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Tour de france stage 21 podium presentation.

Matej Mohorič fights tears after winning Tour de France 19th stage by 0.004 seconds

POLIGNY, France (AP) — Matej Mohorič fought tears of relief after edging Kasper Asgreen to win the Tour de France’s closest ever stage finish on Friday.

The Slovenian rider broke down after winning, fought tears during the award ceremony for the 19th stage, and again struggled with his emotions as he spoke about his perfectly timed race – the fifth fastest stage in Tour history.

Few watching were certain who won as Mohorič finished only four thousandths of a second ahead of Asgreen in the tightest finish ever recorded.

Mohorič covered his face and sobbed when confirmation came that he clinched his third ever stage win.

“It means a lot because it’s just hard and cruel to be a professional cyclist,” Mohorič said. “You suffer a lot in preparation, you sacrifice your life, your family. You do everything you can to get ready. And then after a couple of days, you realize that everyone is just so incredibly strong, that it’s just hard to follow the wheels sometimes.”

Mohorič referred to his Bahrain teammates’ hard work, to his own suffering, to rivals’ suffering, and to teammate Gino Mäder, who died after crashing into a ravine at the Tour de Suisse last month.

“Sometimes you feel like you don’t belong here because just everyone is so incredibly strong that you struggle to hold wheel sometimes,” Mohorič said. “You know that the guy who is pulling is suffering just as much as you do. It’s just cruel to then be able to follow the decision to attack when Kasper went.”

Australian cyclist Ben O’Connor had been first among the three breakaways to attack for the line but he was overhauled by Asgreen and Mohorič, who seemed to cross at the same time.

“He was so incredibly strong,” Mohorič said of Asgreen. “He went on the attack yesterday and won the stage , and today, to have the will and the determination to do it all over again – you just feel that you don’t belong here. And then I followed him. I knew I had to make everything perfect. And I tried my best, not just for myself, also for Gino and for the team. And then you almost feel like you betrayed them because you beat them.”

Both Mohorič and Asgreen were clocked at 3 hours, 31 minutes, 2 seconds. O’Conner was third, 4 seconds behind.

Defending champion Jonas Vingegaard protected his commanding lead on the hilly 173-kilometer (107-mile) route from Moirans-en-Montagne to Poligny, which is known as the capital of comté cheese.

The curving roads up and down around the lakes of the Jura department invited riders to attack from the start. Many tried, few succeeded.

Some riders’ hopes were undone by ill luck. Nils Politt’s chain broke, Simon Clarke pulled up with cramps, Warren Barguil’s pursuit was ended by a flat tire, and Corbin Strong crashed while chasing the three leaders,

Vingegaard played it safe. The yellow jersey holder finished among his Jumbo-Visma teammates and remained the clear favorite to claim his second Tour victory on Sunday. The Danish rider enjoys a lead of 7 minutes, 35 seconds over two-time champion Tadej Pogačar after taking control of the race in the Alps.

Two stages remain including Sunday’s finish on the Champs-Élysées in Paris.

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Tour de France 2021 – Stage 21 [FULL STAGE + Ceremony Awards]

Description July 18, 2021 Tour de France 2021 – Stage 21 – Chatou – Paris Champs-Élysées : 108,4 km The 2021 Tour de France is almost upon us with the Grand Départ set for June 26, Show more...

July 18, 2021

Tour de France 2021 – Stage 21 – Chatou – Paris Champs-Élysées : 108,4 km

The 2021 Tour de France is almost upon us with the Grand Départ set for June 26, and 21 mouth-watering stages to look forward to as the race takes in Brittany, two individual time trials, a double assault on Mont Ventoux and the customary finish on the Champs Élysées in Paris on July 18. The 108th edition of the race will see defending champion Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) aim to defend his crown against Primoz Roglič (Jumbo-Visma), Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) and a host of other yellow jersey contenders over what is an intriguing and multi-layered route profile. After a mountain-heavy Tour de France in 2020, race organisers have opted for a more traditional and classic affair this time around, with the race reverting to hosting two long individual time trials for the first time since 2013.

Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) sprinted to victory on the Champs-Elysées, beating Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Fenix) and Mark Cavendish (Deceuninck-QuickStep) to the line on stage 21 to take his third stage victory of the Tour de France.

The Belgian edged out Philipsen at the line by less than a wheel length to win, while Cavendish, who had started his sprint behind Van Aert and couldn’t come around, banged his bars in frustration.

Deceuninck-QuickStep may have led the way around the final corner, but it was Jumbo-Visma who had the best lead out up the 700-metre finishing straight with Mike Teunissen in front of Van Aert.

The Dutchman hit the front at 500 metres to go, with Van Aert stuck to his wheel and Cavendish next in line with his own lead out not at the front.

Van Aert launched at 230 metres to go, hugging the barriers on the left-hand side of the road as Philipsen jumped around Teunissen to the right. Cavendish couldn’t make it past up the inside, even briefly freewheeling at one point late on in the sprint.

Instead of the record-breaking 35th stage victory for Cavendish then, it was Van Aert who added to his Ventoux and time trial wins, just ahead of Philipsen, who finished second for the third time this Tour.

“This Tour has just been amazing, such a rollercoaster,” Van Aert said after the finish. “To finish off with a weekend like this is beyond expectations. A victory like this is priceless. Thanks to my incredible small team, especially Mike Teunissen who delivered me into a perfect position.

“It was more chance for a team like us to still come after the corner. I was fully confident that Mike was going to deliver me in the right position, I just had to hold his wheel – it was a world class lead-out today, hats off.”

Tadej Pogačar crossed the line safely alongside his UAE Team Emirates teammates to claim his second Tour de France overall victory in two years. He tops the podium by 5:20 ahead of Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) and Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) by 7:03.

For the second year in a row Pogačar swept up the polka dot and white jerseys too, beating Wout Poels (Bahrain Victorious) by 29 points to the climber’s award as Vingegaard finished runner-up in the young rider’s classification.

Cavendish nonetheless secured the green jersey, beating Michael Matthews (Team BikeExchange) by 56 points at the top of the points standings. Finally, Bahrain Victorious won the team competition by 19 minutes ahead of EF Education-Nippo, and Franck Bonnamour (B&B Hotels p/b KTM) claimed the super-combativity award after an aggressive three weeks of racing.

How it unfolded

The final stage of the Tour de France took the riders on a short 108.4 kilometres from Chatou to the Champs-Élysées in the heart of Paris in the traditional finish to the race, with eight laps of a circuit in central Paris to close things out.

