Tadej Pogacar won the penultimate stage of the Tour de France, beating Jonas Vingegaard in the final sprint – who is about to win the overall title.
Pogacar from the UAE Emirates team triumphed on Saturday (07/22/2023) on the 133.5 km long mountain stage to Le Markstein in the Vosges.
The yellow jersey after Paris is worn by defending champion Jonas Vingegaard. The Dane from Team Jumbo-Visma defended his comfortable overall lead. Vingegaard will in all likelihood win the tour. Traditionally, the yellow jersey is no longer attacked on the last stage to Paris.
Ciccone, the mountain jersey is no longer sporty
The Italian professional cyclist Giulio Ciccone from Team Lidl-Trek can no longer take the mountain jersey in a sporty way. Should the 28-year-old reach the finish of the Tour in Paris on Sunday, he will be the first Italian since Claudio Chiapucci in 1992 to take home the white jersey with the red dots.
Ciccone secured numerous more points on the mountainous 20th stage and can no longer be caught by Austrian Felix Gall. In the past three years, the overall winner had also won the mountain jersey. In 2020 and 2021 Tadej Pogacar won the rankings, in 2022 Jonas Vingegaard triumphed just ahead of the German climbing specialist Simon Geschke.
Sunday last stage in Paris – 2024 the tour ends in Nice
The 21st and final stage takes place on Sunday. From Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines it’s 115.1 km to Paris on the Champs-Elysees. As is so often the case, the trip to Paris should be a stroll before the sprinter teams get serious one last time towards the end. Jasper Philipsen sprinted to victory on the Champs-Elysees last year and is the clear favorite for the prestigious win again this year.
The tour ends on the boulevard for the 49th time, and it hasn’t been any different since 1975. But this series will end next year, and an even bigger sporting event than the Tour is responsible for this. In Paris in 2024, just a few days after the end of the Tour of France, the Summer Olympics will begin – the tour will move to Nice for the last stage and end there with a time trial.
But the Olympics are already casting their shadows this year. Because it starts on Sunday at the Velodrome National in the Paris suburb of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines – in 2024 the track competitions will be held here.