Wout van Aert won the individual time trial on the eve of the grand finale of the Tour de France in Paris like last year as he rode to Rocamadour 18’’ faster than his team-mate Jonas Vingegaard who secured the yellow jersey. Tadej Pogacar rounded out the podium.
GANNA OUSTS BJERG FROM THE HOT SEAT
138 riders started stage 20, a 40.7-km long individual time trial from Lacapelle-Marival to Rocamadour. One non-starter: Nathan van Hooydonck (Jumbo-Visma). Eleventh on the starting ramp, Mikkel Bjerg (UAE Team Emirates) who is a 3-time world champion for ITT in the u23 category set a time of reference of 50’22’’. He remained on the hot seat for 45 minutes and it was no surprise to see Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadier) taking over from him in the lead of the classification, albeit provisionally. The world champion covered the course at the average speed of 50.2km/h. He finished strongly as his advantage of 13’’ over his compatriot Mattia Cattaneo (Quick Step-Alpha Vinyl) at about half way (km 22) was 43’’ at the finish.
VAN AERT 42’’ FASTER THAN GANNA
Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious), who has been one of the most combative riders of the 109th Tour de France on his second participation at the age of 23, took a provisional third place at the finish with a deficit of 50 seconds. European champion Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), second of the ITT in Laval last year, kept losing time to Ganna at all three time checks: 5’’, 13’’, 48’’. The Swiss specialist was 1’13’’ down on the Italian at the finish. Successively, Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) and Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) threatened Ganna’s lead. Moreover, the green jersey holder was 14’’ faster at the first check point (km 10), 25’’ at the second check point (km 22), 23’’ at the third check point (km 32) and he completed the course in 47’59’’ at the average speed of 50.9km/h, ousting Ganna by 42’’.
VLASOV 5TH OVERALL, BARDET 7TH
The suspense for the yellow jersey was short lived as Vingegaard started faster than Pogacar and looked at all time checks that he was also going to win stage 20. But the Dane had a fright in one curve towards the end and he relaxed a bit once he knew he was bringing the Maillot Jaune safely home. Beating Pogacar in the closing time trial confirmed his superiority on the 2022 Tour de France. Changes on GC saw Aleksandr Vlasov moving up to 5th and Romain Bardet to 7th while Nairo Quintana dropped down to 6th and Louis Meintjes from 6th to 8th.
