If you followed the Tour I think this video does a pretty good job of recapping things. It was a pretty crazy race with a completely unexpected ending. It has become rare for one person to be able to rise above a team, but this year the best rider was able to overcome his lack of strong team and beat the best team. His name is Tadej Pogacar, he's Slovenian and when he won he was 21 years old. The youngest rider to win since 1904. He also won the mountain jersey and the youngest rider jersey. Here is a simple breakdown of how things went if you didn't follow.
The action started early for the general classification, GC, contenders this year. On Stage 2 there were actual hills and right away we got a sense of who was going to be contending for the overall. The young rider for EF Pro Cycling, an American team, that many thought had a shot to win after winning the prior race the Criterium du Dauphine, Daniel Martinez (Col) had a hard fall and that was the end of his chances. Also the French hope Thibaut Pinot had taken a hard fall in stage 1 and looked to be struggling in stage 2. Then in stage 4 we had our first summit finish and the strongest team appeared to also have the strongest rider Primoz Roglic (Slo), team Jumbo-Visma. Roglic won the stage and we started to see who was going to be competing for the overall. Here were the top 10 after this stage.
| 1 | Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Deceuninck-Quickstep | 18:07:04 |
| 2 | Adam Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott | 00:00:04 |
| 3 | Primoz Roglic (Slo) Team Jumbo-Visma | 00:00:07 |
| 4 | Tadej Pogacar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates | 00:00:11 |
| 5 | Guillaume Martin (Fra) Cofidis | 00:00:13 |
| 6 | Egan Arley Bernal Gomez (Col) Ineos Grenadiers | 00:00:17 |
| 7 | Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma | 00:00:17 |
| 8 | Esteban Chaves (Col) Mitchelton-Scott | 00:00:17 |
| 9 | Nairo Quintana (Col) Team Arkea-Samsic | 00:00:17 |
| 10 | Miguel Angel Lopez Moreno (Col) Astana Pro Team | 00:00:17 |
Stage 6 was another summit finish and we saw more weeding down of the top contenders, but the next big day was stage 7 where Jumbo-Visma put their team strength to work and gapped a few of the top contenders in heavy cross winds. Here was the top 10 after stage 7.
| 1 | Adam Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott | 30:36:00 |
| 2 | Primoz Roglic (Slo) Team Jumbo-Visma | 00:00:03 |
| 3 | Guillaume Martin (Fra) Cofidis | 00:00:09 |
| 4 | Egan Arley Bernal Gomez (Col) Ineos Grenadiers | 00:00:13 |
| 5 | Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma | 00:00:13 |
| 6 | Nairo Quintana (Col) Team Arkea-Samsic | 00:00:13 |
| 7 | Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R la Mondiale | 00:00:13 |
| 8 | Miguel Angel Lopez Moreno (Col) Astana Pro Team | 00:00:13 |
| 9 | Thibaut Pinot (Fra) Groupama-FDJ | 00:00:13 |
| 10 | Rigoberto Uran (Col) EF Pro Cycling | 00:00:13 |
At this point Jumbo-Visma had things going exactly as they wanted. They came into the race with two leaders, Roglic and Tom Dumoulin (Ned). Both were sitting well at the top and they had things well under control. Three of the top contenders Pogacar, Richie Porte (Aus), and Mikel Landa (Spa) all lost 1:20. A lot of time to make up. In the very next stage Pogocar would go on the attack and get back 40 seconds on Roglic and the other leaders. Then he would win stage 9. Now the leaderboard looked like this.
| 1 | Primoz Roglic (Slo) Team Jumbo-Visma | 38:40:01 |
| 2 | Egan Arley Bernal Gomez (Col) Ineos Grenadiers | 00:00:21 |
| 3 | Guillaume Martin (Fra) Cofidis | 00:00:28 |
| 4 | Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R la Mondiale | 00:00:30 |
| 5 | Nairo Quintana (Col) Team Arkea-Samsic | 00:00:32 |
| 6 | Rigoberto Uran (Col) EF Pro Cycling | 00:00:32 |
| 7 | Tadej Pogacar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates | 00:00:44 |
| 8 | Adam Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott | 00:01:02 |
| 9 | Miguel Angel Lopez Moreno (Col) Astana Pro Team | 00:01:15 |
| 10 | Mikel Landa Meana (Spa) Bahrain McLaren | 00:01:42 |
It's important here to notice a big change. Tom Dumoulin was no longer in the top 10. A lot of people questioned Jumbo-Visma deciding to go all in so early for Roglic and they used Dumoulin to support Roglic rather than protect his position in the GC competition in Stage 8. This will turn out to be critical as the race continues.
