Jumbo Visma has confirmed its total domination of Tour de France 2022 by going 1-2 on the stage 20 TT today; Wout van Aert winning ahead of race leader Jonas Vingegaard.
The 25-year-old Dane, Vingegaard, is now set to win the race tomorrow into Paris and put another eight seconds into is nearest rival for the title and the man who has won the French Grand Tour of the last two seasons, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates).
That scenario - with Vingegaard stronger on both the climbs and against the watch in the last week of the race - will give Pogačar plenty to think about for the years ahead. It sets aside the accepted narrative of just three weeks ago that Pogačar was going to dominate the race for yellow for years to come.
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It ensures the Slovenia now has to race much smarter if he is going to add to the two Tour GC wins already in his palmares, especially given the scale of Jumbo Visma's dominance across the board and Vingegaard's awesome climbing displays; breaking Pogačar on the Col du Granon and Hautacam summit finishes of stages 11 and 18.
Today, in the 40.7km test from Lacapelle-Marival to Rocamadour, Van Aert collected his third stage victory - 24 hours after his lead-out man Christophe Laporte prevailed into Cahors. Van Aert won the TT by 19 seconds from Vingegaard, with Pogačar 3rd at 27 seconds.
Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) put in another great ride today to take 4th, at 32 seconds, with his team mate, and world TT champion, Filippo Ganna, 5th at 42 seconds.
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While there was no change in the order of the 1-2-3 on general classification - Vingegaard, Pogačar, Thomas - there was movement elsewhere in the top 10. David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) remains 4th, at 13:56, with Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-hansgrohe) moving up two places to to 5th overall, at 16:37, after his 18th place in the TT today at 2:46.
Nairo Quintana (Arkéa Samsic) moved down one place to 6th, at 17:24, while Romain Bardet (Team DSM) moved up one place to 7th, at 19:02. One of the big losers today was Louis Meintjes (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux), who dropped two places to 8th, at 19:02.
Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan) and Adam Yates (Ineos Grenadiers) completed the top 10 overall, placed 9th and 10th ahead of the Paris finale tomorrow at 23:47 and 25:43 respectively.
Jumbo Visma now go into that final stage tomorrow with Vingegaard holding the yellow jersey and climbers' jersey while Van Aert is leading the points classification and will be looking for one last stage win.
