Paris, France: Slovenian Rider Tadej Pogacar won the 2021 Tour de France. The UAE Emirates rider Pogacar is the youngest rider to wear the overall leader’s yellow jersey at the end of the race for two consecutive years. Meanwhile, Jonas Vingegaard from Denmark finished second and the Ecuadorian star Richard Carapaz finished third. Interestingly, Carapaz is the first rider from Ecuador to finish in the top three.
Pogacar won the white jersey for the best Under-25 rider and the polka-dot jersey for the mountains classification after a marvelous performance throughout the duration of the Tour.
A tour with ups and downs
Pogacar suffered an initial setback after surviving crashes at the onset of the tour at Brest. His real success started from stage eight onwards when he pulled ahead in the general classification standings and maintained his lead as the race moved into the Swiss and Italian border ski resorts and he never gave up the yellow jersey during the entire race. He went on winning three of the race’s 21 stages along with an award for best rider under the age of 25 years and the king of the mountains Polka-Dot jersey.
Last year, Pogacar won the race unexpectedly after fellow countrymen Primož Roglic faltered in the last stage time trial. This year though Pogacar was a favorite among cycling fans to win the race but again unfortunately, Roglic suffered injuries in multiple crashes early in the race and dropped out.
Tour de France: General Classification
- Tadej Pogacar for team UAE-Emirates, Time Taken: 82h 56m 36s
- Jonas Vingegaard for team Jumbo-Visma, Time Taken: +5’20”
- Richard Carapaz for team Ineos, Time Taken: +7’03”
- Ben O’Connor for team AG2R-Citroen, Time Taken: +10’02”
- Wilco Kelderman for team Bora-Hansgrohe, Time Taken: +10’13”
- Enric Mas for team Movistar, Time Taken: +11’43”
- Alexey Lutsenko for team Astana, Time Taken: +12’23”
- Guillaume Martin for team Cofidis, Time Taken: +15’33”
- Peio Bilbao for team Bahrain, Time Taken: +16’04”
- Rigoberto Uran for team EF-Nippo, Time Taken: +18’34”
Pogacar along with some of his fellow riders is all geared up to head to Tokyo for the Olympics, where he is considered among the favorites.
About Tour de France
The 108th edition of the Tour de France (an UCI World Tour event) started in Brest on June 26 and concluded in Paris on July 18. 184 riders under 20-22 teams competed this time in the tournament held in 21 stages for 23 days. This year’s Tour de France saw eight flat stages, five hilly stages, six mountain stages with three finishes at altitude like Tignes, Saint-Lary-Soulan col du Portet and Luz Ardiden, two individual time-trial stages and two rest days. Ten new stage cities found place in this year’s tour.
Established more than a century ago, Tour de France is worlds most prestigious bicycle race out of the three most popular races like the Giro d’Italia in Italy and the Vuelta a España in Spain.
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