to Ganna’s very sharp time, just like Benjamin Thomas, Nils Politt and Maximilian Schachmann.
Luke Rowe (INEOS Grenadiers), not too serious
With Stefan Küng and Wout van Aert, Ganna’s biggest challengers were yet to come. It soon became apparent that the danger did not come from the European TT champion: Küng had to give in to his Italian rival by a few seconds at the first point and this continued at the other points. Küng mainly fought against himself, Bauke Mollema turned out to be working on a very strong time trial. The Dutch champion recorded the fastest split time after 10.6 kilometres and was 9 seconds faster than Ganna. Van Aert had yet to come.
Ganna took the lead
Van Aert was not yet exhausted after a very demanding and successful Tour. After 10.6 kilometres he clocked a time of 12:09 and was 4 seconds faster than Bauke Mollema. The difference to Filippo Ganna was already more than 13 seconds. The green jersey was not slowing down: Van Aert was able to widen the difference to Ganna at the second intermediate point to 25 seconds, Mollema followed at 29 seconds. Van Aert started to feel his legs in the second part of the time trial as he lost 1 second to Ganna, but was still well in the lead.
Alexander Kristoff (Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert Materiaux) – Paris is more important than today for the Norwegian
Mollema set a nice time, 40 seconds slower than Ganna. Van Aert went one step further in the last 10 kilometres and put a time of 47:59 minutes on the result board in Rocamadour and crushed Ganna’s time of 48:41. Van Aert could dream of his third stage win, but it was certainly not yet sure as Geraint Thomas, Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard were still to finish.
A good ride from the Dutch TT champion – Mollema
At the first time point, Thomas was only 1 second slower than Van Aert. Pogačar, last year winner of the first long time trial in the Tour, did even better and was 1 second faster than the green jersey. Vingegaard had a reassuring margin over Pogačar in the general classification, but was also keen on a third stage win. The yellow jersey wearer flew over the course and with 12:01, he was 7 seconds faster than Pogačar and 8 seconds faster than Van Aert. Was Vingegaard on his way to the stage and overall win?
Anther stage win for Wout van Aert?
European TT champion Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) – Not a great day
At the second point, Vingegaard was still in pole position to win the time trial. Where Pogačar had clearly slowed, Vingegaard kept his margin on team mate Van Aert. With 24:21, the Dane was still 7 seconds faster than Van Aert at the second point. Geraint Thomas followed at 13 seconds and Tadej Pogačar at 20 seconds. The Slovenian could not win the stage, unlike Vingegaard and Thomas. Most eyes were on the battle between the two Jumbo-Visma teammates, but the experienced Brit was still in contention.
The top two men at the start
A new fastest time by Van Aert
Thomas sped up in the third section and turned out to be only 4 seconds slower than Van Aert at the last intermediate point. The Belgian still had to fear for his place in the hot seat, but Thomas eased off in the last kilometres and came in at 32 seconds. Not much later it was Pogačar to finish: the Slovenian was also beaten by Van Aert, but managed to beat Thomas in the stage result. Then all attention went to Vingegaard, who could already enjoy his Tour de France victory in the last metres.
Could there be an upset from Pogačar?
Could Vingegaard win the stage?
The Dane took it easy in the last hundred metres. Van Aert took his third stage victory, Vingegaard finished second and will be the second Dane to win the Tour de France on Sunday.
The stage winner? Too early to say
Stage winner and points leader, Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma): “I’m emotional. Winning the Tour de France with the team is really special. Also today it was like a dream scenario. Jonas [Vingegaard] is such a strong guy but such a good guy as well. I thank all my team mates and the whole team for those special three weeks, it’s unbelievable. I feel super tired after three weeks. I gave it all today. I want to win races and today I hoped to take the stage and J to secure the yellow jersey. Apparently… he’s got such a big heart! It was a really fast TT, I had to keep something left for the two hard climbs at the end. I paced my effort well. Technically I made no mistake. It’s a special setting coming to the top of this village. It was a great day.”
It was close, but Wout won
Overall leader and 2nd on the stage, Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma): “It means everything to me [to win the Tour de France]. It’s really incredible. It’s hard for me to put words on it. It’s the biggest win in cycling. Having my two girls [girlfriend Trine and daughter Frida] on the finish line meant even more to me. Since last year, I always believed I could do it. It’s a relief that I did. I’m just so happy and proud. What happened two years ago [Primoz Roglic losing the yellow jersey in the closing time trial], we always thought about it and we didn’t want it to happen again. We just wanted to go for it today. I wanted as good a stage result as possible. [Wout van Aert crying] just shows how close everyone is in this team. It’s a special thing we have in this team: everyone is so happy for each other. I’m also really happy for Wout to win today. These guys are my true friends, brothers I would say. I guess we can celebrate tonight. It’s special for the whole Jumbo-Visma team and for Denmark as well. I don’t read the media so I don’t know how crazy it is but I can guess.”
Tour win and second place in the TT for Jonas Vingegaard
# All the Tour news in EUROTRASH and the ‘Final Round Up’ on Monday. #
Tour de France Stage 20 Result:
1. Wout van Aert (Bel) Jumbo-Visma in 47:59
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Jumbo-Visma at 0:19
3. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates at 0:27
4. Geraint Thomas (GB) INEOS Grenadiers at 0:32
5. Filippo Ganna (Ita) INEOS Grenadiers at 0:42
6. Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek-Segafredo at 1:22
7. Mattia Cattaneo (Ita) Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl at 1:25
8. Fred Wright (GB) Bahrain-Victorious at 1:32
9. Maximilian Schachmann (Ger) BORA-hansgrohe at 1:37
10. Jan Tratnik (Slo) Bahrain-Victorious at 1:48.
Tour de France Overall After Stage 20:
1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Jumbo-Visma in 76:33:57
2. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates at 3:34
3. Geraint Thomas (GB) INEOS Grenadiers at 8:13
4. David Gaudu (Fra) Groupama-FDJ at 13:56
5. Aleksandr Vlasov (-) BORA-hansgrohe at 16:37
6. Nairo Quintana (Col) Arkéa Samsic at 17:24
7. Romain Bardet (Fra) DSM at 19:02
8. Louis Meintjes (SA) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux at 19:12
9. Alexey Lutsenko (Kaz) Astana Qazaqstan at 23:47
10. Adam Yates (GB) INEOS Grenadiers at 25:43.
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