Frank van den Broek finishes second, 55 seconds later, and Pascal Eenkhoorn takes third place! Two Dutch riders in the top-3, but neither in first.
Kaden Groves wins the twentieth stage of the Tour de France!
The Australian completes the so-called bingo card, after previously winning stages in the Vuelta (7) and the Giro (2).
900 meters left – Groves starts the last kilometer. The Australian can start enjoying it, Frank van den Broek just misses out today.
1.9 km left – Groves gets the team car next to him. The team managers of Alpecin-Deceuninck try to reassure the Australian that the time difference is okay.
3.4 km left – It’s over and out for Van den Broek, it seems. Something very strange has to happen to prevent Kaden Groves’ first stage win in the Tour de France.
5.8 km left – Frank van den Broek is still 45 seconds behind Groves. It doesn’t seem like he’s going to make it, Groves is well on his way to the third stage win for Alpecin-Deceuninck in this Tour de France.
7.0 km left – For both Groves and Van den Broek, the descent is now over. It is now flat to the finish.
8.0 km left – Groves takes the corners in the descent very carefully. He has of course seen up close what happened to Grégoire and Romeo.
9.2 km left – Kaden Groves has started the last, short descent. The last 7.5 kilometers are flat.
10 km left – Frank van den Broek puts in the acceleration! The Dutchman rides away from Stewart but still has to make up 40 seconds on Kaden Groves. How good is Van den Broek today?
11 km left – Van den Broek and Stewart ride away from the other chasing group again. Can they work together this time?
12 km left – Van den Broek puts himself at the front of the chasing group, where Eenkhoorn has now also joined, but the difference is already 45 seconds.
Kaden Groves has already won seven stages in the Vuelta and two stages in the Giro. Will he complete the so-called bingo card today with his first Tour stage victory?
15 km left – Groves has gathered a 25-second lead over Van den Broek and Stewart in a short time. It was a bizarre sight. Van den Broek and Stewart stopped pedaling for a moment, and Groves therefore rode away from the pair without a serious acceleration.
16 km left – Groves with the acceleration! Van den Broek and Stewart surprisingly don’t react. They immediately give the Australian a lot of space, a very strange sight. They simply stopped pedaling.
17 km left – In about a kilometer we get a stretch where it goes uphill quite a bit. This is the perfect opportunity to ride away from Groves for Van den Broek. You don’t want to ride to the finish with a sprinter, but Groves also looks quite strong uphill so far.
18 km left – Grégoire is back on his bike, it is not yet clear how Romeo is doing.
19 km left – Pascal Eenkhoorn is currently following the three leaders by 10 seconds.
20 km left – So now we have three leaders: Groves, Stewart and Frank van den Broek. The chances of a stage win for the Dutchman have just increased considerably, as three other riders fell.
21 km left – Crash! Oh oh oh, a hard crash in the descent of the front men! Iván Romeo goes down hard and is left injured. Romain Grégoire and Simone Velasco also go down hard.
24 km left – Five riders, including Van den Broek, were able to follow Romeo. Eenkhoorn is in trouble.
24 km left – At 700 meters before the top of the climb, Romeo rides away! The Spaniard realizes he has to beat the sprinters.
25 km left – Nine of the ten riders remain together for the time being on the climb. Only Trentin is having a hard time.
26 km left – We have arrived at the last climb of the day and sprinter Groves is launching an attack. What a surprise! Frank van den Broek is on the Australian’s wheel.
28 km left – The two chasing groups have merged, and are catching up with Sweeny. Wellens, Jorgenson and Costiou have just had to let the chasing group go, so we now have a leading group of ten riders.
30 km left – A small group with the two Dutch riders is riding towards Sweeny. Van den Broek, Eenkhoorn, Grégoire, Groves and Stewart are riding about 20 seconds behind the Australian from EF Education.
34 km left – The accelerations in the chasing group have ensured that Sweeny’s margin is only 35 seconds.
35 km – Van Aert is not going to do it anymore today, it seems. The Belgian is riding in a large group 4 minutes behind the head of the race.