The opening 56 kilometres would see the peloton ride in from the western outskirts of the capital, tackling the final climb of the race, the fourth-category Côte de Grès, after 7.4 kilometres.

After that – the final 52 kilometres of the stage once the riders pass through the finish line for the first time – the racing began in Paris, with the eight finishing laps left to decide the winner of stage 21.

As the flag dropped for the final time at a stage start in the 2021 Tour de France, there were – as is traditional on the final stage – no attacks as the peloton rode along at a club run pace. Instead, there was the usual parade of jerseys at the front and celebrations, with the full UAE Team Emirates squad, clad in special-edition, yellow-banded jerseys, riding off the front early on.

Mikkel Bjerg (UAE Team Emirates) jumped off the front at the top of the climb, jokingly celebrating his first mountain point of the race ahead of his teammates. Shortly afterwards, after the peloton passed the 100-kilometre mark, Pogačar was joined off the front by fellow Slovenians Matej Mohorič (Bahrain Victorious) and Luka Mezgec (Team BikeExchange) to celebrate together.

The team rode on the front of the peloton from that point onwards as the riders neared Paris, the average pace a pedestrian 32 kph.

The first two laps of the Champs-Élysées circuit saw a flurry of attacks from the peloton, with Harry Sweeny (Lotto Soudal), Stefan Bissegger (EF Education-Nippo), and Casper Pedersen (Team DSM) the three riders managing to get off the front with 50 kilometres to go.

They held a 30-second gap over the peloton on the high-speed laps in Paris, though that advantage was brought down to 20 seconds as the sprinters battled for the intermediate sprint at 40km to go.

There, Cavendish grabbed 13 points for fourth place as Matthews ceded two more points to the green jersey holder, ensuring that the green jersey would be his if he finished at least eighth at the finish.

The three-man break was brought back at 32 kilometres and four laps to go, prompting counterattacks from the peloton. Bora-Hansgrohe’s Ide Schelling, who was in the first break of the race back in Brest, was among them as he, Michael Valgren (EF Education-Nippo), and Brent Van Moer (Lotto Soudal) tried a move.

Back in the peloton Deceuninck-QuickStep and Alpecin-Fenix had taken control of the situation, holding the gap to 20 seconds ahead of the nailed-on bunch sprint finale. B&B Hotels p/b KTM sent two men on the move heading into the penultimate lap with Cyril Gautier launching Bonnamour in one final show of aggression from the super-combativity prize winner.

He was brought back at the 10-kilometre mark, while Schelling, Valgren, and Van Moer managed to hang out front until the final lap, sticking it out until six kilometres to go. More counterattacks followed, but Deceuninck-QuickStep worked hard to keep the situation under control at the front heading into the final five kilometres.

A mixture of teams – including Team BikeExchange, Deceuninck-QuickStep, EF Education-Nippo, and Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert – were up front heading into the final two kilometres, with no one team able to wrest control and establish a full lead out at the front.

Around the final corner onto the final run to the line – which this year was elongated from 400 metres to 700 metres – it was Deceuninck-QuickStep on the front, though not with a full train as they have previously in the race.

Nonetheless, Cavendish had the best wheel in Van Aert, who was following teammate Teunissen to the line. He launched just inside the final 230 metres, pulling off a long sprint and holding it to the finish to beat Philipsen and Cavendish.

