Tour de France 2024 Stage 21

July 21, 2024 Nice hosts an historic finish to the Tour de France, the first time the race finishes outside of Paris in a century. The time gaps at the start of the day were quite large but there was still opportunity for moves between 5th and 6th and 8th through 11th. Lenny Martinez of Groupama-FDJ set a strong early time in his best performance of the Tour. Only Harold Tejada of Astana could edge out Martinez of all the early times. Tejeda was not beaten until the final GC contenders came through. Derek Gee of Israel-Premier Tech, who started the day 9th overall, was first to knock off Tejada, besting the Colombian by 18 seconds. From Gee, the times would fall quickly. Matteo Jorgenson of Visma-Lease a Bike took hot seat by 23 seconds. Remco Evenepoel of Soudal Quickstep was next to assume the lead, up 54 seconds on Jorgenson. The ITT is referred to as the race of truth and the truth played out the same as it has throughout the Tour. Jonas Vingegaard of Visma-Lease a Bike went up on Evenepoel by 10 seconds but Tadej Pogačar of UAE would not be denied his sixth stage win. Pogačar scorched the course, beating Vingegaard by 1 minute 2 seconds, even after sitting up in the last 100M to salute the crowd and celebrate. Pogačar completed the Giro-Tour double for the first time since Marco Pantani did it in 1998. The final top 10 in GC are 1. Tadej Pogačar 2.Jonas Vingegaard 3. Remco Evenepoel 4. João Almeida 5. Mikel Landa 6. Adam Yates 7. Carlos Rodríguez 8. Matteo Jorgenson 9. Derek Gee 10. Santiago Buitrago. The Green Jersey went to Biniam Girmay, White Jersey Remco Evenepoel, Yellow Tadej Pogačar and Polka-Dot Richard Carapaz. It should also be noted that Romain Bardet, Mark Cavendish, and Simon Geschke all ended the Tour as the final one of their careers.