As it happened: Tadej Pogačar dominant for fifth Tour de France stage win on Col de la Couillole

Jonas Vingegaard consolidated his hold on second place overall, finishing 7 seconds behind Tadej Pogačar on the mountaintop finish, and more importantly, put 46 seconds into third-placed Remco Evenepoel. After the finish, the Dane admitted, “I felt better than yesterday. Friday was one of my worst days on the bike.” 

‘More than a stage win, I wanted more time’ – Jonas Vingegaard rebounds hard at Tour de France

Check out our race report and full results: 

Tour de France: Tadej Pogačar stamps his authority in yellow with stage 20 victory ahead of Jonas Vingegaard

Here’s Carapaz, who went down fighting and at least secured the polka-dots.

Here’s Jonas Vingegaard, second on the day and second overall.

“I felt super good when Remco attacked, and decided that the second time he attacks I will counter-attack, and that’s what I did. Then I was riding more to put more time into him rather than going for the stage today. He’s the best time triallist in the world so you never know [tomorrow]. Of course, three minutes sounds like a lot but last year I took 1:40. You can easily lose a lot of time. I’m happy I got almost a minute more. One more day and I’ll do everything I can to keep this second place.” 

On Pogačar sitting on his wheel and then taking the sprint: “Everyone has their tactics. I don’t judge anyone on their tactics. He was sitting more on. i think I’d probably do the same in his situation. He didn’t need to ride, he already has five minutes on me. It’s just how it is. I’m just happy with how I rode today, how I recovered from yesterday. To be honest, I felt really bad, completely empty, so to bounce back like this is really nice.”

This was Vingegaard and Pogačar on the final climb. 

On this form, Pogačar is arguably the favourite for tomorrow’s race-ending time trial, which climbs out of Monaco and then descends to Nice. It would make for an extraordinary sixth stage win, matching his tally from his victorious Giro d’Italia in May. 

“I think tomorrow can still be dangerous so I will try and come safely into Nice. I can enjoy a bit more the crowds tomorrow, I think,” Pogačar says. 

Then again, he said he wouldn’t try and win this…