Results : 1 Wout Van Aert (Bel) Jumbo-Visma 2:39:37 2 Jasper Philipsen (Bel) Alpecin-Fenix 3 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Deceuninck-QuickStep 4 Luka Mezgec (Slo) Team BikeExchange 5 André Greipel (Ger) Israel Start-up Nation 6 Danny van Poppel (Ned) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux 7 Michael Matthews (Aus) Team BikeExchange 8 Alex Aranburu Deba (Spa) Astana-Premier Tech 9 Cyril Barthe (Fra) B&B Hotels p/b KTM 10 Maximilian Walscheid (Ger) Qhubeka-NextHash 11 Daniel Oss (Ita) Bora-Hansgrohe 12 Ivan Garcia Cortina (Spa) Movistar Team 13 Sonny Colbrelli (Ita) Bahrain Victorious 14 Silvan Dillier (Swi) Alpecin-Fenix 15 Magnus Cort (Den) EF Education-Nippo 16 Lukas Pöstlberger (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe 17 Anthony Perez (Fra) Cofidis 18 Mads Pedersen (Den) Trek-Segafredo 19 Connor Swift (GBr) Team Arkea-Samsic 20 Jorge Arcas (Spa) Movistar Team 21 Cees Bol (Ned) Team DSM 22 Mike Teunissen (Ned) Jumbo-Visma 23 Rick Zabel (Ger) Israel Start-up Nation 24 Julien Simon (Fra) TotalEnergies 25 Nils Eekhoff (Ned) Team DSM 26 Elie Gesbert (Fra) Team Arkea-Samsic 27 Michael Schär (Swi) AG2R Citroën Team 28 Kristian Sbaragli (Ita) Alpecin-Fenix 29 Guillaume Boivin (Can) Israel Start-up Nation 30 Dorian Godon (Fra) AG2R Citroën Team 31 Nils Politt (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe 32 Ben O’Connor (Aus) AG2R Citroën Team 33 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Bora-Hansgrohe 34 Dylan van Baarle (Ned) Ineos Grenadiers 35 Valentin Madouas (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 36 Sepp Kuss (USA) Jumbo-Visma 37 Christophe Laporte (Fra) Cofidis 38 Marco Haller (Aut) Bahrain Victorious 39 Jasper Stuyven (Bel) Trek-Segafredo 40 Jan Bakelants (Bel) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux 41 Jonas Rickaert (Bel) Alpecin-Fenix 42 Michael Mørkøv (Den) Deceuninck-QuickStep 43 Fred Wright (GBr) Bahrain Victorious 44 Alexey Lutsenko (Kaz) Astana-Premier Tech 45 Julien Bernard (Fra) Trek-Segafredo 46 Stefan Küng (Swi) Groupama-FDJ 47 Imanol Erviti (Spa) Movistar Team 48 Guillaume Martin (Fra) Cofidis 49 Louis Meintjes (RSA) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux 50 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) AG2R Citroën Team 51 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Lotto Soudal 52 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 53 Boy van Poppel (Ned) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux 54 Cristian Rodriguez Martin (Spa) TotalEnergies 55 Jelle Wallays (Bel) Cofidis 56 Enric Mas Nicolau (Spa) Movistar Team 57 Bruno Armirail (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 58 Victor de la Parte (Spa) TotalEnergies 59 Toms Skujins (Lat) Trek-Segafredo 60 Mikkel Bjerg (Den) UAE Team Emirates 61 Brandon McNulty (USA) UAE Team Emirates 62 Ruben Guerreiro (Por) EF Education-Nippo 63 Stefan Bissegger (Swi) EF Education-Nippo 64 Jonas Rutsch (Ger) EF Education-Nippo 65 Vegard Stake Laengen (Nor) UAE Team Emirates 66 Aurélien Paret Peintre (Fra) AG2R Citroën Team 67 Esteban Chaves Rubio (Col) Team BikeExchange 68 Marc Hirschi (Swi) UAE Team Emirates 69 Davide Formolo (Ita) UAE Team Emirates 70 Rafal Majka (Pol) UAE Team Emirates 71 Nairo Quintana (Col) Team Arkea-Samsic 72 Tadej Pogacar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates 73 Rui Costa (Por) UAE Team Emirates 74 Pierre Latour (Fra) TotalEnergies 75 Pello Bilbao Lopez De Armentia (Spa) Bahrain Victorious 76 Lorenzo Rota (Ita) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux 77 Reto Hollenstein (Swi) Israel Start-up Nation 78 Jonathan Castroviejo Nicolas (Spa) Ineos Grenadiers 79 Davide Ballerini (Ita) Deceuninck-QuickStep 80 Sean Bennett (USA) Qhubeka-NextHash 81 Neilson Powless (USA) EF Education-Nippo 82 Cyril Gautier (Fra) B&B Hotels p/b KTM 83 Franck Bonnamour (Fra) B&B Hotels p/b KTM 84 Carlos Barbero (Spa) Qhubeka-NextHash 85 Ion Izagirre Insausti (Spa) Astana-Premier Tech 86 Maxime Chevalier (Fra) B&B Hotels p/b KTM 87 Xandro Meurisse (Bel) Alpecin-Fenix 88 Richard Carapaz (Ecu) Ineos Grenadiers 89 Omer Goldstein (Isr) Israel Start-up Nation 90 Chris Froome (GBr) Israel Start-up Nation 91 Dylan Teuns (Bel) Bahrain Victorious 92 Rigoberto Uran (Col) EF Education-Nippo 93 Patrick Konrad (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe 94 Ruben Fernandez (Spa) Cofidis 95 Dmitriy Gruzdev (Kaz) Astana-Premier Tech 96 Pierre Rolland (Fra) B&B Hotels p/b KTM 97 Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Jumbo-Visma 98 Sergio Henao Montoya (Col) Qhubeka-NextHash 99 Oliver Naesen (Bel) AG2R Citroën Team 100 David Gaudu (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 0:00:29 101 Tao Geoghegan Hart (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers 0:00:36 102 Joris Nieuwenhuis (Ned) Team DSM 0:00:39 103 Luke Durbridge (Aus) Team BikeExchange 104 Casper Pedersen (Den) Team DSM 105 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek-Segafredo 106 Kasper Asgreen (Den) Deceuninck-QuickStep 107 Edward Theuns (Bel) Trek-Segafredo 0:00:45 108 Wout Poels (Ned) Bahrain Victorious 109 Thomas De Gendt (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:00:47 110 Quentin Pacher (Fra) B&B Hotels p/b KTM 111 Matej Mohoric (Slo) Bahrain Victorious 0:00:59 112 Pierre-Luc Périchon (Fra) Cofidis 0:01:05 113 Omar Fraile Matarranz (Spa) Astana-Premier Tech 114 Richie Porte (Aus) Ineos Grenadiers 0:01:26 115 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers 116 Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Ineos Grenadiers 117 Emanuel Buchmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe 118 Daniel Martin (Irl) Israel Start-up Nation 119 Jesus Herrada (Spa) Cofidis 120 Simon Geschke (Ger) Cofidis 121 Benoit Cosnefroy (Fra) AG2R Citroën Team 0:01:30 122 Georg Zimmermann (Ger) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux 123 Mattia Cattaneo (Ita) Deceuninck-QuickStep 124 Dries Devenyns (Bel) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:01:56 125 Christopher Juul-Jensen (Den) Team BikeExchange 0:02:07 126 Fabien Doubey (Fra) TotalEnergies 0:02:11 127 Harry Sweeny (Aus) Lotto Soudal 0:02:27 128 Simon Clarke (Aus) Qhubeka-NextHash 129 Carlos Verona Quintanilla (Spa) Movistar Team 0:02:31 130 Jeremy Cabot (Fra) TotalEnergies 0:02:35 131 Brent Van Moer (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:02:37 132 Mark Donovan (GBr) Team DSM 0:02:48 133 Ide Schelling (Ned) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:03:01 134 Petr Vakoc (Cze) Alpecin-Fenix 0:03:29 135 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Deceuninck-QuickStep 136 Michael Valgren (Den) EF Education-Nippo 0:03:49 137 Sergio Higuita Garcia (Col) EF Education-Nippo 138 Tim Declercq (Bel) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:04:24 139 Hugo Houle (Can) Astana-Premier Tech 140 Kenny Elissonde (Fra) Trek-Segafredo 0:05:58 DNS Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana-Premier Tech

