[ritchiebaby]

That was much more like it! An excellent ride for the 3 breakaway riders, comfortably keeping the pure sprinters at bay.

Today sees a vitally important stage for the 3rd to 6th placed riders, who will want to put a bit of pressure on Pog. A tall order, but they must believe it can be done in a hard mountain stage with 6 classified climbs. The start town, Belfort, has hosted the TdF many times and the route takes the riders to the ski resort of Le Markstein Fellering. Expect a hard day's riding with descents as important as ascents with many of the riders feeling the effects of almost 3 weeks in the saddle.

[themaclad]

No cricket due to weather so off to football whatever that is, record button hit, tonight's viewing sorted

[ritchiebaby]

No worries about fitness for Pog today, as he won the stage with a composed sprint. The stage result gives a minor reshuffle in the GC rankings with the Yates twins now in 3rd and 4th place with Simon pushing Rodriguez down to 5th.

Tomorrow is the annual borefest to Paris. They should just have 8 laps of central Paris and be done with it! Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines is the start town and will host the track cycling and BMX at next year's Olympics. I'm sure that Johnny Cash sang a few songs in the local prison, but I should maybe double-check that. Paris is, well,........ just Paris. You'll know enough about it already.

[themaclad]

Next year the finish is in Nice and it sounds like it will be a proper last days racing, suspect zero cricket so will probably fall asleep to these golfing chappies
#
Tadej Pogacar salvaged some pride by taking stage 20 of this year's Tour de France as Jonas Vingegaard all but sealed the defence of his title.

Pogacar has been unable to challenge Vinegaard's supremacy in the past week, but sprinted past the Dane to win on the final day of competitive racing.

Vingegaard holds a lead of seven minutes and 29 seconds ahead of Sunday's procession into Paris.

Britain's Adam Yates is third overall, one place ahead of twin brother Simon.

Stage 20 - as it happened
They were both involved in a thrilling race for the line at Le Markstein, with Adam leading out Pogacar and eventually finishing fourth, with Simon fifth.

"Today I finally feel like myself again," said Pogacar, who reduced Vingegaard's lead by six seconds because of the time bonus he received for the stage win.

"It was just really good from start to finish, to feel good again after many days suffering and to pull it off in the finish, I'm just super, super happy.

"Adam did a super job. I was waiting for him to come back and his brother again was super good. I know him now well.

"He led me out really good and thanks to him it was a bit easier to prepare for the final, less nervous and I'm super happy the team did such a great job once again."

Adam Yates said: "For me personally third (overall) is the best result I've ever had in a Grand Tour, so obviously I'm pretty happy.

"We're a little bit disappointed as our goal was to get yellow but in the end there was only one guy better than us."

France's Thibaut Pinot, riding his last Tour at the age of 33, had launched a solo attack with 30km to go, and was roared on by a huge crowd on his home roads as he went for an emotional farewell victory.

But he was caught and overhauled by Vingegaard, Pogacar and Felix Gall on the final climb, with the Yates brothers joining them for the sprint finish.

Vingegaard attempted to spring clear with 300m to go, but he was expertly tracked by Pogacar and sat up once he knew his hopes of taking the stage win were over, allowing Gall to pass him before the line.

Stage 20 results
1. Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Team Emirates) 3hrs 27mins 18secs

2. Felix Gall (Aut/AG2R-Citroen Team) Same time

3. Jonas Vingegaard (Den/Jumbo-Visma)

4. Simon Yates (GB/Team Jayco-AlUla)

5. Adam Yates (GB/UAE Team Emirates) +7secs

6. Warren Barguil (Fra/Team Arkea-Samsic) +33secs

7. Thibaut Pinot (Fra/Groupama-FDJ) Same time

8. Pello Bilbao (Spa/Bahrain Victorious)

9. Tobias Johannessen (Nor/Uno-X Pro Cycling) +50secs

10. Rafal Majka (Pol/UAE Team Emirates) Same time

General classification standings
1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den/Jumbo-Visma) 79hrs 16mins 38secs

2. Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Team Emirates) +7mins 29secs

3. Adam Yates (GB/UAE Team Emirates) +10mins 56secs

4. Simon Yates (GB/Team Jayco-AlUla) +12mins 23secs

5. Carlos Rodriguez (Spa/Ineos Grenadiers) +12mins 57secs

6. Pello Bilbao (Spa/Bahrain Victorious) +13mins 27secs

7. Jai Hindley (Aus/Bora-Hansgrohe) +14mins 44secs

8. Felix Gall (Aut/AG2R-Citroen) +16mins 9secs

9. David Gaudu (Fra/Groupama-FDJ) +23mins 8secs

10. Guillaume Martin (Fra/Cofidis) +26mins 30secs

[themaclad]

Had to laugh the group celebration for Vingegaard was interesting they rode as one down the final few yards apart from the winner who looked like he was struggling to stay on his bike, anyway bike away until next year and here are the final scores on the doors

Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard sealed his second successive Tour de France triumph as Jordi Meeus sprinted to a surprise win on the final stage.

Meeus, 25, edged Jasper Philipsen in a photo finish in Paris to deny his fellow Belgian a repeat of last year's win on the iconic Champs Elysees.

