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Slovenian Tadej Pogacar managed a huge surprise at the Tour de France with a monumental victory in the final individual time trial, while Sam Bennett is almost certain of taking the green jersey on tomorrow’s final stage.
The outright winner of Sunday’s stage will receive 50 points, with 20 on offer for the intermediate sprint.
With Bennett leading 55 points over Peter Sagan, he is almost certain of victory and thus becomes the first Irishman since Sean Kelly in 1989 to claim the title. green jersey.
Bennett finished 10 minutes behind the stage winner, but safely within the 25% limit before the final day, a 122km spin with eight laps of the Champs-Elysees, normally a processional stage until the end of the sprint.
“I think when I get to the Champs Elysees and that first round is going to be something else that’s going to be amazing, tears will probably come to my eyes,” Bennett said.
“It’s something you always dream of. I’m looking forward to the chance to do the best race we can do and see if we can take another stage home with us.”
The real drama came in the quest for yellow, where Pogacar won the 36.2km solo effort against the clock when his compatriot Promiz Roglic, who had started the day with a 57-second lead in the overall standings, cracked in the uphill section, 5.9 km. climb with an average slope of 8.5%.
“I don’t know what to say, it’s a dream,” said Pogacar, who now leads Roglic in second place by 59 seconds before Sunday’s final stage, a largely processional trip to the Champs-Elysees in Paris where only the final sprint. contested.
“Getting the yellow jersey on the last day, we dreamed of it from the beginning. I knew every corner of the way, thanks to the work of my team.
“I think my head is going to explode.”
Pogacar, who will become the youngest Tour winner since Henri Cornet in 1904, clocked 55 minutes and 55 seconds, the perfection of numbers to match his performance.
Roglic was only in fifth place, 1:56 off the beat after what appeared to be a cautious start turned into a major collapse.
The 30-year-old, who had controlled the entire race with his dominant Jumbo-Visma team, imploded on the climb and crossed the line with a livid face before sitting down on the road.
A raw talent who is fearless, Pogacar, who celebrates his 22nd birthday on Monday, now has three distinctive jerseys: the yellow one, the white jersey for the best under-25 rider and the polka dot jersey for the mountain classification.
The surprise is reminiscent of that on the last day of the 1989 Tour de France when American Greg LeMond won the race by eight seconds over Frenchman Laurent Fignon after starting the time trial 50 seconds behind the pace.
There was another major change on Saturday when Australian Richie Porte edged Colombian Miguel Ángel López to third place overall by finishing stage 20 in third place.
After losing all hope of overall victory following an early stage accident, Frenchman Thibaut Pinot rode through impressive crowds and smoke in his hometown of Melisey, where the roads had his name and that of his goat Kim painted all over parts, which added to the sense of surrealism back in the day.
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