Final General Classification : 1 Tadej Pogacar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates 82:56:36 2 Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Jumbo-Visma 0:05:20 3 Richard Carapaz (Ecu) Ineos Grenadiers 0:07:03 4 Ben O’Connor (Aus) AG2R Citroën Team 0:10:02 5 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:10:13 6 Enric Mas Nicolau (Spa) Movistar Team 0:11:43 7 Alexey Lutsenko (Kaz) Astana-Premier Tech 0:12:23 8 Guillaume Martin (Fra) Cofidis 0:15:33 9 Pello Bilbao Lopez De Armentia (Spa) Bahrain Victorious 0:16:04 10 Rigoberto Uran (Col) EF Education-Nippo 0:18:34 11 David Gaudu (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 0:21:50 12 Mattia Cattaneo (Ita) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:24:58 13 Esteban Chaves Rubio (Col) Team BikeExchange 0:37:48 14 Louis Meintjes (RSA) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux 0:38:09 15 Aurélien Paret Peintre (Fra) AG2R Citroën Team 0:39:09 16 Wout Poels (Ned) Bahrain Victorious 0:50:35 17 Dylan Teuns (Bel) Bahrain Victorious 0:51:40 18 Ruben Guerreiro (Por) EF Education-Nippo 0:54:10 19 Wout Van Aert (Bel) Jumbo-Visma 0:57:02 20 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek-Segafredo 1:02:18 21 Sergio Henao Montoya (Col) Qhubeka-NextHash 1:03:12 22 Franck Bonnamour (Fra) B&B Hotels p/b KTM 1:04:35 23 Jonathan Castroviejo Nicolas (Spa) Ineos Grenadiers 1:06:20 24 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 1:07:50 25 Sergio Higuita Garcia (Col) EF Education-Nippo 1:09:16 26 Ion Izagirre Insausti (Spa) Astana-Premier Tech 1:23:39 27 Patrick Konrad (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe 1:27:06 28 Nairo Quintana (Col) Team Arkea-Samsic 1:33:11 29 Xandro Meurisse (Bel) Alpecin-Fenix 1:40:48 30 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Deceuninck-QuickStep 1:43:06 31 Matej Mohoric (Slo) Bahrain Victorious 1:50:04 32 Sepp Kuss (USA) Jumbo-Visma 33 Emanuel Buchmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe 1:51:05 34 Rafal Majka (Pol) UAE Team Emirates 1:54:04 35 Quentin Pacher (Fra) B&B Hotels p/b KTM 1:55:34 36 Kenny Elissonde (Fra) Trek-Segafredo 1:56:33 37 Julien Bernard (Fra) Trek-Segafredo 2:03:32 38 Richie Porte (Aus) Ineos Grenadiers 2:06:39 39 Jasper Stuyven (Bel) Trek-Segafredo 2:07:39 40 Daniel Martin (Irl) Israel Start-up Nation 2:09:35 41 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers 2:11:37 42 Valentin Madouas (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 2:11:39 43 Neilson Powless (USA) EF Education-Nippo 2:13:33 44 Davide Formolo (Ita) UAE Team Emirates 2:15:56 45 Mark Donovan (GBr) Team DSM 2:17:40 46 Cristian Rodriguez Martin (Spa) TotalEnergies 2:19:31 47 Pierre Latour (Fra) TotalEnergies 2:19:36 48 Jan Bakelants (Bel) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux 2:21:30 49 Stefan Küng (Swi) Groupama-FDJ 2:22:03 50 Nils Politt (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe 2:22:44 51 Pierre Rolland (Fra) B&B Hotels p/b KTM 2:23:11 52 Sonny Colbrelli (Ita) Bahrain Victorious 2:24:39 53 Michael Valgren (Den) EF Education-Nippo 2:26:16 54 Dylan van Baarle (Ned) Ineos Grenadiers 2:27:07 55 Jonas Rutsch (Ger) EF Education-Nippo 2:29:33 56 Magnus Cort (Den) EF Education-Nippo 2:30:23 57 Omar Fraile Matarranz (Spa) Astana-Premier Tech 2:31:14 58 Michael Schär (Swi) AG2R Citroën Team 2:35:18 59 Silvan Dillier (Swi) Alpecin-Fenix 2:35:43 60 Tao Geoghegan Hart (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers 2:37:02 61 Elie Gesbert (Fra) Team Arkea-Samsic 2:38:28 62 Simon Geschke (Ger) Cofidis 2:38:51 63 Lorenzo Rota (Ita) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux 2:39:57 64 Kasper Asgreen (Den) Deceuninck-QuickStep 2:43:41 65 Brent Van Moer (Bel) Lotto Soudal 2:43:49 66 Hugo Houle (Can) Astana-Premier Tech 2:44:39 67 Imanol Erviti (Spa) Movistar Team 2:49:07 68 Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Ineos Grenadiers 2:49:22 69 Brandon McNulty (USA) UAE Team Emirates 2:50:53 70 Oliver Naesen (Bel) AG2R Citroën Team 2:52:25 71 Toms Skujins (Lat) Trek-Segafredo 2:52:56 72 Victor de la Parte (Spa) TotalEnergies 2:54:28 73 Alex Aranburu Deba (Spa) Astana-Premier Tech 2:56:44 74 Dorian Godon (Fra) AG2R Citroën Team 2:57:11 75 Mike Teunissen (Ned) Jumbo-Visma 2:58:25 76 Rui Costa (Por) UAE Team Emirates 2:58:29 77 Fabien Doubey (Fra) TotalEnergies 3:02:45 78 Michael Matthews (Aus) Team BikeExchange 3:03:30 79 Georg Zimmermann (Ger) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux 3:05:48 80 Cyril Gautier (Fra) B&B Hotels p/b KTM 3:08:30 81 Thomas De Gendt (Bel) Lotto Soudal 3:08:46 82 Bruno Armirail (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 3:09:58 83 Ruben Fernandez (Spa) Cofidis 3:10:43 84 Harry Sweeny (Aus) Lotto Soudal 3:10:52 85 Anthony Perez (Fra) Cofidis 3:10:56 86 Jesus Herrada (Spa) Cofidis 3:11:15 87 Cyril Barthe (Fra) B&B Hotels p/b KTM 3:12:31 88 Connor Swift (GBr) Team Arkea-Samsic 3:13:48 89 Jorge Arcas (Spa) Movistar Team 3:14:41 90 Christophe Laporte (Fra) Cofidis 3:15:03 91 Pierre-Luc Périchon (Fra) Cofidis 3:16:27 92 Maxime Chevalier (Fra) B&B Hotels p/b KTM 3:16:54 93 Ivan Garcia Cortina (Spa) Movistar Team 3:21:25 94 Jonas Rickaert (Bel) Alpecin-Fenix 3:22:36 95 Fred Wright (GBr) Bahrain Victorious 3:24:19 96 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) AG2R Citroën Team 3:24:29 97 Marc Hirschi (Swi) UAE Team Emirates 3:24:38 98 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Lotto Soudal 3:27:22 99 Luke Durbridge (Aus) Team BikeExchange 3:28:05 100 Carlos Verona Quintanilla (Spa) Movistar Team 3:28:40 101 Luka Mezgec (Slo) Team BikeExchange 3:30:17 102 Stefan Bissegger (Swi) EF Education-Nippo 3:31:35 103 Edward Theuns (Bel) Trek-Segafredo 3:33:31 104 Guillaume Boivin (Can) Israel Start-up Nation 3:33:42 105 Kristian Sbaragli (Ita) Alpecin-Fenix 3:34:19 106 Benoit Cosnefroy (Fra) AG2R Citroën Team 3:34:54 107 Davide Ballerini (Ita) Deceuninck-QuickStep 3:35:13 108 Jasper Philipsen (Bel) Alpecin-Fenix 3:42:11 109 Mikkel Bjerg (Den) UAE Team Emirates 3:42:21 110 Casper Pedersen (Den) Team DSM 3:42:52 111 Vegard Stake Laengen (Nor) UAE Team Emirates 3:43:33 112 Dmitriy Gruzdev (Kaz) Astana-Premier Tech 3:44:49 113 Christopher Juul-Jensen (Den) Team BikeExchange 3:45:07 114 Daniel Oss (Ita) Bora-Hansgrohe 3:46:53 115 Lukas Pöstlberger (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe 3:47:12 116 Boy van Poppel (Ned) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux 3:50:25 117 Petr Vakoc (Cze) Alpecin-Fenix 3:51:06 118 Ide Schelling (Ned) Bora-Hansgrohe 3:51:16 119 Danny van Poppel (Ned) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux 3:52:53 120 Maximilian Walscheid (Ger) Qhubeka-NextHash 3:53:05 121 Omer Goldstein (Isr) Israel Start-up Nation 3:55:26 122 Simon Clarke (Aus) Qhubeka-NextHash 3:56:08 123 Carlos Barbero (Spa) Qhubeka-NextHash 4:00:20 124 André Greipel (Ger) Israel Start-up Nation 4:01:26 125 Nils Eekhoff (Ned) Team DSM 4:02:44 126 Marco Haller (Aut) Bahrain Victorious 4:03:01 127 Joris Nieuwenhuis (Ned) Team DSM 4:03:22 128 Julien Simon (Fra) TotalEnergies 4:05:49 129 Sean Bennett (USA) Qhubeka-NextHash 4:07:42 130 Jelle Wallays (Bel) Cofidis 4:09:46 131 Jeremy Cabot (Fra) TotalEnergies 4:11:35 132 Chris Froome (GBr) Israel Start-up Nation 4:12:01 133 Rick Zabel (Ger) Israel Start-up Nation 4:13:07 134 Dries Devenyns (Bel) Deceuninck-QuickStep 4:20:49 135 Reto Hollenstein (Swi) Israel Start-up Nation 4:24:19 136 Mads Pedersen (Den) Trek-Segafredo 4:29:17 137 Michael Mørkøv (Den) Deceuninck-QuickStep 4:32:45 138 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Deceuninck-QuickStep 4:34:14 139 Cees Bol (Ned) Team DSM 4:36:39 140 Tim Declercq (Bel) Deceuninck-QuickStep 5:01:09

