In Stage 19 of the 2024 Tour de France, Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) bolstered his grasp on the GC lead, gaining an additional 1’42” over his podium rivals Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step) on the run into Isola 2000.
Pogacar finished 21” ahead of Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) and 40” in front of Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla), who had both been in the breakaway for most of the day. After Pogacar attacked from and decimated the GC favourites group and picked off what remained of the breakaway on the final climb, Evenepoel and Vingegaard crossed the line fifth and sixth respectively, behind fourth placed Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), who now has the polka dot jersey.
Going into the final two stages this weekend Pogacar now leads by 5’03” overall from Vingegaard, with Evenepoel in third, 7’01” from the leader.
Early Breakaway
143 riders took the start in Embrun. An early breakaway group of 22 riders formed, with Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) the first of them to reach the line at the intermediate sprint in Guillestre (IS, km 21.1). Coquard was amongst the riders who then fell back as the lead group was decimated on the first climb of the day to Col de Vars (km 42.6, HC, 18.8 km at 5.7 %, 20 Mountain classification points).
The Day’s Break Group
Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) and Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla) left the peloton on the climb and made it to the front group to join Matteo Jorgenson, Wilco Kelderman (Visma-Lease a Bike), Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale), Ilan Van Wilder (Soudal-Quick Step), Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Cristian Rodriguez (Arkea-B&B Hotels) and Oscar Onley (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) on the gruelling ascent. Olympic champion and Stage 17 winner Carapaz topped the Col de Vars first, ahead of Jorgenson, Kelderman and Van Wilder, with the peloton by that point 3’30” behind.
As the breakaway riders began the brutal ascent of the Cime de la Bonette (km 87.5, HC, 22.9 km at 6.9 %) their lead over the bunch had grown to 4’30”. Onley, Prodhomme and Van Wilder were dropped on the climb, with Carapaz again reaching the summit first to take 40 Mountain classification points and put him in the polka dot jersey, with the main GC group getting there 3’40” later.
Showdown
Cristian Rodriguez was dropped by the five remaining breakaway riders – Jorgenson, Keldermann, S. Yates, Hindley and Carapaz – early on the final climb to Isola 2000 (km 144.6, Cat.1, 16.1 km at 7.1 %, 10 Mountain classification points). Then 13.5km from the summit Hindley also lost ground and a few metres later Jorgenson attacked, going solo at the front. But 9.5km from the summit Pogacar also attacked, with Evenepoel and Vingegaard trying to follow him and unable to hold his wheel. Within 2km the Yellow Jersey quickly built up a 20” advantage over his two rivals on the provisional podium. 1.9km from the summit Pogacar caught and overtook Jorgenson for another fantastic victory, cruising to the finish unrivalled.
Gutsy Performance from Yates
Simon Yates produced another gutsy breakaway performance on stage 19 of the Tour de France as he battled to a hard-fought third place at the top of Isola 2000.
“It was a really hard day, of course Visma had the numerical advantage so I had to play off that a little bit and I was also a little be wary of the altitude, so I tried to go late, but it wasn’t enough,” Yates said after the stage.
You get a rough idea [of who to follow] from how strong guys are during the stage, it’s not a surprise that an Olympic champion [Carapaz] is strong, he was good, maybe he paying for his efforts because he was also in the breakaway yesterday. I tried to play off him a little bit and I bided my time and tried to come back to Jorgensen, but it wasn’t enough.”
Strong Effort From Evenepoel
Remco Evenepoel made another step towards what would be a well-deserved top-three finish at his maiden Tour de France appearance. Soudal Quick-Step’s leader showcased once again his remarkable consistency, finishing in the first ten on the stage for the eighth time since the race got underway from Florence, almost three weeks ago.
“The pace today was hard from the beginning. On the final ascent, I tried to follow Tadej, but his tempo was too strong, so I rode for my place on the podium and gave everything out there, trying to go as fast as I could. We’ll see how things go tomorrow and what we can do, but what’s certain is that it’s going to be a tough stage”, said Remco about the last summit finish of the Grande Boucle, the Col de la Couillole.
Jorgenson: “I Kept Fighting”
“Of course I’m disappointed. I was so close,” are Jorgenson’s first words after the finish. “Last year I also came very close to a stage win. I did everything I could today, but in the end it wasn’t to be. I rode very focused and wanted to squeeze everything out of it. When I heard that Pogacar was getting closer in the finale, I could already feel the pressure. I kept fighting for it with every fiber of my body. Unfortunately that was not rewarded today.”
Jorgenson was quick to praise teammate Kelderman. “We chose the attack today with a clear plan. I have to thank Wilco from the bottom of my heart. He is a fantastic teammate, as well as a great person. When I indicated to him that I was feeling good and wanted to go for it, he didn’t think twice. He completely sacrificed himself for my chances. That’s to his credit. I am more than grateful,” Jorgenson said to his Dutch teammate.
Pogacar: “Scary Climb”
“Now I can confirm that La Bonette is a very scary climb to race. At least in training you can skip the final kilometer! I’m super happy I had good legs today. We trained here the whole month between the Giro and the Tour. It was a very hard training camp with no easy days, as we had to climb every day.
“My teammates and I have talked already of how badly we wanted to race this day, and we raced as we said, setting everything up to the point when I attacked. It was perfect. I was a little bit empty in the final two kilometers of the stage. When I caught Carapaz and Simon Yates, I felt I was already on my limit. Then I saw Matteo and pushed through to overtake him at great speed. That killed my legs and I was afraid that he might come back to outsprint me. He was very strong today, as was the rest of the breakaway. Chapeau to all of them.”
Stage 19 Brief Results
- Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates)
- Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) +21”
- Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla) +40”
- Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) +1’11”
- Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step) +1’42”
General Classification After Stage 19
- Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates)
- Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) +5’03”
- Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step) +7’01”
- Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +15’07”
- Mikel Landa (Soudal-Quick Step) +15’34”
- Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers) +17’36”
- Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) +19’18”
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