"I was hoping that Tadej would give me the stage win, but I didn’t necessarily expect it” - Jonas Vingegaard can't cap resurgent performance with Tour de France stage win

After the emotional disappointment of stage 19 at the 2024 Tour de France, Jonas Vingegaard was again put on the back foot on stage 20 by Remco Evenepoel. This time however, the Dane did not buckle, powering away from his Belgian rival, although a stage win wasn't quite on the cards due to a superior again Tadej Pogacar.

After Soudal - Quick-Step had set a fierce pace all day, Evenepoel attacked on the final climb. Disappointingly for Evenepoel though, a counter from Vingegaard actually dropped the Belgian. With 2.6km to go, Pogacar and Vingegaard caught the remainder of the break and as the final 500m were reached however, just two remained up front. Pogacar was stuck on the front, but the Maillot Jaune decided to launch his sprint early and comfortably triumphed again.

“In a way I was hoping that Tadej would give me the stage win, but I didn’t necessarily expect it,” Vingegaard explained to the Eurosport camera in his post-stage interview. “I was riding hard. If he sprinted, I wouldn’t have had a chance anyway because I was already at my limit. But you can always hope, it’s cycling and that’s how it works.”

"I can't blame him, I probably would have done the same," concludes the Dane, who at least reaffirmed his 2nd position in the general classification. "I'm already very happy with how I performed today and was able to come back from yesterday."

2024 Tour de France stage 20 results: