Tadej Pogacar wins stage 20 of Tour de France as Jonas Vingegaard seals overall win

Stage 20 of the Tour de France saw more action in the Vosges, Tadej Pogacar has won a small group sprint at Le Markstein to take his second one of the race whilst Jonas Vingegaard arrived safely and secured the overall classification.

The final mountain stage of the Tour promised spectacle and from early on fans were en masse in the climbs of the Vosges. Victor Campenaerts and Jasper de Buyst attacked at the start line but Lidl-Trek kept a tight leash in the peloton, looking to have a controlled ride up the first ascent of the day. There they pushed the pace hard and covered attacks, leading to Giulio Ciccone to sprint to the most points at the top of the ascent.

The pace was hard in the descent and splits formed in the peloton, with Carlos Rodríguez and Sepp Kuss hitting the deck, Jonas Vingegaard in the front group which led the next kilometers to be violently fast. However as the race began to rise once again moves in the front group saw Vingegaard caught, and a breakaway was then formed.

Mattias Skjelmose, Giulio Ciccone, Tom Pidcock, Valentin Madouas, Chris Harper, Rigoberto Urán, Kevin Vermaerke, Maxim van Gils, Thibaut Pinot and Warren Barguil formed the front group, a few of those riders briding across a few kilometers later after missing the initial move. However the group moved on with organization, but UAE Team Emirates had a constantly high pace in the peloton as they looked to go for the stage win.

The gap never grew above the 1:30 minutes mark, and riders looked towards the Petit Ballon. The front group began to lose members with the high pace, Thibaut Pinot attacked with 31 kilometers to go and rode off the front. This led to amazing views on the ascent as thousands of fans made the trip to that specific climb and cheered the Frenchman on what is his final climbing test in his Tour de France career.

He crossed the summit with 35 seconds over Tom Pidcock, Warren Barguil and Tom Pidcock, the peloton at 1:20. David Gaudu was a victim of the descent in the GC group, but otherwise the race remained similar into the first kilometers of the final ascent. With 13 kilometers to go it changed, Tadej Pogacar attacked explosively, with response from Jonas Vingegaard only.

With no collaboration the two then followed the wheel of Felix Gall who followed across, whilst Pinot was caught by Pidcock and Barguil. The trio bridged across to the front with 12 kilometers to go, Gall continued to push the pace dropping the remnants of the breakaway quickly. The gap maintained to the chasers, Simon and Adam Yates attacked from behind and with the front trio not collaborating, they bridged to the front.

It was up to a sprint, Yates kept the pace high in the group to block attacks, Jonas Vingegaard tried to surprise, but in the final sprint Pogacar was unbeatable. Felix Gall finished second on the day whilst Jonas Vingegaard rode to third with the yellow jersey a reason to celebrate.

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