2024 Tour de France Route and Stage Details

2024 Tour de France: Pogacar’s Historic Domination

Tour de France coverage has gotten complicated with all the hot takes and statistics flying around. As someone who watched every stage of the 2024 Tour, I learned everything there is to know about what made this race unlike anything we’ve seen in modern cycling. Today, I’ll share what happened — complete domination from start to finish.

The Italian Grand Depart

Starting from Florence was a statement — honoring Italy’s cycling heritage while throwing the peloton into mountains from day one. No gentle warmup. The route through Tuscany included serious climbing before riders even reached France.

Probably should have led with this section, honestly. The early stages set the tone. Pogacar showed immediately that he came to race, not to defend. By the time the Tour crossed into France, he was already making moves.

Total Domination

Pogacar won six stages. Six. In an era where sprinters take flat stages and climbers share mountain wins, one rider claiming six stages is absurd. And he probably could have won more if he’d tried.

He attacked on climbs he could have controlled. He won time trials decisively. He gained time on stages where protecting position would have been the safe play. This wasn’t racing to win — it was racing for the sake of racing.

The final margin was over six minutes. In a modern Grand Tour with such depth of talent, margins like that don’t happen. Pogacar made it happen anyway.

What Happened to Everyone Else

That’s what makes Pogacar’s performance endearing to us cycling fans — it wasn’t just about him being great, it was about him refusing to race defensively against a field of exceptional riders.

Jonas Vingegaard, the defending champion, never found the form to challenge. Coming back from his spring crash, he rode heroically to finish second but was never a threat to Pogacar. On a different year, Vingegaard’s performance would have been remarkable. This year, it was the best of the rest.

Remco Evenepoel finished third in his Tour debut — a statement ride for the Belgian. He showed he belongs in Grand Tours, even if he couldn’t match Pogacar’s mountains.

Key Stages

Stage 4 to Valloire: First real mountain test, and Pogacar dropped everyone on the final climb. The race for yellow was effectively over.

Stage 15 to Plateau de Beille: Vingegaard tried to attack. Pogacar responded, then counterattacked, then rode away. Brutal.

Stage 19 time trial: Pogacar won convincingly despite already having an insurmountable lead. He didn’t need to push. He pushed anyway.

The Giro-Tour Double

Pogacar won the Giro d’Italia in May, then the Tour de France in July. The last rider to complete this double was Marco Pantani in 1998. In the era of specialization and careful calendars, doing both seemed outdated. Pogacar proved otherwise.

His form held across both races. Most riders would fade by the second Grand Tour. He actually seemed stronger at the Tour than the Giro.

UAE Team Emirates Performance

Great riders need great teams. UAE delivered — Adam Yates, Marc Soler, and others provided crucial support in the mountains. But honestly, Pogacar often didn’t need help. He won stages solo while his team controlled the race behind.

Sprint Competition

Away from the GC battle, Biniam Girmay won three sprint stages and took the green jersey — a historic achievement as the first Black African rider to win the points classification. The sprinting was competitive even while Pogacar dominated the overall.

What It Means

At 25, Pogacar now has three Tour de France wins (2020, 2021, 2024). He’s in the conversation with the greatest Grand Tour riders ever. And unlike some past champions, he races to animate, to entertain, to attack rather than defend.

The 2024 Tour wasn’t suspenseful after week one. But watching a rider in peak form refuse to ride conservatively was something special. This is what cycling looks like when someone is simply better than everyone else and isn’t afraid to show it.

Looking Forward

The Pogacar-Vingegaard rivalry isn’t over. When both are at full strength, the battles will be closer. But 2024 belonged to one rider absolutely. Races like this don’t happen often. We watched history.