The Tour de France has come to an end in France. The best overall victory was achieved by Tadej Pogačar. The Slovenian left no chance for Jonas Vingegaard or Remko Evenepoel and won his third Big Loop!
In general, in addition to Pogačar’s dominance, there were many interesting things that happened in the stage race: the record victory of veteran Mark Cavendish, the miracle of Binjam Girmay, the dramatic withdrawal of Alexander Vlasov. Fire, not a race!
“Everything was perfect this year”
The 2024 Tour de France was traditionally supposed to be the pinnacle of the fight between the two best riders of this season: Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and Jonas Wingegaard (Visma – Lease a Bike). The Slovenian and the Dane have been hacked to death on the Great Loop for several years in a row. As a result, at the start of the 2024 season, each had two victories in the general classification of the stage race. This summer, one of them was to take the lead.
Jonas Vingegaard
Photo: Dario Belingheri/Getty Images
But there was no intense fight. Pogačar took the lead in the general classification from the fourth stage and held it until the end. The Slovenian was helped by six stage wins, including three in a row at the end. Vingegaard only managed to win one stage during the entire Tour de France.
Remko Evenepoel (Soudal – Quick Step) and Primoz Roglic (Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe) were also unable to prevent Tadej from taking the third Big Loop title. The lack of a fight is due to Evenepoel, Roglic and Vingegaard being injured in April in a crash at the Vuelta al Pais Vasco. Remko and Jonas broke their collarbones and ribs, while Primoz escaped with serious bruises. Due to their recovery, all three missed part of the preparation for the Tour de France.
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As a result, Pogačar took a relatively easy victory in both the final race and the entire stage race. The Slovenian finished the time trial with a massive 1.03m lead over Vingegaard. Evenepoel finished in the top three, 1.14m behind the winner.
In the general classification, the top three turned out to be exactly the same. First Tadej (82:38.56), second Jonas (+6.17), third Evenepoel, who became the winner of the youth classification (+9.18). At the same time, the Slovenian repeated a special achievement – he became the seventh person to win the Tour de France and the Giro in one year. This was previously achieved by Eddy Merckx, Jacques Anquetil, Miguel Indurain, Fausto Coppi, Bernard Hinault and Marco Pantani. Moreover, the last time something like this happened was in 1998!
“I am very happy, I can’t describe how happy I am. The last two difficult years at the Tour de France I always made some mistakes, but this year everything went perfectly. This is incredible! This is the first Grand Tour where I have absolute confidence every day. Even at the Giro I remember I had a bad day,” the winner told Eurosport.
Tadej Pogacar
Photo: Jean Catuffé/Getty Images
“This stage race was amazing, I enjoyed it from the first to the last day. I had a lot of support. I just couldn’t let anyone down, so I enjoyed it for them too. Such competition with Remko, Jonas, Primoz was just amazing, and there are more and more youngsters. I think it’s wonderful,” Tadej added.
Pogačar said he wants to aim for the Triple Crown:
“My next goal? Van der Poel looks great in the world champion jersey, but I want to take it off him. I want to wear the rainbow jersey once, but I still have time for that,” the rider admitted.
So far, only two cyclists in history have won the Triple Crown: Eddy Merckx and Stephen Roach. The last time an athlete won the Giro, the Tour de France and the World Championships in the same season was in 1987.
“This is a great motivation”
The winners of other Tour de France classifications also caught the eye. Quite unexpectedly, Binyam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux) became the best in the points classification. The Eritrean rider became the leader of the classification from the fifth stage onwards and remained at the top. As a result, Girmay was ahead of Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin – Deceuninck) by 33 points.
Binyam wrote his name into history. He became the first black and the first African to win the points classification and three stages of the TdF.
How Girmay caused a sensation at the 2024 Tour de France:
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“Winning three stages… I knew how difficult it was to win any stage in professional racing at this level, but to do it at the Tour de France is a huge motivation for me for the rest of my career. I’m in the best shape of my life right now. I wake up, look in the mirror in the morning and say, ‘Let’s do this again,’” Binyam admitted.
In the mountains classification, Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) emerged as the best. The Ecuadorian literally snatched the polka dot jersey from Pogačar in the final stages. The decisive victory was the stage from Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateau to Superdévolu. Carapaz finished 25 points ahead of Pogačar to become the first Ecuadorian to win any classification in the Tour de France.
And last year, Carapaz had to retire after the first stage:
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The team competition was won by UAE Team Emirates. Among its members, the award was also received by former Russian Pavel Sivakov, who has been representing France at the tournament since 2022. In the overall standings, Sivakov finished 15th.
Unfortunately, for another rider from Russia, the Tour de France did not work out at all. Alexander Vlasov (Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe) slipped on the ninth stage of the stage race and broke his ankle. The Russian was unable to continue the race due to an injury. And before that, Vlasov was in tenth place in the general classification and had every chance of remaining in the top ten at the end of the “Big Loop”.
Alexander Vlasov
Photo: Dario Belingheri/Getty Images
“We knew we had to go all in”
But perhaps the most significant of the episodes in the multi-day race was Mark Cavendish’s record. Last year, the British veteran was chasing his 35th Tour de France victory to overtake the legendary Eddy Merckx. Mark came close to fulfilling his dream in the final season of his professional career, but on one of the stages of the “Big Loop” he fell due to a slide and broke his collarbone, forcing him to retire from the race.
Cavendish’s sad story at the 2023 Tour de France:
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Astana Kazakhstan general manager Alexander Vinokurov then suggested that Cavendish extend his contract for another year to break the record. Mark agreed and finally made his dream come true.
In the fifth stage of the Tour de France, the Briton took a beautiful victory, beating everyone at the finish line. It is surprising that Cavendish’s chain literally fell off in the last few meters of the distance, but this breakage did not prevent Mark from taking first place and achieving a historic feat.
“I don’t think so! This year the team made a big bet on me to come here and try to win at least one stage. We knew we had to go for it and we did,” the Briton told the Independent.
Mark Cavendish
Photo: Tim de Waele/Getty Images
At the finish line, the record holder was greeted by Vinokurov, who believed in Cavendish until the very end. And it was very symbolic, because Alexander and Mark have a special relationship. Before the 2012 London Olympics, everyone was giving the gold in the group race to the Briton. At that time, Cavendish was in excellent shape, the team supported its leader well, and the track seemed to be made for Mark. But Vinokurov won then. And 12 years later, it was Alexander who became the person who helped Cavendish make his dream come true.
Mark can now calmly end his career. The cyclist has already told reporters that the current season could be his last.
“This is probably my last season. At the end of the day, I enjoyed it today. I didn’t feel any pressure today, which is strange at the last stage of the Tour. I knew my family was waiting for me at the finish. I just absorbed it. Yesterday I put all my emotions aside, but today I was able to really enjoy it,” Cavendish admitted.