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Tour de France 2021 – Stage 11 [FULL STAGE]

Tour de France 2021 – Stage 11 [LAST 20 KM]

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Tour de France 2023 prize money: How much does the yellow jersey win?

Jonas vingegaard will collect his second yellow jersey in paris and a big winners’ cheque for topping the general classification, article bookmarked.

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Jonas Vingegaard celebrates wearing the yellow jersey

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The 2023 Tour de France is coming to an end, as Jonas Vingegaard prepares to celebrate winning his second yellow jersey in Paris.

Vingegaard beat his closest rival Tadej Pogacar on the stage 16 time trial before crushing the Slovenian on the following day, the queen stage of this year’s Tour which finished in Courchevel. That effectively secured the Dane his triumph and he stands to collect another small fortune when he stands on top of the podium on Sunday.

Riders secure bonuses from their teams for their exploits on the bike during the Tour, but there is plenty of prize money on offer from race organisers ASO too.

• Tour de France – stage 20 latest updates LIVE

Tour de France prize money

The total prize pot of the 2023 Tour de France is €2.5m and the overall winner of the general classification receives 20% of that figure, taking home €500,000.

Every other finisher up to 160th place receives €1,000 in Paris.

Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard battled for yellow this year

Individual stage prize money

Winning a stage of the Tour nets €11,000.

Green & polka dot jersey prize money

The winner of the points classification for the best sprinter takes home €25,000, as does the King of the Mountains.

Jasper Philipsen has dominated the green jersey standings

Polka dot jersey prize money

The best young rider at the end of the Tour (aged 25 and under) takes away €20,000.

There are other prizes to be won throughout the Tour de France. The daily combativity award comes with a €2,000 purse, and the overall combativity award earns the winner €20,000.

There is €800 for the first rider over the top of each hors categorie climb , €600 for category one , €400 for category two , €300 for category three and €200 for category four ascents.

The leader of each classification receives €300 per day, except for the general classification who receives €500.

The winner of the Souvenir Henri Desgrange – the first rider over the top of the highest point of the race – earns €5,000. This year that was Austria’s Felix Gall, who also went on to win the stage, collecting a healthy pay day.

You can see the full standings here by clicking on the ‘stopwatch’ tab:

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Jonas Vingegaard Wins Tour de France, Completing His Sudden Ascent to Top

Vingegaard, 25, won cycling’s most prestigious race on his second attempt, setting up a new rivalry with the two-time champion he dethroned, Tadej Pogacar.

By Juliet Macur

PARIS — Head down and legs churning, Jonas Vingegaard crossed the finish line of the penultimate stage of the Tour de France on Saturday and cupped his hand over his mouth, as if to stifle a gasp. He had done what he had come to do, and his astonishing accomplishment was sinking in.

In only his second Tour de France, and only three years after becoming a professional cyclist, Vingegaard, a 25-year-old Danish rider, had sealed his victory in cycling’s most prestigious race.

His victory became official on Sunday, when the race concluded with its traditional celebratory ride into Paris. But the Tour had been effectively over for days, and when Vingegaard finished second in Saturday’s time trial to his Jumbo-Visma teammate, Wout van Aert of Belgium, his effort on the 25-mile course was enough to leave him with such a large lead in the overall standings — 3 minutes 34 seconds ahead of his closest pursuer — that the final stage brought almost no drama at all.

Vingegaard steered clear of danger on the final laps in Paris, crossing — safely — alongside his teammates well behind the peloton. His winning time was 79 hours 33 minutes 20 seconds.

“We made a plan and we followed it 100 percent,” he said on the podium afterward . “And thanks to everyone in the team, behind the team. It has been really incredible journey for us and now we finally did it.”

After about three full weeks of the Tour, Vingegaard, as he had on Saturday, immediately sought out his partner and toddler daughter in the area past the finish line and gave them a long, sweaty hug.

While Vingegaard had pedaled up and down all the endless hills and unforgiving mountains, and across all the flat roads past fields of flowers and farms, he had wanted to win for them. During every day of searing heat that at times rose above 100 degrees, melting pavement and sidelining some riders with heat exhaustion, he said, he had steeled himself for them.

And, in the end, Vingegaard, who grew up in a small fishing town in northern Denmark, won what was arguably one of the most grueling Tours in history.