Things would stay settled until stage 13 when Roglic went on the attack and could only be followed by one rider Tadej Pogacar. Now the top 10 looked like this.
| 1 | Primoz Roglic (Slo) Team Jumbo-Visma | 56:34:35 |
| 2 | Tadej Pogacar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates | 00:00:44 |
| 3 | Egan Arley Bernal Gomez (Col) Ineos Grenadiers | 00:00:59 |
| 4 | Rigoberto Uran (Col) EF Pro Cycling | 00:01:10 |
| 5 | Nairo Quintana (Col) Team Arkea-Samsic | 00:01:12 |
| 6 | Miguel Angel Lopez Moreno (Col) Astana Pro Team | 00:01:31 |
| 7 | Adam Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott | 00:01:42 |
| 8 | Mikel Landa Meana (Spa) Bahrain McLaren | 00:01:55 |
| 9 | Richie Porte (Aus) Trek-Segafredo | 00:02:06 |
| 10 | Enric Mas Nicolau (Spa) Movistar Team | 00:02:54 |
This was a frustrating day for EF Pro cycling as Martinez won the stage having recovered from his injuries, but they saw Rigoberto Uran lose time. It was obvious now that this was a two man race. Roglic and Pogacar seemed much stronger than the others including last years winner Egan Bernal who was sitting in third. In stage 15 this would be confirmed as Pogacar won another stage, this time only Roglic being able to stay with him. The big surprise was Bernal completely collapsing. He would withdraw from the race in a few days.
| 1 | Primoz Roglic (Slo) Team Jumbo-Visma | 65:37:07 |
| 2 | Tadej Pogacar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates | 00:00:40 |
| 3 | Rigoberto Uran (Col) EF Pro Cycling | 00:01:34 |
| 4 | Miguel Angel Lopez Moreno (Col) Astana Pro Team | 00:01:45 |
| 5 | Adam Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott | 00:02:03 |
| 6 | Richie Porte (Aus) Trek-Segafredo | 00:02:13 |
| 7 | Mikel Landa Meana (Spa) Bahrain McLaren | 00:02:16 |
| 8 | Enric Mas Nicolau (Spa) Movistar Team | 00:03:15 |
| 9 | Nairo Quintana (Col) Team Arkea-Samsic | 00:05:08 |
| 10 | Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma | 00:05:12 |
On stage 17 Roglic would extend his lead and Uran would fall out of the top 3.
| 1 | Primoz Roglic (Slo) Team Jumbo-Visma | 74:56:04 |
| 2 | Tadej Pogacar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates | 00:00:57 |
| 3 | Miguel Angel Lopez Moreno (Col) Astana Pro Team | 00:01:26 |
| 4 | Richie Porte (Aus) Trek-Segafredo | 00:03:05 |
| 5 | Adam Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott | 00:03:14 |
| 6 | Rigoberto Uran (Col) EF Pro Cycling | 00:03:24 |
| 7 | Mikel Landa Meana (Spa) Bahrain McLaren | 00:03:27 |
| 8 | Enric Mas Nicolau (Spa) Movistar Team | 00:04:18 |
| 9 | Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma | 00:07:23 |
| 10 | Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team | 00:09:31 |
This order would hold going into stage 20 the uphill time trial. It is important here to note that Roglic won the last major tour the Vuelta a Espana, with Pogacar coming in 3rd. In that time trial Roglic won the time trial and Pogacar did not even finish in the top 10. It was assumed by everyone that Roglic would hold on to win the Tour as 57 seconds would be way more than Pogacar could make up in a short time trial against one of the world's best time trialers. However, everyone was wrong. Just look at the stage result.
| 1 | Tadej Pogacar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates | 00:55:55 |
| 2 | Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma | 00:01:21 |
| 3 | Richie Porte (Aus) Trek-Segafredo | 00:01:21 |
| 4 | Wout van Aert (Bel) Team Jumbo-Visma | 00:01:31 |
| 5 | Primoz Roglic (Slo) Team Jumbo-Visma | 00:01:56 |
In the end here was the top 10.
| 1 | Tadej Pogacar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates | 87:20:05 |
| 2 | Primoz Roglic (Slo) Team Jumbo-Visma | 00:00:59 |
| 3 | Richie Porte (Aus) Trek-Segafredo | 00:03:30 |
| 4 | Mikel Landa Meana (Spa) Bahrain McLaren | 00:05:58 |
| 5 | Enric Mas Nicolau (Spa) Movistar Team | 00:06:07 |
| 6 | Miguel Angel Lopez Moreno (Col) Astana Pro Team | 00:06:47 |
| 7 | Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma | 00:07:48 |
| 8 | Rigoberto Uran (Col) EF Pro Cycling | 00:08:02 |
| 9 | Adam Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott | 00:09:25 |
| 10 | Damiano Caruso (Ita) Bahrain McLaren | 00:14:03 |
There were two Americans who had a solid Tour. One was Jumbo-Visma's Sepp Kuss. He was a critical ally for Roglic in the mountains, often acting as his last support in the highest mountains. Another was Neilson Powless of EF Pro Cycling. He had two stages where he finished in the top 5 just coming short of a stage win on both occasions.
