Simon Yates produced another gutsy breakaway performance on stage 19 of the Tour de France as he battled to a hard-fought third place at the top of Isola 2000.
The British climber gave it his all in his quest for victory as he set about chasing down Matteo Jorgensen in the final kilometres of the stage, but was eventually overhauled by the charging yellow jersey of Tadej Pogačar.
It was another explosive start to the stage with a large group escaping ahead of the first climb of the day, with Team Jayco AlUla represented through Chris Juul-Jensen. Yates then jumped across to the leaders on the Col de Vars, with Juul-Jensen dropping back to pace his teammate up to the head of the race.
From there, the group worked together to establish a lead of more four minutes over the UAE Team Emirates led peloton that looked intent on keeping the escapees on a tight leash. By the time Yates and his fellow attackers reached the foot of the final climb, only six riders remained with the yellow jersey group trailing by around four minutes.
With the gap coming down Jorgensen was the first to make a move, while Yates chose to sit and bide his time before eventually setting off in pursuit of the American. However, neither could fend off Pogačar who went on to win the stage, while Yates continued to battle on for a well-earned third place finish, his second top-three placing in three days.
Simon Yates:
“It was a really hard day, of course Visma had the numerical advantage so I had to play off that a little bit and I was also a little be wary of the altitude, so I tried to go late, but it wasn’t enough.
You get a rough idea [of who to follow] from how strong guys are during the stage, it’s not a surprise that an Olympic champion [Carapaz] is strong, he was good, maybe he paying for his efforts because he was also in the breakaway yesterday. I tried to play off him a little bit and I bided my time and tried to come back to Jorgensen, but it wasn’t enough.”
Mat Hayman (Sport Director):
“I couldn’t ask for anymore from Simon and the team, they worked well at the start to make sure he was in the break and he did everything right up against some really tough competition with Jorgensen and Carapaz.
Up until 3km to go before Pog turned up and spoiled the party, it was still looking pretty good. Now we’ll regroup after this and see what we can do on the final mountain stage.”
2024 Tour de France – Stage 19:
1. Tadej Pogacar 4:04:03
2. Matteo Jorgenson +0:21
3. Simon Yates (Team Jayco AlUla) +0:40
Photo: Sprint Cycling
