Tadej Pogačar has won his third Tour de France and is the first rider to take the Giro d’Italia and Tour titles in the same year since Marco Pantani in 1998. Pogačar joins Philippe Nys (1913, 1914, 1920), Louison Bobet (1953-55) and Greg LeMond (1986, 1989, 1990) on three yellow jerseys. He has four Grand Tour titles in total. Tony Rominger, Vincenzo Nibali, Roberto Heras and Primož Roglič also have four.
Pogačar didn’t just defend his yellow jersey in Sunday’s concluding time trial from Monaco to Nice, he won it over Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel. He is the first rider to earn the last stage of Tour wearing yellow since Bernard Hinault in 1982. The Slovenian earned six stage victories along the way to his third yellow jersey and now has 17 career Tour stage wins. He can boast 26 total Grand Tour stage triumphs.
Vingegaard, his preparation for the 111th edition less than ideal after his terrible late-April crash at the Itzulia Basque Country, stood on the final podium as runner-up. In six career Grand Tours, he has only been below second place once. Evenepoel rounded out the podium—he was the best young rider of the race.
Biniam Girmay is the first African to win the green points jersey. He grabbed a hat trick of bunch sprints. Twentieth place South African Louis Meintjes recorded his 8th Grand Tour top-20.
Richard Carapaz had a fine Tour. He wore the yellow jersey for a day, took a win, claimed the King of the Mountains and finished 17th. He’s the sixth South American to take home the polka dot jersey and the first from Ecuador.
Mark Cavendish says farewell to the Tour de France, safe in the knowledge that he has won the most Tour stages in history with 35.
UAE-Emirates killed the team competition, packing three riders into the top-6.
Derek Gee’s ninth place is the third greatest Tour de France performance by a Canadian.
The top Frenchman was Guillaume Martin in 13th.
Belgium and Spain were the most represented countries in the top-20 with three riders each.
The year’s final Grand Tour, the 79th La Vuelta ciclista a España, begins on August 17. The next WorldTour race is the one-day Donostia San Sebastian Klasikoa on August…
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