35 km – Jorgenson’s attack is over, but now Eenkhoorn is riding away from the group. Chaos in the chasing group. Who is actually riding away?
36 km – Jorgenson now with the acceleration! The American knows that the lead of Sweeny should not be allowed to rise too high.
39 km – That goes just fine! After a sharp turn, Sweeny has to improvise, he jumps over a small threshold with his bike. The difference with the group of Eenkhoorn and Van den Broek is still 50 seconds.
44 km – Harry Sweeny has now gained quite a bit of space from the chasing group, while it is raining hard again. The Australian has a lead of 50 seconds.
50 km – Jegat has been caught again by the chasing group with Van den Broek and Eenkhoorn. Sweeny is still riding ahead of the large group.
51 km – Bike change for Jonas Vingegaard! The Dane drops back to the team car for a moment.
56 km – The group with Van Aert is not really succeeding in getting closer. The current state of affairs:
There is hardly anything left to notice of the bad weather conditions earlier in the stage.
61 km – Van Aert and his four companions are trying to catch up with the leading group, but are still riding 2 minutes and 25 seconds behind Sweeny and Jegat. The peloton is riding about 1 minute behind the group with Van Aert.
62 km – Sweeny also rides away from the leading group! The man from EF Education quickly finds the connection with Jordan Jegat. So now we have a duo at the head.
63 km – Jegat rides away from the leading group! What is he planning? You can’t imagine that he wants to ride solo to the finish from here?
63 km – Van Aert is now also launching a counter-attack! The man from Visma-Lease a Bike has to make up quite a bit of time, but the tempo is good with the Belgian.
64 km – A French counter-attack on the Côte de Thésy! Axel Laurance and Mathis Le Berre create a gap with the peloton. But will they succeed in riding to the leading group? It is still quite far.
65 km – The peloton has now also started the climb of the second category. What happens to the time difference with the leading group?
66 km – The leading group has started the Côte de Thésy! Will this group fall apart here, or will they keep each other in sight?
70 km – The difference between the leading group and the peloton has increased again slightly, to 2 minutes and 30 seconds. Furthermore, not much happens in the last kilometers. We are almost starting the toughest climb of the day: the Côte de Thésy (3.5 kilometers at 9 percent). The Thésy is of the second category.
80 km – Mauro Schmid from Jayco-AlUla just fell hard in the peloton, but in the meantime he is riding at the head of the peloton. Thanks to him, the leading group is not succeeding for the time being to ride further away than 2 minutes and 10 seconds.
The thirteen riders in the leading group are all from a different team! The group with Frank van den Broek and Pascal Eenkhoorn still has a lead of 2 minutes and 5 seconds.
90 km – There are already two long slopes on it. But still the tempo of this stage averages 46 kilometers per hour.
95 km – Pogacar stops for a pee break, and so the difference between the leading group and the peloton increases to 2 minutes and 10 seconds.
101 km – Crash! Ai! In a short stretch downhill, Clément Champoussin goes down hard. He slides meters further on.
108 km – Watson and Van Moer are still trying to catch up with the leading group. The current state of affairs:
112 km – Crash! Oei! Mauro Schmid goes down very hard in the descent… Let’s hope that the damage is limited for the Swiss champion.
119 km – The group with Van den Broek and Eenkhoorn is catching up with the trio at the front! So now we have a leading group of thirteen.
120 km – The weather is clearing up a bit in France. The sun is slowly coming out.
The battle for final victory is in principle over. But Tadej Pogacar keeps a close eye on Jonas Vingegaard.
126 km – The ten pursuers of Wellens, Jorgenson and Costiou: Jegat, Grégoire, Sweeny, Velasco, Van den Broek, Eenkhoorn, Groves, Trentin, Romeo and Stewart.
128 km – Pascal Eenkhoorn and Frank van den Broek are the two Dutch riders in the chasing group. They are riding about 10 seconds behind the leading group of three, the peloton is following the chasing group again at 15 seconds.
