Chapter 392 - 194: The Tour de France Officially Concludes, Carving Up the Massive Rewards

The time gap between him and his biggest rival, Pogačar, had widened to 4 minutes and 12 seconds after this stage.

He collapsed onto his wife’s shoulder, sobbing uncontrollably.

But the world of professional road cycling is just that cruel.

For the past two years, he had been on top of the world, the most successful Road Cyclist on the planet. But faced with a difficult season this year, compounded by major changes to his team’s roster, he could only accept this starkly different outcome.

Over on the Quick Step Team, Evenepoel finished the stage at the same time as Vingegaard. Consequently, they were gapped by Huang Chong and Pogačar, losing 1 minute and 52 seconds and 1 minute and 48 seconds to them, respectively.

He was now far behind the two leaders on the general classification standings.

His hopes of challenging for the Best Young Rider’s White Jersey were completely shattered.

His only remaining goal was to see if he could challenge Vingegaard for the final podium spot in the last mountain stage.

But in reality, sitting in fourth place, he was still 1 minute and 44 seconds behind Vingegaard.

Could he really overcome such a significant deficit on the high mountain climbs, his rival’s specialty?

To be honest, Evenepoel himself didn’t have much confidence.

But regardless of the outcome, Stage 20 was the last chance for all the general classification contenders to fight for their target positions.

「July 20th.」

The riders had actually already arrived in the host region for this year’s Tour de France finale: Paris-Nice.

For today’s race, however, they would have to ride from Nice to the Col de la Couillole. After the race, they would transfer back to tomorrow’s starting point: Monaco.

This stage’s total distance was one of the shortest of the entire Tour de France, on par with Stage 4.

The route was only 132.8 KM long, but the total elevation gain was a staggering 4,748 meters.

The course featured a meaningless intermediate sprint point at the 88 KM mark, located after two major climbs.

By the twentieth day of the race, there was absolutely no doubt that the sprinters would be unable to score any points at an intermediate sprint like this.

Therefore, Girmay, who currently held the lead in the points classification, was effectively the first rider to secure one of this year’s four honorary Tour de France jerseys.

In addition, the stage included four difficult climbs.

The first was a Category 2 climb, the Col de Braus, with its summit at the 24 KM mark.

It was 10.2 KM long with an average gradient of 6.3% and a maximum gradient of 8.5%.

The next three were all First Category climbs: the Col de Turini at the 58.5 KM mark, the Col de la Colmiane at 96 KM, and the summit finish on the Col de la Couillole at the 133 KM mark.

The Col de Turini was 20.8 KM long with an average gradient of 5.7% and a maximum of 10.1%.

The Col de la Colmiane was 7.5 KM long with an average gradient of 6.9% and a maximum of 7.8%.

The Col de la Couillole was 15.8 KM long with an average gradient of 7.3% and a maximum of 8.1%.

All in all, this was a stage with a very consistent level of difficulty. It would be impossible for Huang Chong to snatch a win with any more sneaky tricks.

The race itself unfolded predictably. UAE Team’s tactics for the day were highly specific: they sent Soler directly into the breakaway group.

This was clearly a move to prevent Huang Chong from pulling off another sneaky win, and also to have a rider up the road to support their team leader, Pogačar, on the final climb.

Fortunately, Huang Chong’s objective for the day was purely defensive; he just had to keep a close watch on Vingegaard and Evenepoel for the entire stage.

As a result, the race stayed together until the final climb. With just 7 KM to go, after Landa, who had been setting the pace, finally cracked, Eve attempted to launch an attack.

The result? His ability on long, steep climbs was clearly the weakest among the top four GC contenders. He put in a few hard pedal strokes, but the other three easily stayed on his wheel while remaining seated.

Then, with about 5 KM remaining, Evenepoel launched another attack.

But this time, he was only out of the saddle for less than a hundred meters before Huang Chong and the other two were right back on his wheel.

However, as soon as Evenepoel’s attack fizzled out, Vingegaard—clearly aware that the younger rider was trying to steal his final podium spot—launched a decisive counter-attack as his rival tried to recover.

Huang Chong and Pogačar, both focused on playing it safe today, naturally followed Vingegaard’s wheel, dropping poor Eve in the process.

Vingegaard then put down a huge amount of power, and with only 2 KM to go, the trio caught the remnants of the early breakaway, Carapaz and Mas. It was then that Pogačar launched an explosive attack out of the saddle.

An attack like that from Pogačar was a clear bid for the stage win. He didn’t dare risk a sprint finish against Huang Chong, so he went early.

The power he put out in that anaerobic burst was immense, and Huang Chong didn’t even try to respond.

He simply stuck to Vingegaard’s wheel like glue.

But when Vingegaard went all-out on the high mountain climb, even Huang Chong couldn’t hold his wheel.

By the end of the stage, Vingegaard had managed to claw back 13 seconds on him.

However, at the end of Stage 20, that small gain was meaningless.

Because Stage 21, an individual time trial from Monaco to Nice, was only 33.7 KM long.

Clawing back 2 minutes and 12 seconds on Huang Chong over such a short distance was nothing but a pipe dream.

"Huang, this is the final stage. Keep a level head, don’t get nervous. Just ride this stage at your own pace, and we’ll have achieved our goal!"

Once the ITT began, the riders started in reverse order of the general classification. This meant Huang Chong started after Vingegaard, so he could use his rival’s time checks throughout the course to adjust his own power output.