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And three stages for Wout Van Aert! The Belgian from Jumbo-Visma won the 20th stage on Saturday, a 40.7 km time trial between Lacapelle-Marival and Rocamadour.
The Jumbo-Visma is definitely above in this Tour de France 2022. The Belgian Wout Van Aert won, Saturday July 23, in Rocamadour, the 20e and penultimate stage of the Tour de France, a 40.7 kilometer time trial, while Danish teammate Jonas Vingegaard secured his yellow jersey by finishing second on the stage.
Vingegaard only has 115 kilometers to go on Sunday to sign a Danish victory in this edition of the Grande Boucle which started in Copenhagen. However, with a 21e a parade-like stage, it is now almost guaranteed to be crowned.
A scare for the yellow jersey
In the standings, the yellow jersey now precedes the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar by 3 min 34 sec and the Briton Geraint Thomas by 8 min 13 sec.
Vingegaard, best time at the first two intermediate scores (Km 22), had a scare 2.5 kilometers from the finish, in a downhill corner exit, approached very quickly. He slowed down in the last few hundred meters to be met by Van Aert near the line.
The stage victory in this time trial turned into a three-way match between Van Aert, Vingegaard and Geraint Thomas, who faltered at the end and was edged out by Pogacar for third place. But the advantage ultimately remained with Van Aert, second in the last two Worlds in the discipline, each time behind the Italian Filippo Ganna.
The Belgian repeated his performance from last year, when he won the last time of the Tour in Saint-Émilion. He then won the last stage on the Champs-Élysées.
Aged 27, Van Aert won for the third time since leaving Denmark. He signed his ninth success in the Tour and joined Pogacar in this table.
Road captain of the Jumbo team, Van Aert also accumulated second places in this edition (four times). He had been deprived of the yellow jersey in the first lap of the Tour, for five seconds, by his compatriot Yves Lampaert.
In the general classification, Colombian Nairo Quintana lost fifth place to Russian Aleksandr Vlasov. Romain Bardet, second Frenchman behind David Gaudu (fourth), nibbled a rank to rank seventh.
With AFP