130 km – Van den Broek and the other pursuers seem to be catching up again with Wellens, Jorgenson and Costiou.
134 km – But Van den Broek has already lost sight of the leading group again. In these harsh weather conditions, the course situation changes every minute. Currently, Tim Wellens, Matteo Jorgenson and Ewen Costiou have a gap with respect to the thinned peloton. 15 seconds is the difference between the trio and the peloton.
136 km – Even what was left of the peloton, is breaking apart completely. It is really a battlefield in this penultimate stage of the Tour de France.
139 km – Tim Wellens with the acceleration at 1 kilometer from the top of the climb! The Belgian champion already won a stage earlier this Tour, what can he do today?
140 km – The front peloton currently consists of only about 35 riders, the large group has already been thinned out very early. Among others, Oscar Onley is not in the front group. Onley is number four in the standings and second in the youth classification.
143 km – We are still heading for regrouping again. The large group at the front is being caught up again by the peloton.
144 km – We seem to have a group that has broken away from the peloton just before the second climb of the day. Will we finally get a serious flight on the Côte de Valfin (5.6 kilometers at 4.3 percent)?
154 km – Louis Barré took two mountain points on top of the Col de la Croix de la Serra (12.2 kilometers at 4.1 percent). The other mountain point goes to Iván Romeo. In principle, they no longer have anything to gain here.
159 km – The peloton is over the top after the first climb of the twentieth stage. We get a fairly long descent now, and the road is very slippery. Let’s hope that everyone just stays on the bike.
162 km – Van Aert accelerates again, on a steeper section of the hill. The peloton has swallowed the three escapees again. The green jersey rides here 2 minutes behind, Arnaud De Lie already has to concede 3 minutes and 40 seconds.
163 km – The weather conditions are really bad and very bad. It is raining hard, and the roads are therefore very slippery. Let’s hope that it goes well in the descent!
165 km – The two men from EF Education are Neilson Powless and Harry Sweeny. They are accompanied by Arkéa rider Raúl Garcia, who also just tried to ride to Asgreen.
165 km – Again a group with riders from EF Education creates a gap. Is Kasper Asgreen back with them?
166 km – It is raining hard on the Col de la Croix de la Serra (12.2 kilometers at 4.1 percent), this causes very slippery roads. So be careful!
168 km – The green jersey also has to let go of the peloton now. It seems that he can not participate in the intermediate sprint.
167 km – Over and out for Kasper Asgreen! The Dane is being caught up by the peloton.
168 km – Meanwhile, something seems to be wrong with Arnaud De Lie. The rider from Lotto is already riding 1 minute and 40 seconds behind the peloton.
168 km – Multiple accelerations again in the peloton. The gap between Asgreen and the large group is only 15 seconds.
171 km – No, Van Aert and co. have been caught again by the peloton. The attack strands in beauty, Asgreen is still riding 30 seconds ahead of the peloton.
171 km – Alaphilippe, Van Aert, Foss and Démare are trying to ride to Asgreen together. The Danish leader has now started the first climb of the day: Col de la Croix de la Serra (12.2 kilometers at 4.1 percent).
173 km – Wout van Aert now with the acceleration, and a small group goes with him. Can they possibly ride to the leading group?
177 km – No! Healy, Schmid, García Pierna and Abrahamsen do not succeed in riding away from the peloton. Kasper Asgreen is still riding alone at the front. He has a lead of about 30 seconds on the peloton.
180 km – Among others teammate Ben Healy is trying to strengthen Asgreen, as well as Mauro Schmid, Raúl García Pierna and Jonas Abrahamsen.
182 km – Kasper Asgreen has a gap with the rest of the peloton, but really still needs reinforcement if he wants to make something of this escape attempt.
Départ réel! We are off in France! Slightly later than planned, because Tim Merlier and Bert van Lerberghe still needed a new bike. Immediately several riders try to run away.
The intermediate sprint of today lies after two climbs. Is Jonathan Milan still in the front group then, or does he have to drop out for that?
Départ fictif! The riders have left for the neutralization. What kind of stage awaits us?