It was one of the most thrilling time trials ever seen at the Tour de France. Primoz Roglic had looked unshakeable for the entire Tour and seemed almost certain to secure overall victory in Saturday’s stage 20 ITT. But his compatriot Tadej Pogacar had other ideas.
The 21-year-old was fastest on the day by a massive 81 seconds, easily dispatching former world ITT champion Tom Dumoulin. More importantly, Dumoulin’s teammate Roglic finished nearly two minutes off the pace, dropping to second overall as Pogacar ascended to the top of the GC. The Slovenian will end his debut Tour de France with three stage wins, the best young rider jersey, the KOM jersey, and the yellow jersey of overall winner. Quite extraordinary.
As a bonus for Australian fans, Richie Porte put in a storming ride on stage 20 to secure a spot on the Tour podium for the first time. He’ll be just the second Australian to achieve that feat, after 2011 winner Cadel Evans.
Check out the gallery below for some great shots from a truly legendary day at the Tour de France.
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- Bike choice was a subject of much discussion on the day. Many riders rode a regular TT rig to the start of the final climb, then swapped for a road bike.
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- Sam Bennett will almost certainly win the green jersey tomorrow.
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- French time trial champion Remi Cavagna set a strong early time and led proceedings for much of the day.
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- Richard Carapaz fought valiantly to keep hold of the KOM jersey but with Pogacar on one of the best rides we’ve ever seen, there wasn’t much he could do.
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- A seventh-place finish on the day moved Damiano Caruso up from 11th to 10th overall.
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- Wout van Aert put in a very strong ride in the Tour de France ITT.
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- … to set a new best time.
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- Tom Dumoulin was next to sit in the hot seat …
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- … after taking 10 seconds off his Belgian teammate’s time.
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- One of the day’s most intriguing storylines was that of Richie Porte.
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- After starting the day in fourth, the Tasmanian needed to claw back 99 seconds on Miguel Angel Lopez to finish on the overall podium.
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- In the end Porte took nearly five minutes out of the Colombian’s advantage, moving up to third while Lopez slid down to sixth overall.
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- But the story of the day was undoubtedly Tadej Pogacar.
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- The 21-year-old started the day in second place, 57 seconds behind Roglic. He looked to have gone out too hard …
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- … but he held his frenetic pace all the way to the finish, to win the stage and pull on the yellow jersey at the last opportunity. Remember: he dropped 1:21 to Roglic in the crosswinds on stage 7.
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- Roglic looked to have something of an off day …
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- … and lost time to Pogacar along the course.
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- He finished fifth on the stage and dropped to second overall, 59 seconds down on Pogacar.
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- He was third in his debut Grand Tour at last year’s Vuelta but winning the Tour de France on debut, as a 21-year old? It just doesn’t happen.
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