Palmer Recaps the 111th Edition of the Tour de France 

The 111th edition of the Tour de France started in Florence, Italy, and finished in Nice, France. It was dominated by two-time (now three-time) winner Tadej “the Tornado” Pogacar in the high mountains, where he distanced his main rival and previous two-time consecutive winner Jonas Vingegaard. But there was more to this Tour than just two heavyweights battling up the high mountains of the Alps and Pyrenees. 

The Cav stands alone.

For three years, Mark Cavendish has been trying to stand alone on top of the leaderboard for all time Tour de France stage wins. Crashes and an on-again, off-again retirement didn’t stop the man from the Isle of Man called the Manx Missile. This year, with his victory on Stage 5, he finally took the top step. This also means that as fans we expect him to cycle into a final retirement, which he deserves. 

Allez Bardet!

In all sports there are names we take for granted. Over the drama of the past few years in the Tour de France, we have come to revere Cavendish in his crusade for the record in all time Tour stages. The Frenchman Romain Bardet, whose last tour was this year, will be missed. He was an aggressive rider, the kind that makes the Tour de France so special. This year, he got to wear the leader’s Yellow Jersey after a Stage 1 victory, and he had the fans name the final hairpin of the Puy Mary climb as “Bardet Corner,” a moment that he celebrated with them. Aside from a select few who won the whole race and left, as a rider who came in to the race facing retirement, this might have been the best gift he could have received. 

France had a year!

The French love cycling and have a reverence for their home race, but this year, for the first time in a while, they won three stages and had a rider – the aforementioned Bardent – in the yellow jersey. Three victories for French riders is a veritable buffet of wins, and they were all celebrated. When considering that Pogacar won five, and Philipsen and Girmay had three each, that is pretty good for a country that’s had poor luck in their own race.

Girmay sprints to history

Biniam Girmay became the first black African to win a stage at the Tour de France with his win on stage three. He decided that wasn’t enough and took the lead in the Green jersey competition and held that jersey all the way to Monaco, becoming the first black African to win that competition as well. He put Eritrea on the map in cycling, a country that has gone a little mad watching him win stages and bring home a jersey. 

A Role Reversal

Last year, Vingegaard won his second Tour de France, while his biggest rival, Pogacar, came into that Tour nursing an injury. This year, Pogacar, off the heels of a win in the Giro d’Italia was fighting to get his third Tour victory while Vingegaard was nursing a healing body, coming from a crash earlier this spring that derailed his training preparation for the Tour. 

Vingegaard did what he could, but Pogacar was just too much. In fact, he not only rode away with the Yellow jersey and his third overall Tour victory, he was also called out by some as classless for attacking too much! This is ridiculous, but it seems the Tour journalists prefer the two rivals riding together rather than apart.

Pogacar’s victory also ensures him a double of Grand Tour victories this year, though it’s doubtful he’ll go for the triple and even enter the Vuelta a Espana. He’s even said there’s a 99% chance he won’t. 

All of this sets up for a nice storyline heading into the 112th edition next year, if Pogacar and Vingegaard are both healthy. I also can’t forget Remco Evenepoel, winner of this year’s best young rider competition, who hung with the two favorites for much of the race finishing on the podium in third. 

A Nice finish

Due to the Olympic games, this year the Tour de France finished with an individual time trial from Monaco to Nice, as opposed to the parade into Paris for a sprint on the Champs Elysees. It was an odd finish, made even further moot because of the time gap between Pogacar and Vingegaard. They did, however, still both go for the stage win and, like last year, it was the rider in the Yellow jersey stamping his authority by pulling away from everyone else and winning the final time trial.

What’s next for cycling?

In the world of cycling it is an Olympic year, so there’s all of the Velodrome racing, plus Olympic gold for a road race and a time trial. Then, in just a few short weeks on the other side of all that gold, the professional women get to race on the streets of France in this year’s edition of the Tour de France Femmes! 

It’s going to be a great late summer/early fall for cycling! Plus, there’s lots to talk about if Vingegaard, Pogacar, and Evenepoel can all show up healthy to next year’s Tour. 

Until then, au revoir!