Tour de France 2024 stage 16 GC Update | Tadej Pogacar goes into the Alps with hefty advantage over Jonas Vingegaard

Stage 16 of the Tour de France 2024 kicked off the third and decisive week of the race with the last sprint day of the entire Grande Boucle. This meant that, in principle, the fight for the general classification should not be among the favorites. But given the way Primoz Roglic withdrew from the race in a similar stage to today's, every precaution was necessary.

Tadej Pogacar started the stage with a 3:09 lead over his main pursuer. The yellow jersey seemed to be safe this day from Jonas Vingegaard's comeback attempt, which should come any time this week. Remco Evenepoel, meanwhile, was comfortable in 3rd, followed by João Almeida, Mikel Landa, Carlos Rodriguez and Adam Yates, who started the day showing possible COVID symptoms.

As expected, there was little change in the overall. Before the arrival of the decisive days, Pogacar holds the yellow with the same lead over Vingegaard, 3:09, both arriving safely at the finish line despite a crash in the final kilometers that had none of the favorites as victims of the accident.

Evenepoel, meanwhile, remains more than 5 and a half minutes ahead in the fight for the Tour de France podium, followed by Joao Almeida, 4th. Behind them, the Spanish duo of Mikel Landa and Carlos Rodriguez also finished the day safely in 5th and 6th place, respectively. Landa is having a very meritorious Tour, holding his own as one of the best overall despite basically being a gregario for his leader, Remco.

With no major changes, as mentioned above, the Top 10 is still completed by the same riders: Adam Yates is 7th, Giulio Ciccone keeps Lidl-Trek in the top positions with an 8th place, Derek Gee is 9th and Santiago Buitrago is 10th as the best Colombian rider so far in the Tour de France.