Vingegaard has first Tour de France win all but secured

ROCAMADOUR, France –

Jonas Vingegaard thundered by way of the final critical take a look at of the Tour de France to extend his total lead on Saturday and all however assure profitable biking’s greatest race.

After three weeks of exhausting racing, the Jumbo-Visma chief dug deep in his reserves to ship one more spectacular efficiency in a very long time trial in southern France.

“It means every part, it is actually unbelievable,” Vingegaard mentioned. “It is the most important factor inside biking and we did it.”

Vingegaard, who shouldn’t be a pure specialist of the race towards the clock, might have performed it secure given his greater than three-minute lead initially. He, as a substitute, took all of the dangers on the technical course and had a scare near the end when he misjudged a curve and needed to brake arduous to keep away from a crash.

Vingegaard then slowed down dramatically as he approached the end line. He completed the twentieth stage in second place 19 seconds behind winner Wout van Aert, his key teammate.

Vingegaard and Van Aert hugged one another warmly on the end and the Danish rider was emotional after he was greeted by his spouse and daughter after the stage.

“Having my two women on the end line means much more to me,” mentioned Vingegaard, who improved on final 12 months’s runner-up end.

“Since final 12 months, I all the time believed I might do it and now it is occurred. It is actually unbelievable. It is each a reduction and I am simply so pleased and proud.”

Van Aert, a flexible competitor with a number of titles and wins throughout the game’s most prestigious occasions, has been essential in pacing Vingegaard by way of the mountain phases. His third stage win this month was his ninth total.

Van Aert, who additionally claimed the most effective sprinter’s inexperienced jersey, has proved he can win on all surfaces and might be a pacesetter in his personal proper in any given workforce. He has to this point deflected discuss of mounting a problem for the yellow jersey sooner or later.

“This has been the query over the previous few days, I feel,” Van Aert mentioned. “I’ve answered a thousand occasions. Proper now, it is simply an unbelievable feeling to win this Tour with the workforce and to win three phases and the inexperienced jersey. For the second, I do not need to discuss in regards to the future.”

Van Aert crossed the end line with a blistering common velocity of fifty.9 kph. The 41.7-kilometer stage from Lacapelle-Marival to Rocamadour was the longest particular person time trial since 2014.

With the ultimate day of the race on Sunday often uneventful till the final dash on the Champs-Elysees, Vingegaard will change into the primary rider from Denmark to win the Tour since 1996, barring a crash or a last-minute incident.

The time trial marked the ultimate hurdle of an epic race that has featured an exciting duel between Vingegaard and two-time defending champion Tadej Pogacar.

Vingegaard constructed his success within the mountains. He first took the yellow jersey from Pogacar within the Alps with a memorable trip up the Col du Granon, and adopted up this week with a formidable show of energy within the final Pyrenean stage to the resort of Hautacam.

Given Vingegaard’s wholesome time benefit, it was unlikely Pogacar would be capable of problem the Danish rider’s supremacy within the time trial. Pogacar took third place, 27 seconds behind Van Aert.

“The battle between me and Jonas for the yellow jersey has been very particular,” Pogacar mentioned. “We’ve some very fascinating subsequent two or three years forward of us. Jonas has stepped up his recreation this 12 months.”

Vingegaard will carry a lead of three minutes, 34 seconds over Pogacar into the ultimate day, a 116-kilometer trip to Paris. Geraint Thomas, the 2018 Tour champion, lagged greater than eight minutes off the tempo in third place.