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Wout Van Aert wins fifth Tour stage in three editions in penultimate day time trial

Pogačar has one hand on his second trophy

Photo by: Sirotti
July 17, 2021
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Wout Van Aert took his fifth Tour de France stage in three editions in Saturday’s penultimate day time trial. The Danes and the Swiss grappled for most of the day, with Jonas Vingegaard, Stefan Bissegger, Stefan Küng, Kasper Asgreen, Magnus Cort and Mikkel Bjerg the protagonists. Yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar went into the chrono with a big gap over Vingegaard, and wasn’t too bothered by the runner up’s strong performance. Hugo Houle was the top Canadian in 30th.

You can watch the final stage of the 108th Tour de France at FloBikes.

The Course

At 30.8 km, Saturday’s chrono from Libourne to Saint-Émilion was the longer of the two time trials in this year’s Tour de France. It was flatter too. The intermediate check points were at the 7.5 and 20 km marks.



Not much to play for?

There weren’t too many high-stakes battles within the GC top-10: no one was knocking Pogla off his throne, and Richard Carapaz wasn’t likely to jump Vingegaard on the podium. Ben O’Connor had over two minutes to make up on Carapaz to snatch the podium. However, Wilco Kelderman was within 32 seconds of O’Connor. Enric Mas in sixth had Alexey Lutsenko, only 1:11 back, to worry about. Ninth place Pello Bilbao probably wasn’t too concerned with Rigoberto Uran advancing on his spot. In turn, Uran had little to fear from David Gaudu crashing the top-10.

Switzerland vs Denmark

After great time trial results in this year’s UAE Tour, Paris-Nice, Tour de Romandie and Tour de Suisse, Stefan Bissegger (Switzerland/EF Education-Nippo) must’ve been disappointed with his 18th place in the first time trial. But on Saturday the Swiss rider set all the best split times on the course before knocking Mikkel Bjerg off the hot seat with a time of 36:38.

Stefan Bissegger took over the hot seat with 36:38.

Although the Swiss had overtaken a Dane on his way to the hot seat, he soon found himself under pressure from another Dane, national champion Kasper Asgreen of Deceuninck-Quick Step. Asgreen cracked both of Bissegger’s intermediate times. Asgreen then beat the best time by 23 seconds.

Asgreen knocked Bissegger off the hot seat.

Was it time for the Swiss to strike back? European champion Stefan Küng was going great guns on the course, earning the best time at the first time check. But Groupama-FDJ’s chrono ace faded over the final two-thirds of the route and finished 16 seconds in arrears.

Wout Van Aert was determined to break the Swiss-Danish stranglehold at the top of the column, and he reset the fastest time at both the first and second check. Van Aert stopped the clock at 35:53.

Vingegaard’s third fastest time at the first check showed that he was pulling out a bigger gap over Carapaz and making up a little time on Pogačar, who didn’t need to push it.

In the end, all the top-10 riders kept their places. Only one spot changed in the top-20, with Bauke Mollema dumping Sergio Henao out of the top-20.

Sunday is the final stage procession with the famous showdown on the Champs-Élysées.

2021 Tour de France Stage 20
1) Wout Van Aert (Belgium/Jumbo-Visma) 35:53
2) Kasper Asgreen (Denmark/Deceuninck-Quick Step) +0:21
3) Jonas Vingegaard (Denmark/Jumbo-Visma) +0:32
30) Hugo Houle (Canada/Astana-Premier Tech) +2:33
124) Guillaume Boivin (Canada/Israel Start-up Nation) +5:32

2021 Tour de France GC
1) Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia/UAE-Emirates) 80:16:59
2) Jonas Vingegaard (Denmark/Jumbo-Visma) +5:20
3) Richard Carapaz (Ecuador/Ineos Grenadiers) +7:03
4) Ben O’Connor (Australia/AG2R-Citroën) +10:02
5) Wilco Kelderman (The Netherlands/Bora-Hansgrohe) +10:13
6) Enric Mas (Spain/Movistar) +11:43
7) Alexey Lutsenko (Kazakhstan/Astana-Premier Tech) +12:23
8) Guillaume Martin (France/Cofidis) +15:33
9) Pello Bilbao (Spain/Bahrain-Victorious) +16:01
10) Rigoberto Uran (Colombia/EF Education-Nippo) +18:34
65) Hugo Houle (Canada/Astana-Premier Tech) +2:40:15
107) Guillaume Boivin (Canada/Israel Start-up Nation) 3:33:42