Pogacar on cusp of fourth Tour title as Groves solos to stage 20 win

The 42

2 days ago

SLOVENIA'S TADEJ POGACAR was left standing on the cusp of a fourth Tour de France title as Alpecin rider Kaden Groves won Saturday's stage 20 after a long-range escape that saw the Australian finish well ahead of the big guns.
Runaway overall race leader Pogacar maintained his lead over Danish rival Jonas Vingegaard ahead of Sunday's 21st and final stage in Paris.
Ben Healy remains ninth in the general classification. Healy finished 28th in stage 20, seven minutes and 16 seconds down on Groves, while Pogacar was three seconds and four places further back.
Team UAE rider Pogacar has a 4min 24sec advantage heading into what could be a tricky finale, a 132km ride from Mantes-la-Ville to the Champs-Elysees, but featuring three ascents of the cobbled streets of Montmartre.
A fourth title now looms for Pogacar who said after a dominant ride across the peaks and plains of France he felt he's won.
'It's starting to sink in,' said the 26-year-old, who previously won the sport's most prestigious cycling stage race in 2020, 2021 and 2024.
'Tomorrow, all being well, I'll be celebrating with my team,' added a weary Pogacar.
'This has been another level of hard, all the way. I enjoyed it though and I'm really looking forward to the last day tomorrow.'
Pogacar refused to rule out a tilt at a fifth stage win if he could escape up the climbs to Montmartre.
'We'll see how we feel and how the others act, maybe we'll try something in Montmartre.'
The champion-in-waiting was left shaking his head after almost getting taken down in a fall 500m from the line as lashing rain made the roads hazardous on the run in to Pontarlier.
This was a third stage win for Alpecin after Jasper Philipsen and Mathieu van der Poel took the two opening wins.
'They gave me a free role in the final days,' Groves said after both Philipsen and Van der Poel pulled out.
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'I'm going to enjoy this one and celebrate with my team and enjoy the Champs tomorrow.'
Just 158 riders crossed the rolling hills at the foot of the Jura and many looked haggard after the fast racing in the Alps.
So along the Swiss border, most of the peloton seemed happy to let an escape get a 7min lead after an exhausting slog that started 5 July.
Pogacar has dominated the 2025 Tour winning stages on rolling runs in the north and west at Rouen and the Mur de Bretagne in the first week, then on the mountain slopes of the Pyrenees on the Hautacam and Peyragudes in week two.
As the Tour entered its end game Pogacar unexpectedly sat tight to protect his lead through the Alps rather go on his trademark all out attacks.
Vingegaard, the 2022 and 2023 Tour champion, had two off days, first on a time trial and secondly at Hautacam, leaving Pogacar to surge into a lead he never looked like surrendering.
Pogacar said he'd be back on the bike by Tuesday.
'I travel home Monday. Tuesday I'll be going out for a ride with friends, stop somewhere for a coffee and start enjoying the summer, I've earned it.'
Pogacar returns to competitive action in September at Kigali, Rwanda, in defence of his world title.
A boyish Pogacar first won the Tour as a break out star in 2020 with one of sport's great last-gasp turnarounds on stage 20.
He followed up a year later with a crushing triumph, but the emergence of Vingegaard's patient long game earned the Dane the yellow jersey in the two following editions.
Then Pogacar blew everyone away in a mighty 2024 season with a colossal racing programme, winning the Giro d'Italia, Tour de France and world championships titles.
Having extended his efforts into the all-in one-day classics season in 2025, his stamina was a question mark, but on Sunday that barrier also appears set to be breached.
– © AFP 2025