"We'll let the break go tomorrow and just enjoy it" - Tadej Pogacar hints he's finally done attacking at 2024 Tour de France after stage 19

No man since Marco Pantani in 1998 has managed to back up a Giro d'Italia win with success at the Tour de France but in 2024, Tadej Pogacar has seemingly ended that long wait. After a dominant performance in Italy earlier this year, the Slovenian has arguably been even better in France.

Putting the exclamation point on his performance on stage 19, the UAE Team Emirates leader took his 4th stage win of the race, 10th Grand Tour victory of the year, destroying Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel with a fierce attack and overturning a near three minute deficit to Matteo Jorgenson in the final 9km to all but officially confirm his 3rd Tour de France GC win.

"I wanted to win this queen stage. I can now also confirm that the Cime de Bonette is a terrifying climb. In training it is a cool climb, but then you can skip the last kilometre, haha," the Maillot Jaune laughs in his post-stage interview, noting his vast knowledge of the climb. "We've been here for a month. That's also a tough period, with hardly any easy days. You have to climb those cols again and again, but that's why you know them so well now. During our altitude training camp we already discussed how we were going to do in this stage, which is exactly what happened. Until the moment of my attack. 100 percent perfect!"

Having left his GC rivals in the dust at around 9km to go, Pogacar began to pick his way through the remainder of the day's breakaway. Despite it looking relatively easy on TV, the Slovenian insists he was feeling every pedal stroke. "I was empty in those last two kilometres. When I overtook Richard Carapaz and Simon Yates, I was actually already at the limit," he notes. "But I saw that Matteo was also losing time, so I went for it and over the limit. In doing so, I also cut my own legs off a bit, but hats off to Matteo. He did very well, just like the other attackers."

"It looks better than ever. It's a big gap, so on Saturday I have all the time to just enjoy it. We'll let the break go tomorrow and just enjoy it on roads where I often train. And then hopefully nothing crazy will happen," he concludes, now more than five minutes clear of Vingegaard. "I have found a good balance. Last year it was two stage wins, now four!"