Tadej Pogacar will wear the yellow jersey today for the first time in the Tour de France 2024 thanks to the positions he obtained in the first two days of the race. Because of his strong sprint on stage 1 mainly, he jumped into the race lead yesterday in Bologna after attacking the climb to San Luca and arriving together with Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel and Richard Carapaz - who may take over the race lead today.
In a video shared after the finale, it was possible to hear Pogacar tell Remco Evenepoel that he tried to open up a gap behind the GC favourites' group in the finale, with the intent of losing a second and not take on the race lead. This ultimately was not the case, and the Slovenian climbed to the podium to lead the race for the first time in years.
Thus, four men arrive at the stage with a sprint finish in Turin equal on time: Tadej Pogacar (1st), Remco Evenepoel (2nd), Jonas Vingegaard (3rd) and Richard Carapaz (4th). If none of the riders manage to gain a bonus, yellow will be decided by their positions in the finale at the finish line in a stage in which a sprint is expected and in which there will be no time differences.
As commented by David Garcia of El Maillot, the current post-meter puts Pogacar first with 18 between the 2 stages that have been contested (he was fourth in the first and 14th in the second). Evenepoel has 20 (8th and 12th), Vingegaard, 29 (16th and 13th) and Carapaz, 32 (22nd and 10th);
Thus, taking into account that there are two places between Pogacar and Evenepoel, for example, if the Belgian finishes 3 places ahead of the Slovenian he will overtake Pogacar in this ranking and will likely take on the yellow jersey. Pogacar would not want the responsibility it seems after seeing the level of Jonas Vingegaard, but instead wants to enter stage 4 that goes through the Col du Galibier in a position to attack the race. For Pogacar and Vingegaard, wearing yellow is no longer a key moment; but for Remco Evenepoel and Richard Carapaz it would be massively important to take on the race lead.
It will be curious to see if Pogacar will want to keep the yellow jersey or not and if he will let himself be carried in the peloton more than usual to leave it to one of his rivals. We imagine that Richard Carapaz and EF will be more excited to have the race lead, although 14 places ahead of Pogacar seems too much.
In any case, it will be a beautiful battle that we can experience in the final sprint beyond the fight for victory - the first bunch sprint of the race.
Place comments
0 Comments
You are currently seeing only the comments you are notified about, if you want to see all comments from this post, click the button below.
Show all comments