2023 Tour de France

Stages 16-21

Your 2023 Tour de France results…

Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo Visma) wins overall and takes the yellow jersey.

Team UAE can celebrate its two-three spot on the final podium going to Tadej Pogacar and Adam Yates, respectively.

Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) put his stamp on the 2023 edition, taking the green jersey, piling up the points with four stage wins (nearly a fifth)! It wasn’t the year for a feel-good Mark Cavendish win, or any other sprinter really.

The polka dots jersey goes to Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek), who wrestled the King of the Mountains from American Neilson Powless (Education First) about halfway through the Tour. He also benefited from the yellow jersey contest being decided before the final series of mountain points. Jonas Vingegaard, another competitor for the polka dots, was content to sit back and protect the yellow.

In the end, exactly the two-man race between Pogacar and Vingegaard that everyone predicted. But who would have predicted such a superb smackdown by the Dane, besting the Slovenian on the flats, in the mountains, and, maybe, in the mindgame brewing between the two for years now.

Watch out for a rematch in 2024…

Stage 16

No standout racers in the individual time trial until Wout van Aert (Jumbo Visma) took the field, aiming for a stage win on an otherwise dry Tour. By the time Tadej Pogacar (UAE) hit the road, though, it was clear that it was not van Aert’s day. The Slovenian hoovered up the tarmac on a brilliant ride and he looked like the number one on the day to all observers.

That is, until the final racer and yellow jersey Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo Visma) burst out of the gates. In what the Dane described as the greatest time trial of his life, the defending Tour winner put his stamp on the race. He gobbled up timecheck after timecheck, gaining tens of seconds on the entire field, plus Pogacar, at every turn.

At the end of the day, Vingegaard increased his GC lead on his nearest rival Pogacar from 10 seconds to a minute-and-a-half. The gauntlet has been thrown.

American Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar), who had been riding well, did not start due to accumulated injuries.

Stage 17

Felix Gall (AG2R) wins! In other news…

Quite simply, Tadej Pogacar (UAE) cracked. As the elite men of the field climbed toward the final peak Col de la Loze, the heat got to the Slovenian, who unzipped his jersey and struggled to keep pace. With effort he worked his way back to the Vingegaard group, but fell back again, losing time by huge chunks. About 6 minutes lost in all.

Jonas Vingegaard now holds the yellow jersey by seven-and-a-half minutes. Barring catastrophe, the highest spot on the podium in Paris has been claimed.

Team UAE could still win a nice 2-3 on the podium, with Tadej Pogacar and Adam Yates (UAE) holding second and third, respectively. But there’s no guarantees, and one more big mountain stage. Can Tadej avoid total collapse and finish on the podium or is this a sign of a bigger problem?

American Neilson Powless (EF) moves decisively out of the polka dots jersey race. It looks like Lidl-Trek is organizing around Giulio Ciccone to hold onto the King of the Mountains prize, leading the classification with 88 points. However, Felix Gall (AG2R) with 82 points and Jonas Vingegaard with 81 points are not far behind.

Stage 18

The peloton came within seconds of catching the breakaway and giving Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) a chance at his fifth stage win…

That will have to wait. Kasper Asgreen (Soudal Quickstep), so often the workhorse pulling the peloton himself, got out on the breakaway and stayed there. Just barely. The breakaway never had more than a minute-and-a-half on the peloton all day. Asgreen bested his breakaway companions Pascal Eenkhorn (Lotto DSTNY) and Jonas Abrahamsen (UNO-X) to win the final sprint.

With the yellow jersey all but sewn up for teammate Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo Visma), super domestique Wout van Aert did not start the stage and will return home to be with his expecting wife.

Stage 19

Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious) wins the stage by a hair’s breadth. The authorities had to take a look at the slo-mo photography at the finish line. Indeed, the Third Slovenian just edged out Kasper Asgreen (Soudal Quickstep), robbing the rider of a second (And a consecutive) stage win. Ben O’Connor (AG2R) was the third man in the final breakaway. He kicked out early ahead of Mohoric and Asgreen, but the legs gave out and he was overtaken.

The sprinter teams were hoping for another opportunity after just missing out on yesterday’s stage, the peloton failing to catch the bunch. As with the previous stage, the will did not seem with the peloton to complete manage the breakaway on behalf of the sprinters.

With the yellow jersey squared away on Jonas Vingegaard’s back, with more than seven minutes on the next man, his Jumbo Visma team will go into full protection mode. Avoid catastrophe – get to Paris. Don’t look for heroics from the Dane on the final mountain stage tomorrow. The team will do enough to safeguard the GC lead, and nothing more. Maybe a good day for a mountain breakaway?

Don’t miss one of the emotional fulcrums of this year’s Tour, the Mohoric post race interview.

Stage 20

What would the Tour de France be without Tadej Pogacar (UAE) these days? Not nearly half the fun.

Not only is the two-time Tour winner a world class talent on the bike, he also is world class in the areas of sportsmanship and resilience. After the heartbreaking time loss on Stage 17, the Slovenian could have packed it in and played it safe for the remainder of the race. But he pulls off the stage win on the final mountain route and second-to-last stage to remind everyone that he will be back in winning form next year.

Jonas Vingegaard and the rest of the peloton will get only a brief vacation from Pogacar’s winning ways – and second spot on the podium, plus the best young rider jersey, is nothing to sniff at.

The rest of the jerseys are all but wrapped up and delivered to Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo Visma) in the yellow, Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) in the green, and Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) in the polka dots.

Team Jumbo Visma was all about delivering its man to the finish line unscathed. But would top support rider Sepp Kuss make it himself after a hard spill? The American was a bloody mess, but still made the time cut, despite falling out of the top-10.

Stage 21

It’s the ride to Paris! Enjoy it while you can because the traditional sprint finish in the capital ill take a pause next year when the Tour concludes in Nice.

No surprises, no withdrawals – everyone who finished Stage 20 started Stage 21 and made it to Paris. Who wants to put in three weeks of work and not make the historic circuit on the Champs-Élysées?

It’s a finish for the sprinters, round and round the circuit with the historic and iconic landscape of Paris flitting past in the background.

Would it be a fifth stage win for Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck)? He barely missed it, with the win going to Jordi Meeus (Bora-Hansgrohe) in a photo finish.

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