Moatasem Abdullah (Abu Dhabi)
The UAE Cycling Team confirmed its worthiness when it was crowned the 2024 Tour de France title, for the third time in its history, after the 2020 and 2021 editions, after its Slovenian captain Tadej Pogacar finished the “111th edition” in the lead, after the last 21st stage, which he won on Saturday, which was a time trial for a distance of 33.7 km between Monaco, where he lives, and Nice.
Pogacar entered the final stage, 5:14 minutes ahead of the winner of the last two editions, the Danish Jonas Vingaard, and 8:04 minutes ahead of the Belgian Remco Evenepoel, after winning the stage the day before yesterday, which was his fifth in this edition.
After a final stage along the Corniche from Monaco to Nice, which was broadcast live around the world, Pogacar won his sixth Tour race this year, and the title for the third time after 2020 and 2021, becoming the first cyclist since the late Italian Marco Pantani in 1998 to achieve a “historic double”, by winning the Giro d’Italia in the same year.
The UAE team leader retained the yellow jersey for the leader since winning stage four, while Eritrean Binyam Germay won the green jersey, which is awarded to the person with the most points.
It is the sixth stage that Pogacar has won in the current 2024 edition, which included the “fourth stage”, the “fourteenth stage”, and the “fifteenth stage”, before adding to them the lead in the last three stages “the nineteenth”, the twentieth and the twenty-first respectively, to raise his tally to 16 wins in his fifth participation in the tour “3 stages in 2020, the same in 2022, two stages in 2021, and the same in 2023”.
With this victory, achieved after being satisfied with the “runner-up” in the last two editions behind Vingard, Pogacar is preparing in the best way to participate in the Olympic Games, which are also held in France, specifically the capital Paris, between July 26 and August 11, hoping to achieve a better result than Tokyo 2020, when he won the bronze in the road race.
Pogacar joins three cyclists who have won the Tour de France three times: American Greg LeMond (1986, 1989 and 1990), Frenchman Louison Bobet (1953, 1954 and 1955), and Belgian Philippe Thys (1913, 1914 and 1920).
In contrast, four riders share the record with four titles each: Frenchmen Jacques Anquetil (between 1957 and 1964), Bernard Hinault (between 1978 and 1985), Belgian Eddy Merckx (between 1969 and 1974), Spaniard Miguel Indurain (between 1991 and 1995), and Briton Chris Froome (between 2013 and 2017).
#Emirates #Cycling #crowned #historic #treble #Tour #France