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While Tadej Pogacar enjoyed the processional element of the conclusion of the Tour de France in the yellow jersey, Sam Bennett of the Deceuninck-Quick-Step team won the final stage here, beating world road racing champion Mads Pedersen on the cobblestones. from the Champs Elysees.
The Irishman’s stage victory, his second on the 2020 Tour, confirmed his victory in the points standings. “I can’t tell you how excited I am – the green jersey, on the Champs Elysees,” he said. “I never thought I would be able to win this stage, the world sprinters’ championship, and to do it in green, it’s so incredible.”
He said about the sprint: “We waited, and then at the last corner, I let the others go first because there was a bit of a headwind. I opened up and thought maybe someone would walk past me, so I can’t believe they made it. “
Bennett’s success has been hard fought after he made his way up the climbs of the Pyrenees, the Massif Central and the Jura and, in the last week, the Alps, holding on to the green jersey until Peter Sagan, the seven-time winner. points, finally accepted second place.
“All the suffering in the mountains is highly rewarded now,” Bennett said. “It took me so long to get here, I’m just going to enjoy every moment.
“My legs felt a little bit and I was a little nervous to go ahead because it’s so fast down the hill and someone crashed last time I was here.”
Mauro Gianetti, general manager of the UAE Emirates Pogacar team, said he had always believed that his 21-year-old could win the yellow jersey. “We thought it was possible from the first stage, but then we lost 1 minute 20 a day. Tadej was the calmest of the team. He said, ‘No, don’t worry, I’ll attack. The Tour is long and we will make up time. ‘
Gianetti added: “Even yesterday, before the time trial, I was very focused and had a vision that it was possible. He gave so much of himself, it was fantastic.
“Our goal before the Tour was to win a stage and Tadej to be in the top five. We won the first stage, which relaxed us more, and day by day we understood that Tadej was up to the task to be on the podium. Then on Saturday he had an incredibly good day and Roglic had a not so good day. “
For the hosts, a Tour that started brimming with promise, with Thibaut Pinot waiting to challenge and Julian Alaphilippe claiming the yellow jersey, gradually dissolved into disappointment. Groupama-FDJ leader Pinot, who crashed on the first day in Nice, was hampered by a back injury, while Alaphilippe’s explosiveness, so evident in his second stage win, evaporated as he the race progressed.
Pinot can be encouraged by the example of the long-suffering Richie Porte, who, in the fall of a bumpy race, achieved his best result. Success on the Tour, unless you’re Pogacar, is often a marathon, not a sprint, as the third Australian overall shows.
“It’s been a fun old race for me over the years, with so many disasters,” said Porte, now 35, who will be reuniting with Dave Brailsford’s Inoes Grenadiers next year. “I almost have a pair here, but the team has been incredible. I came here with my wife’s blessing and I missed the birth of my second child. “
Porte said of his third place: “I will have the photo on the wall when I retire, so I am absolutely honored. It has been so many years of hard work, but I am very happy. It is probably the last Tour I do as a general classification rider, so being third feels like a victory.
