"I think I'm dreaming."

Shortly after erasing a 57-second deficit and winning the yellow jersey on Stage 20, Tadej Pogacar succinctly stated how we all felt. Yesterday I previewed today's individual time trial up La Planche des Belles Filles as if it were a formality: Primoz Roglic would certainly be wearing the yellow jersey in Paris, and the biggest thrills of the day would be few GC positioning battles and the polka dot jersey competition.

About 20 hours later my heart was beating out of my chest as the Tour's classement général virtuel tracked Roglic's dwindling overall lead in the closing kilometers. With a little more than 4k to the finish, Roglic's time flashed red, meaning that he had lost the lead in the Tour de France. From there, Pogacar would pour on the points and flip Roglic's advantage, ultimately winning the general classification by 59 seconds.

You might have guessed that Pogacar won the stage, too (1:21 over second place Tom Dumoulin, and 1:56 over fifth-place Roglic), as well as the polka dot jersey (eight points over Richard Carapaz). Those were all secondary celebrations, however. There's only one thing that can make someone this happy.

Roglic, meanwhile, remained true to form in defeat. He still came across the line at full throttle, though he should have known by then that he'd be losing the yellow jersey. Maybe he looked faintly defeated over the line, but no one looks particularly good after solo efforts up particularly devious Cat 1 climbs.

When Roglic finally got off his bike, he plunked down on the ground and assumed a middle-distance stare, likely wishing he was dreaming. Whatever his plan was, it had gone awry by the first intermediate checkpoint at 14.5 kilometers into the 36.2k course, when he was likely informed that Pogacar was nearly 30 seconds faster. Roglic noticeably upped the tempo, his shoulders beginning to sway as he threw more of his bodyweight onto each pedal stroke. He could only maintain Pogacar's pace for so long. After a slow, awkward bike change with 6k to go, Roglic was virtually in yellow by only 20 seconds. And once the two Slovenian riders were virtually tied, Roglic's legs could no longer hold back the inevitable.

The facts say a lot here. Pogacar is the second youngest winner of the Tour de France ever at 21 years and 364 days old, behind only Henri Cornet in 1904 (yes, Pogacar will celebrate his 22nd birthday one day after he gets the yellow jersey in Paris). The final stage victory was perhaps only bested in 1989 when Greg LeMond made up a 50-second deficit over Laurent Fignon to win the yellow jersey by eight seconds. Pogacar is also the first winner of three or more jerseys (yellow, polka dot and white as the best young rider) since someone named Eddy Merckx in 1969.

The faces of Tom Dumoulin and Wout van Aert watching the race unfold may say it all:

Pogacar was a brilliant rider for three weeks, attacking Roglic even when the full might of the Jumbo-Visma train was nearby. Roglic, even without the best team in cycling, seemed to be every bit Pogacar's equal and perhaps more. Even knowing now how strong Pogacar is, I never would have predicted this. Roglic finished fifth and lost the Tour de France. And if it had been second-place Dumoulin entering the day with a 57-second lead, Pogacar still would have won the yellow jersey by 24 seconds.

I didn't know that performances like Pogacar's on Saturday were possible, and my only consolation is that I'm not sure anyone, Pogacar included, did either.

Other things that happened

Going with bullet points because 1) it's a time trial; the standings sorta speak for themselves, and 2) DID YOU GET A LOAD OF POGACAR ^^^

Anyway, other highlights:

• French time trial champion Remi Cavagna sat in the hot seat for most of the day as the race leader, and did incredibly well to finish sixth behind only some of the Tour's most elite climbers and cycling cheat code Wout van Aert.

• Richie Porte not only finished a Tour de France, but finished on the podium. Not a bad thing, earning your best-ever Tour finish at 35.

• Kudos as well to Mikel Landa, another one of the Tour's most notoriously snake-bitten riders. He finished 14th on the day to jump all the way up to fourth on the GC.

FUN

In a day of horrifying finish faces, David de la Cruz took the gold.

Yet another ghastly accident due to terrible organization at the Tour of Luxembourg. This race needs to be stopped.

POLKA BABY.

Rigoberto Uran triggered my coulrophobia.

The French still REALLY love Thibaut Pinot.

The standings

STAGE 20

1. Tadej Pogacr (UAE Team Emirates) -- 55min 55sec
2. Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma) -- +1min 21sec
3. Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo) -- "
4. Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) -- +1min 31sec
5. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) -- +1min 56sec
6. Remi Cavagna (Deceuninck-Quick Step) -- +1min 59sec
7. Damiano Caruso (Bahrain-McLaren) -- +2min 29sec
8. David de la Cruz (UAE Team Emirates) -- +2min 40sec
9. Enric Mas (Movistar) -- +2min 45sec
10. Rigoberto Uran (Education First) -- +2min 54sec

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION

1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) — 84hr 26min 33sec
2. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) -- +59sec
3. Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo) -- +3min 30sec
4. Mikel Landa (Bahrain-McLaren) -- +5min 58sec
5. Enric Mas (Movistar) -- +6min 07sec
6. Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) – +6min 47sec
7. Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma) -- +7min 48sec
8. Rigoberto Uran (Education First) -- +8min 02sec
9. Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) — +9min 25sec
10. Damiano Caruso (Bahrain-McLaren) -- +14min 03sec

GREEN JERSEY

1. Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) — 319 points
2. Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) — 264
3. Matteo Trentin (CCC) — 250
4. Bryan Coquard (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept) -- 173
5. Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) -- 160

POLKA DOT JERSEY

1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) -- 82 points
2. Richard Carapaz (Ineos) --74
3. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) -- 67
4. Marc Hirschi (Sunweb) -- 62
5. Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) -- 51

Stage 21 preview -- 122km from Mantes-la-Jolie to Paris Champs-Élysées

Stage 21 will begin at 4 p.m. local, 10 a.m. ET. For those watching from the United States, coverage will begin at 9:30 a.m. on NBCSN. (Here’s NBC’s complete broadcast schedule).

Don’t get that channel? You’ll need to pay, sadly. I really like the NBC Sports Gold Cycling Pass, which gives you a commercial-free stream as well as some handy race-tracking whatzits. The much cheaper option, however, is Peacock Premium, which costs $4.99 per month and will reportedly get you access to live coverage of every stage, though presumably with ads and without the whatzits.

If you can’t watch live and want access to replays, it appears Gold is your only way to go.

And so, we've reached the end.

There will be eight laps around the Champs-Élysées once riders enter Paris from the city's hinterlands. There will also be camera shots of a Tour winner sipping champagne who would barely be of legal drinking age if he was American. In addition: a sprint, a speech and a sunset on the best yellow jersey competition I have ever seen.

Pop the bubbly.