Sunday’s final stage of the 2024 Tour de France is a 33.7km Individual Time Trial from Monaco to Nice with everything on the line.
It will be another full speed confrontation whose outcome will determine the final podium of the 111th edition of the Tour - the first ever to finish away from its familiar Parisian setting. It’s the ultimate finale destined for Nice’s Place Masséna, just a few pedal-strokes from the Promenade des Anglais.
Older fans and younger students of the race’s history will recall the last occasion the Tour finished with a time trial, when Greg LeMond stripped the Yellow Yersey from the shoulders of Laurent Fignon on the Champs-Élysées in 1989, by just eight seconds.
This time, 35 years on, it may not be a similar duel, with current Yellow Jersey Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) going into the final stage with a 5’14” overall lead over Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and 8'04” over Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step). However, Pogacar still needs to complete the job and an error could still prove costly.
Last year, on his way to a second successive overall Tour de France win Vingegaard’s dominant Stage 16 ITT triumph by 1’38” ahead of Pogacar was a key moment in the Dane’s GC success. Evenepoel is the World Champion time trialist and has already won an ITT at this year’s Tour on Stage 7. So neither of Pogacar’s podium rivals will make it easy for him - and all three riders will be gunning 100% to win the stage, whether it impacts their final GC position or not.
This is not a flat, straightforward TT route, it’s a highly demanding parcours which requires one final deep effort for the riders, with climbs to La Turbie and Col d'Èze before they descend the technical downhill at full gas into Nice, where glory awaits.
Evenepoel, Pogacar and Vingegaard are the favourites to take the stage win and after Stage 20 the Belgian predicted the victory to be contested between them. His compatriots Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny) are also skilled TT riders and might wish to disagree with the man in the white jersey, though it will be tough for anyone to beat the ‘big three’.