Tadej Pogacar, the Slovene rider looking for his third straight Tour win, finished second overall, 2:43 behind Vingegaard, after fighting Vingegaard for the lead until the race’s final days. Geraint Thomas of Britain, the 2018 Tour winner, was third, 7:22 off the pace. Every other rider was at least 13 minutes behind Vingegaard.

“I think the battle between me and Jonas was really something special,” Pogacar, 23, said Saturday, acknowledging the eventual outcome. He offered Sunday’s only hint of a surprise: a late sprint into the lead on Sunday’s final lap, though he was immediately reeled back into the lead group.

“It’s going to be an interesting couple of years ahead for us,” Pogacar said of his nascent rivalry with Vingegaard. “He’s stepped up from last year, he’s taken control of things from the beginning, and he’s proved he’s a strong rider.”

Going into this Tour, Pogacar most likely expected Vingegaard to be his greatest rival after Vingegaard’s improbable second-place finish last year.

In 2021, Jumbo-Visma’s top rider, Primoz Roglic, had dropped out of the Tour after a crash and Vingegaard took it upon himself to show what he could do . His performance was breathtaking — and unexpected. On the daunting Mont Ventoux, he left Pogacar behind to record one of the fastest times ever for that legendary climb.

Vingegaard’s entire career has been nothing short of a fairy tale played out on two wheels and on fast forward.

Six months before joining Jumbo-Visma in 2019, he was working part-time in a Danish factory where he gutted, cleaned and packed fish into ice-filled boxes. Before that, he worked at a fish auction. He credits those days of waking at 4 a.m. and all that hard manual labor in the shivering cold with helping him get to where he is now, at the top of the cycling world.

His Jumbo-Visma team, especially van Aert, was at his side all the way.

Van Aert had his own remarkable race, spending every day of the Tour except the first in the green jersey, which is awarded to the rider who accumulates the most points for stage finishes and in midrace sprint sections. But his biggest achievement over the past three weeks might have been his support of Vingegaard.

Van Aert was there for Vingegaard when his teammate needed him the most on the grueling Hautacam climb that turned out to be the deciding stage in the overall competition. He took off on a breakaway and mercilessly dictated a fast pace, challenging the notion, at 6-foot-3, that light, smaller riders like Vingegaard and Pogacar are naturally the best climbers.

Pogacar, who was battling Vingegaard for the overall lead, couldn’t keep up. As Vingegaard and van Aert kept climbing, Pogacar faded, looking like a car with a sputtering engine as the Jumbo-Visma teammates powered ahead.

The Jumbo-Visma team had won six of the Tour’s 20 stages entering Sunday’s finale. After Saturday’s stage, though, Vingegaard faced questions about his fairy-tale career. One reporter asked him about his rapid rise in the sport, and about how he could have finished 22nd in the 2019 Danish national time trial and then go on to nearly win Saturday’s time trial after three weeks of the Tour.

If Vingegaard was familiar at all with Tour history, or Danish racing history, it was possible that he expected the question. The only other Dane to win the Tour was Bjarne Riis in 1996, and a decade later Riis admitted that he had doped to win the race. Many past winners, though none recently, have either been caught doping or have admitted to doing so.

No, Vingegaard said, he did not go fast because he had doped. It happened because he and his team improved his aerodynamics by toiling in the wind tunnel and adjusting his body position and bike.

“We’re totally clean,” he said in his news conference, broadening his denial to include his entire team. “Every one of us. I can say that to every one of you. No one of us is taking anything illegal.”

High-altitude training camps and attention to detail — in food, in equipment, in preparation — were behind Jumbo-Visma’s rise, he said. “That’s why you have to trust,” he said.

Vingegaard appears to take sportsmanship seriously. On one descent during Stage 18, Pogacar crashed on a section of gravel as he and Vingegaard zoomed down a hill nearly side by side. But instead of taking advantage of Pogacar’s fall, Vingegaard waited for him down the road, allowing his rival to catch up .

After coming back together, Pogacar reached out in an expression of gratitude and the two clenched hands in a moment that will be replayed for years as an example of the good side of sports.

But only one of them was invited to climb atop the podium in Paris and celebrate on the Champs-Élysées. Only one got to pose for photos and family memories that will last a lifetime. And only one will be celebrated in his home country this summer as the king of cycling.

A series of ceremonies honoring Vingegaard already has been scheduled in Copenhagen, the city that hosted the start of this year’s Tour — the kickoff to Vingegaard’s ride to victory.

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Road cycling: Jonas Vingegaard and Demi Vollering win Vélo d'Or awards as the best riders of 2023 - Complete list of winners

The winners of the prestigious prize were announced at a ceremony in Paris.

Tour de France champions Jonas Vingegaard and Demi Vollering were honoured for their remarkable 2023 seasons with the Vélo d'Or "Golden Bicycle" award on Tuesday (24 October).

The prize is road cycling’ s equivalent to football’s Ballon d'Or which recognises the best player over the previous year.

A second consecutive overall win at the Tour de France and a second place in the general classification at the Vuelta a España secured Vingegaard the award as the first Dane in history.

The Jumbo-Visma rider received 142 points in the vote, world champion Mathieu van der Poel 133 points, and two-time Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar 126 points.

Vollering claimed the Tour de France Femmes, a second place overall in La Vuelta Femenina and earned a historic Ardennes classics hat-trick this year to become the second woman ever to win the award.

World champion Lotte Kopecky was runner-up with 139 points to Vollering's 171.

Last year, Tokyo 2020 Olympic time trial champion Annemiek Van Vleuten was the first-ever recipient of the Velo d’Or Femmes. She came third this time with 99 points.

The Vélo d'Or was created in 1992 by the French cycling magazine Vélo Magazine, and the winner is voted by an international jury of journalists.

Below you can find the full list of previous Vélo d'Or winners.

* Lance Armstrong has five Vélo d'Or awards between 1999-2004, but was stripped of all his seven consecutive Tour de France wins. The award has not been been given to the second-ranked rider.

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Complete list of Vélo d'Or winners

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Vélo d’Or looks for new dimension with awards ceremony in Paris

Pogacar, Van der Poel, Kopecky and Vollering among contenders for main prizes on Tuesday night

Back in the 1990s, the big reveal was a simple affair. The identity of the winner of the Vélo d’Or was revealed on the newsstands, when the year’s final edition of Vélo Magazine would go on sale featuring a cover photograph of the laureate dressed in a suit and clutching his trophy.

In 1998, Tour de France winner Marco Pantani created a minor stir when he opted against formal attire for the cover shoot, but given the low-key nature of the prizegiving, his decision to dress down for the occasion was an understandable one. In the years that followed, the convention of the winner uncomfortably donning a dickie bow on the cover of Vélo Magazine quietly disappeared.

