tour de france 2024: stage 21
by Rémy Rossi
Other riders still bulleted along the coast for a shot at a final victory. And it turns out Tadej Pogačar had one left in in the chamber, claiming a sixth stage win as he confirmed his third overall win at the Tour de France.
Nice to meet you
Today’s stage marked the first time in history that the Tour de France didn't finish in Paris. And for a race steeped in tradition and obsessed with unwritten rules, such a break from convention is a big deal. But I guess the Paris 2024 Olympic Games is a good enough reason.
The historic location change and relatively rare time trial ending made this year’s edition even more unique, reminiscent of Greg LeMond’s legendary final-day win by just 8 seconds back in 1989. Pogačar made sure to be sufficiently ahead of Vingegaard and Remco going into the final day to avoid Laurent Fignon-ing in the ITT. Plus, Pogačar actually won Stage 21 to really make sure there weren’t any surprises. It probably helped too that these roads between Monaco (where Tadej claims residency) and Nice are effectively the Slovenian’s home roads. He confessed that he and his pro cyclist girlfriend Urska Zigart reconned the stage route many times together.
Time (trial) in the spotlight
The ITT format deservedly gave each rider their own special moment in the limelight. It likely didn’t come across on the broadcast as there are only so many cameras and many riders spread around the course, but the time trial enabled a celebratory atmosphere all along the coast.
I think the fans and commentators could notice the calmer mood amid most of the peloton (save for the time trial specialists and GC contenders who still had real work to do). This meant that we saw plenty of hi-fives, waving to the crowd, and patient farewells from beloved Tour retirees such as Romain Bardet and Simon Geschke. Spicing things up a bit is good to keep the race fresh and I think the Tour organizers hit the nail on the head with this one. We’ll be back in Paris next year so the Tour traditionalists, greedy sprinters, and cobblestone freaks will have their prized finale back soon.
Last but not least
There aren’t normally so many eyes on Mark Cavendish during a time trial. This time around, though, he received plenty of attention as he rode his final Tour stage in one of his least favorite formats. He relished the ride and made time to salute, wave, and hi-five adoring fans along the road.
I would say that he bid farewell in good fashion, but aesthetics were not Cav’s strong suit today. Specifically, he doubled up on lenses as he wore his Oakley sunglasses under the monstrous time trial helmet with its integrated visor. A truly wild look. But hey, gotta keep the sponsors happy.
Cav is Cav and can do anything he wants so I’m really not judging. He further earned our respects by claiming one of the Tour’s most prestigous honors: the Lanterne Rouge. He was second-to-last prior to Stage 21 but his Astana teammate Davide Ballerini rode quick enough to allow Cavendish to glide into Nice as the the Tour’s overall slowest man, all while being the race’s winningest participant in history. Now that’s a paradox I like.
Rivalry of a generation
In a sport increasingly ruled by performance science and data crunching, it’s rare for some truly juicy statistics to pop up seemingly out of nowhere. But the depths of the chaotic X-verse delivered once again and produced a great compartive metric comparing Vingegaard and Pogačar: over the course of the last five Tours (including this one), the cumulative difference between the two champions is a mere 22 seconds! Mind-blowing. That’s hundreds of hours of riding split by a relatively microscopic handful of seconds. With Pogačar’s win today, the accumulated time of Tadej and Jonas is now separated by 1 minute and 25 seconds across a whopping 105 stages.
Be more like Tibo
Thibault Pinot sure knows how to relax and we could all learn something from him as we chill out after such a drama-filled Tour. On Sunday, he was spotted cruising on a Lime shared bike along the boardwalk in Nice expertly steering with one hand as he sipped a non-alcoholic lemon-flavored beer. No shirt, no problem.
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