Vingegaard, 26, finished seven minutes and 29 seconds clear of nearest rival, two-time winner Tadej Pogacar.

Britain's Adam Yates was third overall, one place above his twin brother Simon.

"I'm happy of course - we're winning it for the second time and it's amazing," said Vingegaard.

"It's been a super hard race and a super good fight between me and Tadej. Of course, I hope to come back next year to see if I can take the third win."

Only eight men have taken three or more Tour wins since the race's first edition in 1903.

Vingegaard's more immediate target is victory at another Grand Tour, the Vuelta a Espana, which starts at the end of August.

He will ride alongside his Jumbo-Visma team-mate and three-time Vuelta winner Primoz Roglic - winner of this year's Giro d'Italia - as they target a first clean sweep of the sport's three biggest stage races.

Jonas Vingegaard and his Jumbo-Visma team toast his Tour de France win in 2023 during the final stage
Jonas Vingegaard and his Jumbo-Visma team-mates raised a glass during Sunday's processional stage. They also won the team category at the Tour
Vingegaard revealed he will take no more than a week off before starting his preparations for Spain, but will find time to celebrate his success.

"It's been an amazing year, what a Tour de France for us," he added.

"We started the plans early and once again I could not have done it without my team. I'm so proud of every one of us.

"Tonight we will celebrate, have a good dinner, it will be a nice evening. Thanks to my opponents who have been amazing, it's been an amazing three weeks fighting with you guys."

Meeus was probably the most unlikely man to make it to the top of the podium in the French capital.

Racing in his first Tour, Bora-Hansgrohe rider Meeus claimed the biggest win of his career by a rim from Philipsen, racing in the green jersey having won four stages of this year's contest.

Meeus said: "It was a super nice experience already so far and to take the win today was an indescribable feeling. Everything went perfect."

Jordi Meeus beats Jasper Philipsen in a photo finish to stage 21 of the 2023 Tour de France
Jordi Meeus (right) won by a rim to deny Jasper Philipsen (left) a second straight win on the Champs Elysees
Stage 21 - as it happened
Tour de France 2023 - stage-by-stage guide & results
How the 2023 Tour was won
Distinctive jersey riders Jasper Philipsen, Jonas Vingegaard, Tadej Pogacar and Giulio Ciccone during the final stage of the 2023 Tour de France
This year's jersey riders Jasper Philipsen, Jonas Vingegaard, Tadej Pogacar and Giulio Ciccone shared a moment at the front of the peloton on Sunday
Vingegaard ended up a comfortable winner over Pogacar but his decisive move did not come until more than a fortnight into the Tour.

Only 10 seconds separated the pair after 15 stages but the Dane took total control of the race when it entered the Alps in the final week.

He extended that lead to almost two minutes with a superb ride in the individual time trial on Tuesday and then finished off Pogacar's challenge on Wednesday's queen stage, the toughest day of the race.

Pogacar, whose preparations were hit by a broken wrist when he crashed in April, cracked with 15km left of the final climb and told his team radio: "I'm gone, I'm dead."

Vingegaard, who took the leader's yellow jersey after the sixth stage, powered on to open a gap of more than seven minutes by the finish - and knew then that the Tour was won.

Italy's Giulio Ciccone won the king of the mountains prize for best climber, while Philipsen took the green jersey for winning the points category.

Philipsen also won four stages, one of them narrowly from Mark Cavendish on stage seven to deny the Manxman the victory he needed to break the all-time record for Tour stage wins.

The 38-year-old Cavendish, who had already said he intends to retire at the end of this season, crashed out the following day, meaning he still shares the record of 34 wins with Belgian legend Eddy Merckx.

Stage 21 results
1. Jordi Meeus (Bel/Bora-Hansgrohe) 2hrs 56mins 13secs

2. Jasper Philipsen (Bel/Alpecin-Deceuninck) Same time

3. Dylan Groenewegen (Ned/Team Jayco-AlUla)

4. Mads Pedersen (Den/Lidl-Trek)

5. Cees Bol (Ned/Astana-Qazaqstan)

6. Biniam Girmay (Eri/Intermarche-Circus-Wanty)

7. Bryan Coquard (Fra/Cofidis)

8. Soren Warenskjold (Nor/Uno-X Pro Cycling)

9. Corbin Strong (NZ/Israel-Premier Tech)

10. Luca Mozzato (Ita/Arkea-Samsic)

Final general classification standings
1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den/Jumbo-Visma) 82hrs 5mins 42secs

2. Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Team Emirates) +7mins 29secs

3. Adam Yates (GB/UAE Team Emirates) +10mins 56secs

4. Simon Yates (GB/Team Jayco-AlUla) +12mins 23secs

5. Carlos Rodriguez (Spa/Ineos Grenadiers) +13mins 17secs

6. Pello Bilbao (Spa/Bahrain Victorious) +13mins 27secs

7. Jai Hindley (Aus/Bora-Hansgrohe) +14mins 44secs

8. Felix Gall (Aut/AG2R-Citroen) +16mins 9secs

9. David Gaudu (Fra/Groupama-FDJ) +23mins 8secs

10. Guillaume Martin (Fra/Cofidis) +26mins 30secs