Tour de France Stage 20 recap: "I think I'm dreaming"
"I think I'm dreaming."
Shortly after erasing a 57-second deficit and winning the yellow jersey on Stage 20, Tadej Pogacar succinctly stated how we all felt. Yesterday I previewed today's individual time trial up La Planche des Belles Filles as if it were a formality: Primoz Roglic would certainly be wearing the yellow jersey in Paris, and the biggest thrills of the day would be few GC positioning battles and the polka dot jersey competition.
About 20 hours later my heart was beating out of my chest as the Tour's classement général virtuel tracked Roglic's dwindling overall lead in the closing kilometers. With a little more than 4k to the finish, Roglic's time flashed red, meaning that he had lost the lead in the Tour de France. From there, Pogacar would pour on the points and flip Roglic's advantage, ultimately winning the general classification by 59 seconds.
You might have guessed that Pogacar won the stage, too (1:21 over second place Tom Dumoulin, and 1:56 over fifth-place Roglic), as well as the polka dot jersey (eight points over Richard Carapaz). Those were all secondary celebrations, however. There's only one thing that can make someone this happy.