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Saturday, July 20, 2024

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2024 Tour de France | 2024 Giro d'Italia

She who succeeds in gaining the mastery of the bicycle will gain the mastery of life. - Susan B. Anthony

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Bill and Carol McGann's book The Story of the Giro d'Italia, A Year-by-Year History of the Tour of Italy, Vol 1: 1909 - 1970 is available in print, Kindle eBook & audiobook versions. To get your copy, just click on the Amazon link on the right.

Current racing:

• June 29 - July 21: Tour de France

Upcoming racing:

• July 27 - August 11: Olympic cycling

Latest completed racing:

• June 9 - 26: Many National Championships
• June 15 - 18: La Route d'Occitanie Cancelled because security forces busy with Olympics
• June 9 - 16: Tour de Suisse
• June 12 - 16: Baloise Belgium Tour
• June 2 - 9: Critérium du Dauphiné
• June 5 - 9: ZLM Tour
• June 7: GP Canton Aargau
• June 2: Brussels Cycling Classic

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Tour de France stage 19 reports

We posted the race organizer's report with the results.

Here's the stage 19 report from second-place Matteo Jorgenson's Team Visma | Lease a Bike:

Matteo Jorgenson stranded within sight of the finish line in the queen stage of the Tour de France. The American rode on the attack all day, together with teammate Wilco Kelderman. At two kilometers from the finish Jorgenson was outflanked by Tadej Pogacar. Behind, Jonas Vingegaard single-handedly countered an attack on his second place in the general classification.

Matteo Jorgenson riding to second place. Sirotti photo

Right from the start, Jorgenson and Kelderman, along with Christophe Laporte and others, chose the race route. On the Cime de la Bonette, with its summit at more than 2,800 meters above sea level, the duo formed a strong group of six.

On the first lanes of the final climb of Isola 2000, Jorgenson decided to attack after Kelderman had done a lot of work in the previous dozens of kilometers. Little by little, the American gained further on strong climbers Richard Carapaz and Simon Yates, among others.

In the group of favorites, meanwhile, Pogacar could no longer hold back. The general classification leader rode off a bite of Jorgenson's lead kilometer by kilometer. With the final kilometer in sight, the American of Team Visma | Lease a Bike was outpaced by the unleashed Slovenian. Two minutes behind, Vingegaard reacted strongly to an attack by rival Remco Evenepoel, with whom he eventually crossed the line together at the top of the ski resort.

“Of course I'm disappointed. I was so close,” are Jorgenson's first words after the finish. “Last year I also came very close to a stage win. I did everything I could today, but in the end it wasn't to be. I rode very focused and wanted to squeeze everything out of it. When I heard that Pogacar was getting closer in the finale, I could already feel the pressure. I kept fighting for it with every fiber of my body. Unfortunately that was not rewarded today.”

The American is quick to praise teammate Kelderman. “We chose the attack today with a clear plan. I have to thank Wilco from the bottom of my heart. He is a fantastic teammate, as well as a great person. When I indicated to him that I was feeling good and wanted to go for it, he didn't think twice. He completely sacrificed himself for my chances. That's to his credit. I am more than grateful,” Jorgenson said to his Dutch teammate.

“The motto today was simple: attack,” stated sports director Grischa Niermann. “We had the plan to send Matteo and Wilco ahead. Initially that was to act as a possible springboard for Jonas. Of course, that did depend on how Jonas would feel. Because the leading group got a nice gap, we could also possibly have a shot at the stage win. Jonas made it clear during the stage that we had to fight with Matteo and Wilco for the stage win. He also saw how the uphill conditions were and that the competition could not be caught on a bad day. We tried again as a team today, but we went down fighting in an intense battle. That too is cycling.”

Here's the Tour stage 19 report from third-place Simon Yates' Team Jayco AlUla:

Simon Yates produced another gutsy breakaway performance on stage 19 of the Tour de France as he battled to a hard-fought third place at the top of Isola 2000.

The British climber gave it his all in his quest for victory as he set about chasing down Matteo Jorgensen in the final kilometres of the stage, but was eventually overhauled by the charging yellow jersey of Tadej Pogačar.

Simon Yates riding to third place in stage 19. Sirotti photo

It was another explosive start to the stage with a large group escaping ahead of the first climb of the day, with Team Jayco AlUla represented through Chris Juul-Jensen. Yates then jumped across to the leaders on the Col de Vars, with Juul-Jensen dropping back to pace his teammate up to the head of the race.

From there, the group worked together to establish a lead of more four minutes over the UAE Team Emirates led peloton that looked intent on keeping the escapees on a tight leash. By the time Yates and his fellow attackers reached the foot of the final climb, only six riders remained with the yellow jersey group trailing by around four minutes.

With the gap coming down Jorgensen was the first to make a move, while Yates chose to sit and bide his time before eventually setting off in pursuit of the American. However, neither could fend off Pogačar who went on to win the stage, while Yates continued to battle on for a well-earned third place finish, his second top-three placing in three days.

Simon Yates:
“It was a really hard day, of course Visma had the numerical advantage so I had to play off that a little bit and I was also a little be wary of the altitude, so I tried to go late, but it wasn’t enough.

"You get a rough idea [of who to follow] from how strong guys are during the stage, it’s not a surprise that an Olympic champion [Carapaz] is strong, he was good, maybe he paying for his efforts because he was also in the breakaway yesterday. I tried to play off him a little bit and I bided my time and tried to come back to Jorgensen, but it wasn’t enough.”

