Tour de France 2021 – Tadej Pogacar on the verge of overtaking the Tour de France after a risk-free ITT

Wout van Aert doubled – adding Stage 20 to his Stage 11 victory – with victory in the individual time trial at Saint-Emilion on Saturday. Race leader Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) came home in 36’50 “to take eighth place today and secure a second consecutive victory in the Tour de France.

The Jumbo-Visma van Aert finished in 35’53 “with Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck – Quick Step) second and Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) third.

The result means Vingegaard and Richard Carapaz (INEOS Grenadiers) defended their second and third places on the podium, with Pogacar holding 5’20 “ahead of Vingegaard before Sunday’s procession stage in Paris.

The first times were set by the Swiss Stefan Bisseger (EF Education First Nippo) and the Danish Mikkel Bjerg (UAE Team Emirates), with Bjerg setting a provisional best time which was beaten moments later by the Swiss TT specialist. Bisseger was able to enjoy some time in the hot seat, until another Dane knocked him out of first place.

Asgreen moved up to first place with his time of 36’14 “, a mark that would only be beaten once by the remaining runners on the ramp.

Van Aert’s performance was explosive, with the Belgian road champion setting the best times at each intermediate check en route to the finish line. After the scene, he said.

While Geraint Thomas, who finished 47th today and 3’28 “behind, summed up the Tour as a whole for Eurosport’s Bernie Eisel.

“It was definitely the hardest Tour I have done mentally. I enjoyed today – I did it slowly. I loved being alone, I didn’t have to worry about crashing. . People crash into me or people in front of me crash. “

So close to Paris, it was gratifying to see that no runner was cut for exceeding the allotted time, and Mark Cavendish was in high spirits at the end of his effort – which came very early in the day’s action. .

Cavendish will try to break the all-time record for Tour de France stage wins on the Champs-Elysées tomorrow.

The top ten was completed by Mattia Cattaneo (Deceuninck QuickStep) in sixth, Magnus Cort (EF Education First Nippo), the fourth Danish rider in the top ten, in ninth and favorite Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck QuickStep) in tenth.

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