The riders are climbing again, up the Col du Télégraphe. This one’s another very familiar one from Tour history, rising for 12km at 7.1%, and is almost immediately followed by an even more famous mountain, the Col du Galibier.
100KM TO GO
Now, Lidl-Trek and Pedersen shift their attention towards Ayuso, and propelling him up the GC. He’s up to fifth on the virtual GC as things stand, with the peloton three minutes down from the lead group containing Ayuso.
INTERMEDIATE SPRINT
He’s done it! Mads Pedersen rolls over to take the 25 green jersey points uncontested.
All he has to do now to seal victory in the points classification is to make it to the finish in Paris tomorrow. What a ride it’s been by the Dane, a worthy winner and a rider unparalleled in the way he rides with such panache. And to do so this way, attacking out of the peloton on an hors category climb to bridge up to a breakaway, epitomises what makes him so special.
There’s a temporary calm in the race, as they move towards the intermediate sprint, where Pedersen looks sure to take the points and seal the green jersey.
After that, the tempo will likely shift again as priorities change, but in the meantime, have a read of our deep-dive anti-doping in modern day cycling.
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DNF – ILAN VAN WILDER
Van Wilder crashed on the descent, and has unfortunately abandoned the race. That’s a real shame for him, as he was right up there in GC a 12th overall.
He joins Pascal Ackermann, who also left the race earlier.
The chasers have caught Carapaz and Paret-Peintre, and lead the race again – and Pedersen is in this group. The intermediate sprint is just 18km of downhill and valley roads away, and if he takes the points there, the green jersey is his, even before the Parisian finale.
Paret-Peintre has joined Carapaz at the front of the race on the descent, and the two share a sporting welcoming gesture before starting to work together.
Behind, Pedersen is flying down the descent, and has just joined the rest of the chasing breakaway group, where his teammate Ayuso is present. Further behind then, Benoot crashed on the descent, but managed to remount and is back racing.
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KOM – COL DE LA CROIX-DE-FER
Carapaz reaches the top of the climb by himself to take 20 more KOM points, and is closing in on victory in that classification – though he’ll need to capture more points on the upcoming summits to be sure.
Paret-Peintre was second to the summit, while behind him was the rest of the break, followed by Pedersen, who’s digging really deep and will n doubt fly down this descent to try to catch those in front of him.
Here are the updated KOM rankings.
1 Carapaz 111
2 Paret-Peintre 99
3 Pogačar 90
The pace is slow in the peloton, the gap to Carapaz growing to 2:20, and Benoot has attacked out from it, giving his Decathlon leader Seixas another rider up the road for later.
And following the polka-dot jersey now the green jersey attacks – on an hors category climb! Mads Pedersen has accelerated out of the peloton, no doubt in search of the green jersey points on offer at the intermediate sprint. But it’s a tall order, as he’s 1:35 further down the mountain than Carapaz, and 1:10 from the rest of the break.
CARAPAZ ATTACKS
The polka-dot jersey accelerates, and it’s a committed one. 3.5km from the top he’s burst out of the breakaway group and has a gap over everyone – he wants the KOM points at the top.
Visma are going all in for the stage win today, with Armirail pulling at the front of the breakaway group, maintaining its lead of about 30 seconds.
Along with Piganzoli and Jorgenson, Sepp Kuss is one of their four riders in the group. Based on how he rode yesterday, when he remained at the front almost all day for a third-place finish, he might be their best shout at pulling it off today.
The peloton is swelling again, as UAE set a steady tempo with Yates, and dropped riders return – including Mads Pedersen. There’s an intermediate sprint at the bottom of the descent of this climb, where he could all but seal the points classification. He’s digging very deep to try to do so.
There is still the break up the road, though, with about 15 riders in it and a lead of 45 seconds.
Today’s stage finishes up Alpe d’Huez again, but not quite as we know it. It’s to be climbed via the Col de Seranne rather than the more familiar route taken yesterday.
One man who does know that ascent is Pete Kennaugh, who won here in 2017 when a stage of the Dauphiné finished here. Here are his recollections of it.
150KM TO GO
A group of about 15 riders have formed, and it’s a strong one – Visma are pushing on at the front of it with Kuss, Jorgenson and Armirail, and also here are Carapaz, Healy, Paret-Peintre, Johannessen, Hindley, and Ayuso.
UAE Team Emirates XRG don’t seem happy with it, and are riding at the front of the peloton, keeping them at about 20 seconds.
The lead group has been caught, and the race is all back together. There hasn’t been any major attacks from the peloton yet, but Ayuso did try another tentative move. Might that change now there isn’t a group up the road?
The lead group has broken up, with Steinhauser, Barguil, Azparren and Abrahamsen going clear of the others on this climb. Meanwhile behind, the peloton is being thinned out with riders dropping out of the back – and even Mads Pedersen is being dropped. He must at long last be paying for the huge amount of attacks he has made throughout this race.
There are some tentative attacks at the front of the peloton on the lower slopes of this climb, with Jorgenson and Carapaz hovering towards the front, but nobody have a gap yet. Most interestingly, Ayuso tried to move – he must be feeling better after his tough stage yesterday, and is seeking to rise back up the GC.
The break start the Col de la Croix-de-Fer with a decent lead of 1:15, but that’s likely to evaporate once the stronger climbers launch attacks to try and get into the break. This is a real slog of a mountain, only averaging 5.2%, but going on for a mammoth 24.1km.
Steinhauser is probably the strongest climber on paper of those in the break, but he’s likely setting up EF teammate Carapaz, who wants to seal the King of the Mountains jersey today.
A group of 6 has formed, and has a lead of 40 seconds: Steinhauser, Abrahamsen, Veistroffer, Barguil, Delbove and Azparren. That’s a decent lead, but there’s still likely to be plenty of attackers from the peloton once they start climbing the first mountain of the day, the hors category Col de la Croix-de-Fer.
OFFICIAL START
And they’re off! Nelson Oliveira is the first rider to attack, and takes abut five riders with him, including Mauro Schmid, but they fail to get a gap. This could be a prolonged battle to form the break, given how many riders want to win a stage and how little time there is left.
With the yellow jersey looking secure, it might be that UAE Team Emirates XRG turn their attention towards Isaac del Toro, and winning him the white jerseys and the final podium spot ahead of Paul Seixas. The pair have visibly gotten along very well through this race, and it could be that Pogačar sacrifices his own ambitions for a stage win today to help his teammate.
While there won’t quite be the scenes of Alpe d’Huez yesterday, that has split opinion for the way they were balanced between spectacle and danger, there are still a huge number of fans on the roadside to watch the queen stage including at the start in Le Bourg d’Oisans, from where the riders have just rolled out from the unofficial start.
While any doubts about Tadej Pogačar’s fitness were answered pretty comprehensively with his win yesterday, and his victory in the overall classification all but sealed, there remains much to play for. Only 24 seconds separate Del Toro on the podium and Seixas in fourth place; the King of the Mountains remains a three-way contest; and over half the teams are still seeking a stage win.
If you thought the last two stages were hard, wait ‘till you see this. With no less than 5,450m of elevation gain, and three hors category mountains, this is undoubtedly the queen stage of this year’s Tour de France.
Bonjour and welcome to stage 20 of the Tour de France!