The 2024 Tour de France moves from Italy to France and immediately the first signature of Tadej Pogacar arrives. The Slovenian phenomenon dominates far and wide, going solo on the Galibier and already inflicting gaps on all his rivals. For him, of course, there is the Yellow Jersey on his shoulders, partial success number 12 at the Grande Boucle.
The race was heated from the start, with Mads Pedersen unleashed to go and look for the intermediate sprint placed in the first 20 km. Then the battle for the escape, with a group of eighteen men who left for Sestriere: in attack Christopher Juul-Jensen (Team Jayco AlUla), Julien Bernard (Lidl – Trek), Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team), David Gaudu, Valentin Madouas and Romain Grégoire (Groupama – FDJ), Mathieu van der Poe (Alpecin – Deceuninck), Stephen Williams (Israel – Premier Tech), Oier Lazkano (Movistar Team), Raúl García Pierna and Cristián Rodríguez (Arkéa – B&B Hotels), Kobe Goossens (Intermarché – Wanty), Warren Barguil (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL), Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan Team), Odd Christian Eiking and Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) and Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies).
The group however did not leave any space with the UAE Emirates intent on closing to keep Tadej Pogacar in orbit towards the stage victory. The escapees, with Lazkano the last to resist, were caught in the second part of the Galibier: the Emirati team was devastating, putting pure climbers like Yates, Ayuso and Almeida to pull, destroying the peloton. Among the first to give up the Yellow Jersey Richard Carapaz who had to say goodbye to the symbol of primacy, also detached Enric Mas and, later, our Giulio Ciccone.
The last kilometre of the climb saw the long-awaited sprint of Tadej Pogacar: the only one to hold, up to 200 meters from the summit, was Jonas Vingegaard who gave up right at the top. Just behind them also an excellent Remco Evenepoel, while further behind Carlos Rodriguez and Primoz Roglic.
On the descent, Pogacar created a gap and managed to triumph clearly at the finish line in Valloire. Behind him, Vingegaard was caught by the group of pursuers: Evenepoel was 35” ahead of Ayuso and Roglic, with Rodriguez and Vingegaard just behind. At 2’42” Ciccone, the best of the Italians, was in ninth place.
By the editorial staff of Inbici News24 and OA Sport
Copyright © Reproduction Reserved Inbici Media Group
