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Van Aert crushes Tour’s final time trial to collect hat trick of triumphs

Vingegaard buffers his lead on penultimate day

July 23, 2022
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Clad in the green points jersey, Wout Van Aert destroyed the chrono in Saturday’s penultimate stage of the 2022 Tour de France, earning a hat trick of victories in the 109th edition to give Jumbo-Visma its sixth win and third on a row. Jumbo’s Jonas Vingegaard defended his yellow jersey in style, putting a little more time into his rivals, and, barring disaster on Sunday, he’ll earn his first title. Hugo Houle was the top Canadian.

You can watch the last stage of the 2022 Tour de France at FloBikes.

The Course

Stage 20 was the conclusion of the GC battle, a 40.7-kilometre time trial from Lacapelle-Marival to Rocamadour with two 1.6-kilometer hills near the finish to decide the final spots in the table. This season the Tour boasted the most time trial kilometres of any Grand Tour. The penultimate stage was the longest individual chrono at the Tour since 2014. There were three intermediate time checks.

Last Day for the GC

Surely, Pogačar wasn’t going to melt away 3:26 from Vingegaard. But there was room for shifts in the top-10. Here’s what it looked like going into Stage 20.

1) Jonas Vingegaard (Denmark/Jumbo-Visma) 75:45:44
2) Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia/UAE-Emirates) +3:26
3) Geraint Thomas (Great Britain/Ineos) +8:00
4) David Gaudu (France/Groupama-FDJ) +11:05
5) Nairo Quintana (Colombia/Arkea-Samsic) +13:35
6) Louis Meintjes (South Africa/Intermarché etc) +13:43
7) Alexandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) +14:10
8) Romain Bardet (France/DSM) +16:11
9) Alexey Lutsenko (Kazakhstan/Astana) +20:29
10) Adam Yates (Great Britain/Ineos) +20:37

The most vulnerable were Quintana, Meintjes and Lutsenko.

It was a hard ask for Hugo Houle in 22nd place to hold off Wout Van Aert in 23rd.

Much was expected of world time trial champion Filippo Ganna. The Italian set the best times at all three time checks and knocked Mikkel Bjerg off the hot seat with 48:41.

When EF Education-Easypost’s Stefan Bissegger passed Oliver Le Gac, Le Gac gave the Swiss a swig of water.

Van Aert was one three riders who posted a faster time than Ganna at the first intermediate check at the 10.6 km mark and the second at 22.1 km. At the third check, he was 23 seconds faster than the world champion.

Pogačar clipped Van Aert’s high mark at the first intermediate split, but Vingegaard promptly beat him. Pogačar was slower than both Vingegaard and Geraint Thomas at the second split, where Vingegaard was still the fastest.

The yellow jersey was a second faster than his teammate at the third intermediate check. The time shifted toward the Belgian after that. Van Aert made a “slow down” gesture towards the TV camera. Vingegaard should have heeded the request, because he nearly stacked it a minute later.

Van Aert would hold fast, 19 seconds faster than Vingegaard and 27 seconds quicker than Pogačar.

The 109th edition concludes on Sunday, with a processional until the race gets to Paris, where it ends on the Champs Elysees.

Tour de France, Stage 20
1) Wout Van Aert (Belgium/Jumbo-Visma) 47:59
2) Jonas Vingegaard (Denmark/Jumbo-Visma) +0:19
3) Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia/UAE-Emirates) +0:27
88) Hugo Houle (Canada/Israel-Premier Tech) +6:40
97) Antoine Duchesne (Canada/Groupama-FDJ) +6:51
109) Guillaume Boivin (Canada/Israel-Premier Tech) +7:13
128) Michael Woods (Canada/Israel-Premier Tech) +8:03

Tour de France GC
Bold=moved up Italics=moved down
1) Jonas Vingegaard (Denmark/Jumbo-Visma) 76:33:57
2) Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia/UAE-Emirates) +3:34
3) Geraint Thomas (Great Britain/Ineos) +8:13
4) David Gaudu (France/Groupama-FDJ) +13:56
5) Alexandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) +16:37
6) Nairo Quintana (Colombia/Arkea-Samsic) +17:24
7) Romain Bardet (France/DSM) +19:02
8) Louis Meintjes (South Africa/Intermarché etc) +19:12
9) Alexey Lutsenko (Kazakhstan/Astana) +23:47
10) Adam Yates (Great Britain/Ineos) +25:42
24) Hugo Houle (Canada/Israel-Premier Tech) +1:42:12
36) Michael Woods (Canada/Israel-Premier Tech) +2:20:50
63) Antoine Duchesne (Canada/Groupama-FDJ) +3:18:16
119) Guillaume Boivin (Canada/Israel-Premier Tech) +4:41:40