Tadej Pogacar won the Tour de France for the fifth time this year on Saturday, moving closer to his third title with an "out of this world" performance ahead of defending champion Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel. He won the way he wanted to, when he wanted to. He stayed with it until the end, launching an attack 300 metres from the line to leave Jonas Vingegaard, the only rider to stay with him longer, behind.

With only Sunday's time trial remaining, two-time champion Pogacar has a five-minute 14-second lead over Vingegaard and is all but certain to become the first man in 26 years to win the Giro d'Italia-Tour de France double in the same season.

"It can still be dangerous, so I will try to arrive in Nice in one piece," said Pogacar. "Five wins. If you'd told me that before the Tour, I wouldn't have believed you," said Pogacar. "It's out of this world, I'm super happy," he said.

The Slovenian was once again far superior to all the other riders. On Saturday, it was Evenepoel's team that declared war. They wanted to make the race hard and make Vingegaard falter. They pushed and fought, but the Dane proved to be stronger than the Belgian.

Pogacar was reduced to a privileged witness. The day's action culminated on the tough Col de Couillole climb, where Evenepoel's Quick Step team set the pace and attacked Vingegaard in a bid to take second place in the general classification.

Instead, Evenepoel lost around 53 seconds to the Dane. The young Belgian rider, who was making his Tour debut, attacked. But the two-time Tour de France winner (2022 and 2023) went on the offensive and eventually left Evenepoel behind. The Belgian is superior in Sunday's time trial, but the gap between him and the Dane is huge. It will be difficult for him to finish second, even though he is the favourite to win the stage.

Vingegaard admitted on Friday that his title hopes were over. Pogacar also won stage 19. The Dane wasn't out to win the stage, but to gain an advantage over Evenepoel to avoid suffering in the final time trial in Nice.

"I rode more to gain time on him (Evenepoel) than to go for the stage today. He's the best time trialist in the world, so you never know," said the 27-year-old Dane. Vingegaard struggled last Saturday when he attacked and tried to chase down an invincible Pogacar, who won the stage in the Alps. Pogacar completed a clean sweep with two wins in the two high-altitude Alpine stages.

"I felt really bad on Saturday, completely empty, so to come back like this is really nice," he said. Evenepoel all but secured third place overall and the white jersey as best young rider. Another standout was Olympic champion Richard Carapaz, regarded as the most combative rider of the 2024 Tour.

He won the mountain points jersey and fought hard in the two Alpine mountain stages. Always attacking, always trying to win mountains and trying to win more stages.

Carapaz finished third on Saturday, won a stage and even wore the yellow jersey for a day at the start of the Tour. He hasn't been able to compete with the best in the general classification, but his Tour has been brilliant. He will not be at the Olympic Games because Ecuador did not select him.

Of the 3,498km of the 2024 Tour, only 34 remain. This could be a brilliant time trial. A challenging day along the narrow and winding Corniche between the Principality of Monaco, where many in the peloton live, and the city of Nice on the French Riviera.

The Tour traditionally ends with a parade into Paris. The sprint finishes on the Champs-Elysees. However, due to the Olympic Games being held in Paris, the Tour de France will bypass the region altogether and instead end with a new format finale that may yet produce a surprise. 

The last time this happened was in 1989. Greg LeMond won the Tour by just eight seconds over Laurent Fignon, the Parisian who had been leading the race. It was the smallest margin in the history of the French race and the last time the Tour ended with a time trial.