💛 Tadej Pogacar wins at the top of Col de la Couillole ⛰️ 💛 Tadej Pogacar s’impose au sommet du Col de la Couillole ⛰️ #TDF2024
Soudal - Quick-Step tactics "played into my hands” admits Tadej Pogacar after another scintilating stage win
CyclingSaturday, 20 July 2024 at 18:50
Tadej Pogacar seemed to hint that his days of attacking at the 2024 Tour de France were over after stage 19. When the situation arose for another victory on stage 20 however, the Slovenian did not pass up the opportunity.
Despite UAE Team Emirates content to let the break settle the stage and even getting Marc Soler in the move, Soudal - Quick-Step and Remco Evenepoel took to the front of the bunch to set a fierce pace in an attempt to pressure Jonas Vingegaard in the fight for 2nd behind Pogacar, in the process, bringing the break within touching distance of the GC group on the final climb.
"I really enjoyed this even though it didn’t go as planned,” Pogacar reflected post-stage. “I was very surprised that the race exploded on the Col de Braus, one of my favourite training passes in this region. But our guys did a great job. We all came together and then Soler got into the breakaway. That was good for us. We then tried to take it as easy as possible to go to the final with a big group. But Soudal - Quick-Step wanted to try to gain some time on Jonas, I think. Or to win the stage. That played into my hands.”
"It's the perfect Tour. If you had said this beforehand, I wouldn't have believed it. It's out of this world. I'm so happy. I hope I can celebrate this victory with my teammates today and tomorrow," added Pogacar, who claimed his 5th mountain stage win of this race in the process.
The UAE Team Emirates leader also had a word for his great rival Vingegaard. “He had a few tough days, but today he showed that he is not easy to break. He is a real fighter. He gave everything today, he rode very well and was very strong,” Pogacar concludes. “Five stages is more than enough. One would have been enough, or just the yellow jersey. But it is what it is, you don’t hit the brakes in cycling. Do I still want to win tomorrow? We’ll see, if I have really good legs… But above all, I have to arrive safely in Nice. It’s a pretty dangerous time trial. Maybe I can enjoy the audience a bit more.”
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- When I was working for Starkist/Heinz my manager quit. So the next week my group was put under another manager. During our first meeting he asked if there was anything we needed to tell him. I said that I would be out the following week on vacation. He said "I don't know if I can let you go on vacation". I replied, "You can't tell if I can go. You can only tell me if I can come back".Sweep17-11-2024
- :-)Sweep17-11-2024
- What a mess there :-)
DareDevil17-11-2024 - So he read the comments here probably :-)DareDevil17-11-2024
- Alpecin is a MVDP and sprinter's team. It is unlikely that he will get a chance there as wellabstractengineer17-11-2024
- There’s no crying in cyclocross…Crashjames17-11-2024
- Pointless reporting. They are rivals, each tries their way to get their best result, with or without collaboration. As long as it’s all fair, why even report riders feelings about such stuff (yes I know, lack of other news). Anyone riding races will go through dozens of moments per race where they get emotional about the way someone else rides or takes advantage or doesn’t collaborate or more, it is natural, it is justified, it is NOT newsworthy!Mistermaumau17-11-2024
- I like that you can see you actually replied to you and not just to the same thread. :)Sweep16-11-2024
- I quite like it too, but it seems to be allergic to paragraphs.mikebeast16-11-2024
- A good analogy is germane; a bad analogy isn't. You could say the strength of an analogy can be judged by its germaneness. I thought the bank account analogy was rather germane indeed!mikebeast16-11-2024