There ought to be a little more pomp in Paris on Tuesday evening, however, when the 2023 winners are revealed during the first formal awards ceremony in the 31-year history of the Vélo d’Or.

Annemiek van Vleuten, Remco Evenepoel win 2022 Velo d'Or awards

Van Vleuten, Ferrand-Prévot favourites for first-ever women’s Velo d’Or award

The event will take place at the Pavillon Gabriel, just off the Champs-Élysées, with Eddy Merckx and Bernard Hinault on hand as guests of honour. 

There have been attempts at formality in the past - Chris Froome received his 2017 award on stage at the Tour presentation - but this extended ceremony has been organised with the obvious aim of making the Vélo d’Or presentation an event in the manner of football’s Balon d’Or, which is run by Vélo ’s sister title France Football .

The timing, on the eve of the 2024 Tour de France route presentation, should ensure that a sizeable amount of the nominees – and, presumably, the eventual winners – will be on hand in Paris for the occasion, which features a number of new prizes.

When the Vélo d’Or was inaugurated in 1992, there was an overall award and an additional category for French riders. Miguel Indurain was the first winner, with Laurent Jalabert picking up the local prize.

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In 1995, Jalabert became the first man to win both prizes in the same year, while in 2000, Felicia Ballanger became the first – and only – female recipient of the Vélo d’Or Français. 

Lamentably, women’s cycling remained largely ignored by the Vélo d’Or until last year, when Annemiek van Vleuten became the first winner of the new Vélo d’Or Femmes.

Van Vleuten is again among the nominees in 2023, but the clear favourites for the prize are the SD Worx duo of Tour de France Femmes winner Demi Vollering and world champion Lotte Kopecky. The other nominees are Elisa Longo Borghini, Alison Jackson, Juliette Labous, Katarzyna Niewiadoma, Gaia Realini, Marlen Reusser and Lorena Wiebes.

In the men’s category, Evenepoel is again among the nominees after a year that included the world time trial title and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, but the prize looks likely to go elsewhere, with three riders in the mix.

Two-time winner Tadej Pogačar’s victories at the Tour of Flanders, Il Lombardia and elsewhere place him firmly in contention, but he may miss out to Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard or to Mathieu van der Poel, who won Milan-San Remo, Paris-Roubaix and the World Championships in a remarkable campaign.

Giro d’Italia winner Primož Roglič is also in the mix after his sparkling season, with the nominees rounded out by Mads Pedersen, Tom Pidcock, Wout van Aert, Jasper Philipsen and Adam Yates.

The Vélo d’Or Français has been split into two categories from this year, with European champion Christophe Laporte the overwhelming favourite to pick up the road award, while Pauline Ferrand-Prévot looks the obvious candidate to claim the ‘Olympique France’ category, which covers the disciplines of mountain bike, BMX and track.

The other novelties for this year are the prizes for the best Classics riders of the year. The men’s category looks like a straight duel between Pogačar and Van der Poel, while the women’s category appears a little more open, with Vollering, Kopecky, Jackson, Reusser and Longo Borghini nominated.

The ceremony will be broadcast internationally on L’Équipe ’s YouTube, Facebook and Twitch accounts. Cyclingnews will have full details of the winers.

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Barry Ryan is Head of Features at Cyclingnews. He has covered professional cycling since 2010, reporting from the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and events from Argentina to Japan. His writing has appeared in The Independent, Procycling and Cycling Plus. He is the author of The Ascent: Sean Kelly, Stephen Roche and the Rise of Irish Cycling’s Golden Generation , published by Gill Books.

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The Triumph of the First Woman to Win the Tour de France

Imagine it’s 1984 and you’re watching the award ceremony for the Tour de France. It’s the first time both a man and a woman are standing on the platform, the winners of separate races.

Two years later, the male winner, Laurent Fignon, would still be in the midst of a successful professional cycling career, while the woman, Marianne Martin, would be retired from racing and working two jobs to pay off her debts. But she wouldn’t have any regrets, because she would forever be the first woman to win the Tour de France Féminin, a race that almost never happened.

Women on the Tour: A Controversial Idea

In 1983, Felix Levitan, one of the Tour’s organisers, sparked a heated debate in France with a daring proposal: organizing a women’s Tour. The French weren’t so thrilled about the idea. As the 1983 Tour winner Laurent Fignon put it, ‘I like women, but I prefer to see them doing something else’.

Luckily, Levitan pushed his plan through and in the summer of 1984, 18 stages and about 1,083 km were ready and waiting for female racers. The press took particular interest in the Dutch national team, because it had one of the greatest female racers in Europe, Heleen Hage. No one knew much about the American team, so expectations for them were low. Who would have known that the US team’s underdog would get most of the attention in the coming weeks!

The US Team’s Hidden Star

In the spring of 1984, only a few months before the race, Marianne Martin was recovering from anemia. The 26-year-old American had discovered her talent for cycling in college and was soon entering major races throughout the country. Racing became her passion, and nothing could stop her, even illness.

When Marianne heard there would be a women’s equivalent of the Tour, she knew she had to race. With no recent wins to her credit, Marianne basically had to beg the US national cycling coach to let her join. Luckily, he accepted the young lady as the sixth and final member of the American women’s team.

The then-leader of the US team was Betsy King: the first female participant in the famous Bordeaux–Paris race. So everyone was surprised when Marianne finished third in the first stage, but no one was very excited. On the contrary, Marianne got into trouble for not being a team player. The racer disciplined herself and kept a low profile for the next 11 stages.

The Challenging Alpine Passes

The game changer came in the 12th stage. Two mountain passes in the Alps awoke the inner climber in Marianne, who cut loose and left the pack. Once at the top, she planned to wait for the other racers, but eventually she just kept on riding her way to the polka-dot jersey, an award for the Tour’s best climber. That’s when she knew she might actually have a shot at winning the race.

Suddenly, the American team started getting attention from the media. In a few days, Marianne passed the famous Heleen Hage with a five-minute lead in the La Plagne stage, adding a yellow jersey to her collection. And so the team rearranged around a new leader.

Go, Marianne Martin!

Right before the final stage, Marianne tried calling her father to tell him to turn on his TV and watch his daughter finish the race. But she couldn’t get a hold of him. When she reached the finish line of the final stage under the Arc of Triomphe, Marianne heard someone in the crowd cheering: “Go, Marianne Martin!” That someone was her father, who had jumped on a plane so he didn’t miss his daughter’s triumph.

