Tour de France Stage 20 Preview

The last day in the Alps and a ferocious stage with hardly a metre of flat road.

If you want to watch it live, note the early finish.

Pacman: a group of 42 riders were away with Lidl-Trek pulling for Mads Pedersen who’d made the move and managed to get over the big Col du Noyer. Among the group was Lenny Martinez, 7th overall at the start of the day. Valentin Paret-Peintre won the sprint on the climb to take a virtual lead in the mountains competition.

Several riders from EF, Ineos, Visma towed the breakaway as fast as they could for their climbers which was a boost for Martinez. Having worked to pull the move clear for Pedersen, once past the intermediate point Lidl-Trek, Pedersen included, dropped back to pull the yellow jersey group to contain Martinez.

The breakaway started Alpe d’Huez with about three and half minutes on yellow jersey group and soon Martinez, Richard Carapaz and Sep Kuss left the others behind. Only they quickly started to attack each other, notably Carapaz who was frustrated by Martinez who was either baggage or bluffing. It was a bluff, and Carapaz made five moves, increasingly frustrated as he could not get away. At one point through the village of Huez the trio stopped pedalling as they looked at each other.

Meanwhile Pogačar had set off solo, it was like watching an Australian-style handicap race where the best rider has to set off minutes behind the rest. In yellow, he was gobbling up riders from the breakaway like Pacman. Extrapolating his time gain per kilometre suggested the breakaway would be caught but you didn’t need mental arithmetic to work this out as the lead trio marked each other and buried their chances.

In the finish Carapaz and Martinez were able to latch onto Pogačar but he kicked one last time before the finishing straight and cracked Carapaz. Martinez was on the wheel of the Ecuadorian again and he probably took a pleasure in not moving and thereby ensuring Martinez could not win. Another stage for Pogačar. Easy to bank, to take for granted, to read as inevitable but this time with the Alpe record too.

Among the GC contenders Remco Evenepoel came in two and half minutes down, taking 12 seconds on Isaac del Toro and 16 on Mattias Skjelmose and Paul Seixas. The relative loser was Juan Ayuso who lost almost four minutes to his GC rivals, slipping two places on GC. Martinez is up to fifth now and his Bahraini team management swept away all talk of a loss thanks to this overall gain.

In the mountains competition Richard Carapaz leads by one point over Tadej Pogačar and seven points over Valentin Paret-Peintre. Carapaz has 91 points and there’s the possibility to win 70 points on Stage 20 so all to race for. Pedersen now has 52 points lead on Jasper Philipsen, not arithmetically secure but much more comfortable now.

One sour note was Einer Rubio leaving the race after the UAE team car slammed on the brakes going up Alpe d’Huez, seemingly when a spectator was in front of the vehicle and the Colombian crashed into the back, sustaining heavy facial injuries and, unable to continue, needing 20 stitches. The upper part of the Col de Sarenne for the next stage is due to be closed to the crowds.

The Route: 170km and 5,450m of vertical gain, a huge day in the mountains. The profiles speak for themselves.

The Finish: the Col de Sarenne is a backroad that leads to Alpe d’Huez and very different from the famous main climb. It’s irregular along the way with an early descent and a flat section through Clavans. The upper part in black on the profile has a series of hairpins that come in quick succession.

From the top there’s still 14.4km to go, first across a plateau-like section that’s awkward as anyone dropped before can flounder by themselves here.

Once in Alpe d’Huez there’s a descent out of the ski resort and then the route picks up the final part of the traditional climb with 3.5km to go, some last ramps before crossing the resort to the same finish line as the previous stage.

The Contenders: Tadej Pogačar (UAE) has his Alpe d’Huez stage now, does he want another? Speaking after Stage 19 he hinted at this but also said he wants to help Isaac del Toro secure the white jersey and the podium.

Richard Carapaz (EF) has been on the rampage two days in a row which makes a third time hard especially given all the efforts he’s been making but by virtue of being in the polka-dot jersey he’s got to be among the movers from the start.

Valetin Paret-Peintre (Soudal-Quickstep) sat up on Stage 19. Did he fade from the efforts of pushing a big gear, or was it a case of reculer pour mieux sauter knowing how many points are on offer in this stage?

Lenny Martinez (Bahrain) was almost carried to the foot of Alpe d’Huez on a Sedan chair but stuffed up the finish. However his time gains have propelled him up the GC and so if he moves both Lidl-Trek and Decathlon-CMA CGM will want to chase. Still he is moving well.

Sepp Kuss (Visma-LAB) gets even more climbing to suit and no GC menace.

Netcompany-Ineos can still try, is Thymen Arensman the best bet or did Egan Bernal sit up yesterday to save energy. Both are climbing well but how to win against others look livelier.

Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5) is 9th on GC and at 21 minutes and he could take eight minutes and not worry Lidl-Trek or Decathlon but he’s just been struggling on the climbs in recent days.

	Kuss, Carapaz
	Pogačar, VP-P, Martinez
	Pidcock, Arensman, Bernal, Del Toro

Weather: sunshine at times and 27°C in the valleys but with clouds building and a good chance of rain at times.

TV: KM0 is at 11.30am and the finish is forecast for 4.10pm CEST. The start of the Télégraphe comes around 1.40pm and the top of the Galibier will be around 3.00pm and the Sarenne begins around 3.35pm.