Mat Hayman (Sport Director):
“I couldn’t ask for anymore from Simon and the team, they worked well at the start to make sure he was in the break and he did everything right up against some really tough competition with Jorgensen and Carapaz.

" Up until 3km to go before Pog turned up and spoiled the party, it was still looking pretty good. Now we’ll regroup after this and see what we can do on the final mountain stage.”

Here's the Tour stage 19 report from fourth-place Richard Carapaz's Team EF Education-EasyPost:

Richard Carapaz is the King of the Mountains at the Tour de France tonight.

Richie soared into the lead of the Tour’s climbers’ competition on stage 19, crossing the summits of the Col de Vars and Cime de la Bonette first to take maximum points, before gritting his way up the final climb to Isola 2000 to finish fourth on the stage and add four more points to his tally.

After starting the day in fifth place in the KOM competition, he now leads by 14 points with two stages to go in the 2024 Tour de France.

The Olympic champ joined the early break on the slopes of the Col de Vars, thanks to a massive effort from his teammates, first from Sean Quinn, Rui Costa, Marijn van den Berg, Stefan Bissegger, and Ben Healy to keep the breakaway’s advantage in check, and then from Neilson Powless, who dropped back from the move to pace Richie to the front of the race after he had attacked to bridge from the peloton.

This stage has been marked in Richie’s race book from the start of the Tour. Three massive cols above 2000 meters, including the mythical 2800-meter Cime de la Bonette, packed into 144.6-kilometers of Alpine racing, is the terrain our racer from the high mountains of Ecuador loves.

Once he was in the break, Richie rolled through, keeping his cool and taking all the points on offer, until the final climb where he made a determined effort to go for the stage.

Once the yellow jersey had passed him, Richie rode his pace to the top of the ski station at Isola 2000, where he crossed the line fourth.

Richard Carapaz climbing to fourth place in stage 19. Sirotti photo

Richie will race to defend his polka dot jersey tomorrow in another fearsome mountain stage in the Alps. Stage 20 will take the Tour from Nice, over the Col de Braus and Col de la Colmiane and finish at the summit of the Col de la Couillole. Richie will go for every point he can get to try to stay in polka-dots until the very end!

Richard Carapaz:
" Our main objective today was to get the mountain jersey. My team did a great job to allow me to get into the breakaway on the day and once I was there I fought to get as many points as possible. Once I arrived at Isola 2000 with an advantage, I tried to fight for the stage victory. I was aware that the climb is very tough and I tried to stay as close to Jorgenson as possible. However, I couldn't... and Tadej came from behind, to take away any chance of victory. Anyway, I am very happy with how the day went. This mountain jersey is a prestigious prize. All riders in my country dream of it because in Ecuador there are many mountains. Being the King of the Mountains means a lot to me. I'm going to try to keep this jersey until the end. It is my great personal goal, and the team is also supporting me a lot to achieve it."

Neilson Powless:
" I got into the breakaway and it was a little bit bigger than we were expecting, so I was a l bit nervous because the guys behind had to chase before the first climb. It was my job to disrupt the breakaway a little bit so that they would have a better chance of bringing the gap down. I heard Richie trying to bridge and the pace went pretty high in the breakaway as soon as we hit the climb so I was a little bit worried that Richie would have a hard time bridging so I asked on the radio if I should go back because I couldn’t see if he was bridging quick enough. In the end, I went back to help him get across to the breakaway and it was probably one of the hardest five minutes of my life this deep into the Tour de France but we had a clear goal and I knew that he was our best chance to win today and get the mountain points so I would say I’m really satisfied with the way things worked out.

"I feel super good. Last year I fought so hard for mountain points. I know how difficult it is to wear the jersey and to win mountain points, so to have a teammate wearing it and to have the potential to win it, that’s a really, really nice feeling."

Sean Quinn:
" We all slayed ourselves for Richard to bridge across to the break in the first 20 minutes of a four-hour stage, so we weren’t really involved in the race, other than him. It was pretty picturesque out there and it went all according to plan, so we are stoked!"

And here's the Tour de France stage 19 report from fifth-place Remco Evenepoel's Team Soudal Quick-Step:

Remco Evenepoel made another step towards what would be a well-deserved top-three finish at his maiden Tour de France appearance, on a day that featured Col de Vars, Cime de la Bonette and Isola 2000. Soudal Quick-Step’s leader showcased once again his remarkable consistency, finishing in the first ten on the stage for the eighth time since the race got underway from Florence, almost three weeks ago.

Isola 2000, a 16.1km climb averaging 7.1%, which had been used as a Tour de France stage finish only once before Friday, at the 1993 edition of the race, was where the main attacks came at the end of this savage day in the Alps, and when the action began, both Remco Evenepoel and Mikel Landa responded present. The Basque did a superb job pacing his teammate on the steep part of the ascent, before Evenepoel surged in pursuit of lone leader Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) with only Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) on his wheel.

The 24-year-old Belgian taped out a strong rhythm as he went into time trial mode and sparing no effort, concluded the stage in fifth place. He was followed some twenty seconds later by Mikel, whose rock-solid performance Friday afternoon helped him extend the buffer he has over the next rider on the general classification to a full two minutes and consolidate his position in the top five overall.

Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel on the climb to Isola 2000. Sirotti photo

“The pace today was hard from the beginning. On the final ascent, I tried to follow Tadej, but his tempo was too strong, so I rode for my place on the podium and gave everything out there, trying to go as fast as I could. We’ll see how things go tomorrow and what we can do, but what’s certain is that it’s going to be a tough stage”, said Remco about the last summit finish of the Grande Boucle, the Col de la Couillole.

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