The Belgian is close to sealing third overall at his debut in the race.

Remco Evenepoel all but won the white jersey after the final mountain showdown of the Tour de France, which took place on Col de la Couillole, a hard first-category climb that many of the riders knew from its previous appearances in Paris-Nice and the Classic Alpes-Maritimes.

The short stage 20 was bananas from the off, the many attacks that came on the Col de Braus, the first ascent of the day leaving only 15 riders in the yellow jersey group. For a couple of moments there, it looked likely that they would go all the way to the line in this formation, but eventually the pace relented, which allowed the chasers to come back.

The many skirmishes that came before the top led to a breakaway being established before Col de Turini, the iconic ascent made famous not by the Tour de France’s previous visits, but by its presence on the course of the legendary Monte Carlo Rally. Their maximum gap hit five minutes, but it began tumbling down as soon as the Soudal Quick-Step boys picked up the pace Col de La Colmiane.

Gianni Moscon and Ilan Van Wilder emptied the tank, slashing the margin to three minutes, before Jan Hirt took over and further reduced the gap separating the bunch from the remaining escapees. When Mikel Landa – a runner-up earlier this season at the Volta a Catalunya – rode to the front of the group and set a ferocious tempo, that advantage crumbled to just one minute and paved the way for Remco’s attack. The white jersey made an important selection with eight kilometers to go, as only the two other riders on the podium could join him, but he didn’t stop there, accelerating again.

It was a pair of attacks which illustrated the admirable fighting spirit of the Belgian and his endless determination to do his best regardless of the scenario, a gutsy display that netted him fourth behind stage winner Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) ahead of Sunday’s challenging individual time trial from Monte Carlo to Nice which Remco will tackle with a lot of confidence: “I am content. I tried to put pressure on Jonas and don’t have any regrets after today. The team did an incredible job and I want to thank them for that. I did my best and I will try to do the same on what will be a hard final day of Le Tour. I know the roads from Paris-Nice and the recon I did and I am prepared to go all-in and fight for the stage victory.”

 

Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele / Getty Images

Race details

1 Tadej Pogačar
UAE Team Emirates
4:04:22
2 Jonas Vingegaard Hansen
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
0:07
3 Richard Carapaz Montenegro
EF Education - EasyPost
0:23
4 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
0:53
5 Enric Mas Nicolau
Movistar Team
1:07
6 João Almeida
UAE Team Emirates
1:28
7 Matteo Jorgenson
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
1:33
8 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
1:41
9 Adam Yates
UAE Team Emirates
1:43
10 Romain Bardet
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL
1:52
49 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal Quick-Step
19:01
50 Jan Hirt
Soudal Quick-Step
19:01
91 Gianni Moscon
Soudal Quick-Step
33:45
129 Yves Lampaert
Soudal Quick-Step
38:22
1 Tadej Pogačar
UAE Team Emirates
82:53:32
2 Jonas Vingegaard Hansen
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
5:14
3 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
8:04
4 João Almeida
UAE Team Emirates
16:45
5 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
17:25
6 Adam Yates
UAE Team Emirates
21:11
7 Carlos Rodríguez Cano
INEOS Grenadiers
21:12
8 Matteo Jorgenson
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
24:26
9 Derek Gee
Israel - Premier Tech
24:50
10 Giulio Ciccone
Lidl - Trek
25:48
27 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal Quick-Step
1:50:36
66 Jan Hirt
Soudal Quick-Step
3:46:17
84 Gianni Moscon
Soudal Quick-Step
4:18:42
123 Yves Lampaert
Soudal Quick-Step
5:19:26
1 Biniam Girmay Hailu
Intermarché - Wanty
387 pt
2 Jasper Philipsen
Alpecin - Deceuninck
354 pt
3 Bryan Coquard
Cofidis
208 pt
4 Anthony Turgis
TotalEnergies
180 pt
5 Tadej Pogačar
UAE Team Emirates
176 pt
6 Arnaud De Lie
Lotto Dstny
161 pt
7 Wout van Aert
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
152 pt
8 Jonas Abrahamsen
Uno-X Mobility
149 pt
9 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
137 pt
10 Jonas Vingegaard Hansen
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
119 pt
25 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
56 pt
70 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal Quick-Step
19 pt
110 Gianni Moscon
Soudal Quick-Step
5 pt
117 Jan Hirt
Soudal Quick-Step
3 pt
1 Richard Carapaz Montenegro
EF Education - EasyPost
127 pt
2 Tadej Pogačar
UAE Team Emirates
97 pt
3 Jonas Vingegaard Hansen
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
67 pt
4 Matteo Jorgenson
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
54 pt
5 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
48 pt
6 Wilco Kelderman
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
43 pt
7 Oier Lazkano López
Movistar Team
41 pt
8 Jonas Abrahamsen
Uno-X Mobility
36 pt
9 Enric Mas Nicolau
Movistar Team
33 pt
10 David Gaudu
Groupama - FDJ
30 pt
23 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
14 pt
29 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal Quick-Step
10 pt
1 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
83:01:36
2 Carlos Rodríguez Cano
INEOS Grenadiers
13:08
3 Matteo Jorgenson
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
16:22
4 Santiago Buitrago Sánchez
Bahrain - Victorious
18:06
5 Javier Romo
Movistar Team
1:27:28
6 Ben Healy
EF Education - EasyPost
1:40:25
7 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal Quick-Step
1:42:32
8 Jordan Jegat
TotalEnergies
1:49:51
9 Tobias Halland Johannessen
Uno-X Mobility
2:06:44
10 Oscar Onley
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL
2:28:54
1 UAE Team Emirates 249:15:17
2 Team Visma | Lease a Bike 29:47
3 INEOS Grenadiers 1:25:17
4 Soudal Quick-Step 1:30:31
5 Lidl - Trek 2:23:59
6 Movistar Team 2:58:32
7 Bahrain - Victorious 3:29:42
8 Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe 3:48:59
9 Israel - Premier Tech 3:54:28
10 EF Education - EasyPost 3:55:02

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