{"id":2062174,"date":"2026-07-24T23:02:39","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T20:02:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2062174"},"modified":"2026-07-24T23:02:39","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T20:02:39","slug":"tense-tour-mountains-battle-goes-right-down-to-the-wire-between-pogacar-and-carapaz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2062174","title":{"rendered":"Tense Tour Mountains Battle Goes Right Down to the Wire Between Poga\u010dar and Carapaz"},"content":{"rendered":"
Just as it did in 2020 and 2024, the battle for the Tour de France polka dot jersey is coming down to a big fight between Richard Carapaz and Tadej Poga\u010dar.<\/p>\n
In 2020, the year Poga\u010dar first won the Tour, the Slovenian overhauled Carapaz on stage 20, just one day before the race ended in Paris.<\/p>\n
Four years later the balance tiled Carapaz\u2019s way with an epic long range breakaway on stage 19 to Isola 2000. He gobbled up a staggering 64 KOM points out leap from fifth to first in that classification, overhauling Poga\u010dar.<\/p>\n
The Ecuadoran rider is once again in the polka dots by a huge day of effort, being clear of the peloton for 128km and hoovering up mountains points right until the end.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday was a really tough day,\u201d the EF Education-EasyPost rider said at the finish. \u201cWe went looking for the breakaway right from the start and managed to get up there. Ben [Healy] and Alex [Baudin] did an incredible job, and Sean [Quinn] was with me the entire time bringing up water and ice.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Carapaz was on a real mission, finishing second to polka dot jersey-wearer Valentin Paret-Peintre on the first two climbs, then distancing the Frenchman with 37km to go.<\/p>\n
And while Tadej Poga\u010dar\u2014who was actually leading the mountains competition, but who couldn\u2019t don that jersey because he was wearing yellow\u2014did gap Carapaz inside the final kilometer to win the stage, the latter\u2019s KOM victory on the day\u2019s penultimate climb plus his third place at Alpe d\u2019Heuz was enough.<\/p>\n
He was once again leading the mountains classification, by a slender, suspenseful one point over Poga\u010dar.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt I had the legs to fight for the stage, but the breakaway group didn\u2019t cooperate very well toward the end,: Carapaz said. \u201cPlus, Poga\u010dar simply had an extra change of pace.<\/p>\n
\u201cStill, I\u2019m really happy \u2013 this polka dot jersey is something we\u2019ve been chasing across all three weeks, and holding it is deeply special.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the bottom of Alpe d\u2019Huez, we really believed the stage win was possible.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt turned out to be extremely brutal, but now we have a clear mission all the way to Paris.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018We are giving it everything\u2019<\/h2>\nThe battle is still ongoing but Richard Carapaz is right where he wants to be, namely in the mountains jersey (Photo: Luc Claessen\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The mission Carapaz is speaking of is one that will remain full of suspense on Saturday. A blistering concluder is in store, with the hardest day of racing of this year\u2019s Tour.<\/p>\n
Three hors categorie climbs are on the cars, namely the iconic Col de la Croix de Fer and the Col du Galiber, the newer Col de Sarenne, plus the first category Col du T\u00e9l\u00e9graphe.<\/p>\n
They offer a huge haul of points to strong riders. Carapaz will undoubtedly try to get up the road early once again.<\/p>\n
He\u2019ll be spurred on by the jersey he will be wearing, and will hope that Poga\u010dar limits any aggression until later in the stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving polka dots is a proud and happy moment, and a truly special one for me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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\u201cYou work so hard every day just for moments like this. The team is super happy. This jersey makes it all worth it \u2013 my teammates worked so hard for this moment and for this podium.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe still have a long way to go to Paris, but we\u2019re giving it everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s an intriguing extra element to the battle: Paret-Peintre slipped back towards the end of stage 19 but is now just seven points behind.<\/p>\n
With a staggering 70 points on offer Saturday, he\u2019s not out of the picture at all. If he gets into the break and Carapaz does not, the competition could be blown wide open.<\/p>\n
Pedersen zoning in on final points win<\/h2>\n
A battle that is still raging but seems much more clear cut is the points competition. Mads Pedersen is not as fast as Jasper Philipsen in a head to head but he has much greater versatility. He has used this to mop up points in intermediate sprints and more selective finishes.<\/p>\n
The Lidl-Trek rider has been leading the points contest ever since he won stage 4 and while Philipsen narrowed the gap to just seven points when he took stage 17, Pedersen has been on the attack in the two days since.<\/p>\n
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He\u2019s won both intermediate sprints and heads into stage 20 a promising 57 points ahead.<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s stage is another very tough one and if Pedersen can take more points again early on, the final victory will be all but confirmed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m proud of myself and proud of the whole team,\u201d he said. \u201cWe made a plan a bit optimistic, but in the end it worked out and we managed to get another 25 points. We gained back the big loss we had a few days ago and it\u2019s really nice.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would have been nice not to make the big mistake the other day [when he finished only eighth behind Philipsen], but we will try again tomorrow and maybe seal it there.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf not, it\u2019s gonna be a good fight in Paris, but it\u2019s way more comfortable than it was some days ago.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2287474063.jpg”] Shane Stokes Published July 24, 2026 05:02PM Just as it did in 2020 and 2024, the battle for the Tour de France polka dot jersey is coming down to a big fight between Richard Carapaz and Tadej Poga\u010dar. In 2020, the year Poga\u010dar first won the Tour, the Slovenian overhauled Carapaz on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-2062174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2062174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2062174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2062174\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2062174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2062174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2062174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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