Marianne collected the award: a trophy and $1,000, which she shared with her team, and then returned to America. In 1986 she quit racing for good due to health issues, and started working to pay off the debts she’d built up during her cycling career. But she never really cared about prizes: even when she recalls the 1984 Tour, Marianne mostly talks about how much fun she had.

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TOUR’18: The PEZ Awards!

The PEZ TOUR Awards: Every big event has an award ceremony and so we can’t let the 2018 Tour de France pass by without ‘The PEZ Tour’18 Alternative Awards’ by Sam Larner. Sam assures us he didn’t miss one pedal stroke of the Grand Boucle this year and so is in the perfect position to be the Grand Master of Ceremonies.

Was the 2018 Tour de France a good one? It was better than 2017 but we’re still some way off a classic Tour. The Tour remains under the stranglehold of the Sky team and although it’s a great example of how to best use your team it does somewhat take the excitement out of the race. Still, Geraint Thomas was a deserving winner and even an underdog considering Chris Froome was the primary leader for the British team. Still, at PezCycling we reward more than just the winner of the race and we continue that with the annual Tour de France awards.

Best Team Not Called Sky

Nominees: LottoNL-Jumbo & UAE Team Emirates

Winner: Quick-Step Floors

Four stage wins, two apiece for Fernando Gaviria and Julian Alaphilippe plus the King of the Mountains jersey for the Frenchman, this was a very good Tour for the Belgian team. Gaviria won two stages in the first four days and then went quiet after that, if he could’ve made it through the mountains it’s hard to imagine that he wouldn’t have added at least two more stages. The yellow jersey for the Colombian was an amazing reward on his first ever day at the Tour and he looks set to follow in the footsteps of Fabian Cancellara and the Swiss’ illustrious career. Bob Jungels snuck in a little 11th place overall to add to the team’s overall success.

Movistar Award for Rubbish Tactics

Nominees: Team Sunweb

Winner: Movistar

Nobody thought the Movistar tactics of three leaders would work, and they didn’t. Alejandro Valverde turned out to be the de-facto support rider for Mikel Landa and Nairo Quintana which meant that we were soon down to just the two leaders but then they took it in turns to have off days. Quintana has failed at the Tour for the last two tries and is quickly putting together a reverse career, he finished on the podium in his first three attempts and has finished in double figures the last two years. Mikel Landa never really looked like he was going to do anything that special and he happily fulfilled the role of last man to unhitch from the GC group on his way to a low key 7th place. It turns out that if you show up with three second rung overall contenders you’ll win the team classification but that’s about it.

The Least Bad French Team

Nominees: Team Fortuneo-Samsic & Direct Energie

Winner: Groupama-FDJ

It wasn’t a terrible Tour for the French, they took three stage wins but it wasn’t a great race for the French teams. Warren Barguil took part in the polka dot jersey race until it became clear that Alaphilippe was streets ahead. Cofidis had some noteworthy results with Christophe Laporte in the least contested set of sprints ever to occur at the Tour but they are now ten years on from their last Tour victory, that’s woeful. Anyway, Groupama-FDJ win this award for the very fact that they took a stage win, admittedly when every other sprinter had gone home, but beggars can’t be choosers.

The Surprise Team of the Tour

Nominees: Wanty-Groupe Goubert

Winner: LottoNL-Jumbo

Well then, how do you turn Primoz Roglic and Steven Kruijswijk into podium contenders at the Tour de France? Not only that, but how do you also then get three stage wins? LottoNL-Jumbo really were the surprise package of the Tour. Roglic and Dylan Groenewegen have 19 wins between them this year and they continued the trend taking all three wins for the team at the race. Groenewegen was another sprinter to leave early but he is making strides into the upper echelons of the sprinting World. The best part of the race though was the spectacular third week of Roglic. The Slovenian was spectacular up until the penultimate day when he fell off the podium after a disappointing time trial. Great things await him surely. Kruijswijk was the forgotten third member of the band but after getting so close to the 2016 Giro d’Italia title it was great to see him lighting up a Grand Tour again.

The Worst Team of the Tour

Nominees: EF Education First-Drapac & Lotto Soudal

Winner: Team Dimension Data

How do you solve a problem like Dimension Data? UAE Team Emirates were going through a tough time but they had the quality of rider to emerge from the doldrums at any point, I don’t know if Dimension Data have that. Louis Meintjes is a legitimate contender at any Grand Tour but I’m using contender to mean someone who can finish in the top 10, I would be exceptionally surprised if he ever makes it onto a podium. Mark Cavendish is nearing the end of his career and Edvald Boasson Hagen is still in his early 30s but has never been a prolific winner. This Tour was very poor for the African team and they need some serious changes if they’re going to pick up more than just a handful of wins each year.

They Should have Picked a Sprinter Award

Nominees: Katusha-Alpecin (I know they picked Marcel Kittel)

Winner: Mitchelton-Scott

Mitchelton-Scott decided to put all their eggs in Adam Yates’ basket and so decided against taking sprinter Caleb Ewan to the Tour. At Le Grand Bornard the British rider was tied with Chris Froome on time and the decision to leave the Australian pocket rocket at home was justified. Yates fell out of contention on the way to La Rosiere and didn’t stop falling. He was able to muster some challenges for stages late on but not enough to be a successful race. Maybe Ewan wouldn’t have won a stage, but he might have hung around long enough to take advantage of the sprinterless last week.

Did you lot ride then? Award

Nominee: Katusha-Alpecin & Cofidis

Winner: Direct Energie

How to win this award? Get into a few breaks early on and then go AWOL for the rest of the race. Sylvain Chavanel did a bit in the first week when nobody cared who was in the break but he wasn’t backed up by his team. Lilian Calmejane was the best place in the yellow jersey battle but he was way down in 30th more than an hour behind. It’s slightly bizarre that Jonathan Hivert wasn’t selected in the squad after he was so impressive at the start of the season, he could have done relatively well in those early hilly stages.

The One Man Army Award

Nominee: Bahrain-Merida & Bora-Hansgrohe

Winner: Team Sunweb

It was reported that Team Sky spend 30 million euros a year or twice what Sunweb spend. The most shocking thing about that is how Sunweb get to 15 million euros with their team. They have six victories this season and five of them are at a World Tour level so it’s not terrible but it’s not good enough for that level of investment. Tom Dumoulin should be used to riding around in the mountains without any support but apart from La Rosiere where he had Soren Kragh Andersen with him he’s never had any support on the last mountain of the day and he’s had to do so much work. If I was in charge of Sunweb I would be opening my cheque book as far as possible to try and attract someone for the mountains so Dumoulin doesn’t have to do it all by himself.

RIP Andreas Kappes

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