With only the time trail to come tomorrow, today is the final road race of the tour, and there will be many cunning plans, last ditch attempts, and have a go breakaway heros to win this stage or shake up the top GC positions. It’s also a long rollercoaster stage so Jumbo-Visma will need to be on their guard to control the hungry GC herd.
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Stage 20 jersey wearers:
Primož Roglič (Slo) Team Jumbo-Visma Fabio Jakobsen (Ned) Deceuninck - Quick-Step Michael Storer (Aus) DSM Egan Bernal (Col) Ineos Grenadiers
STAGE 20 Results : SANXENXO TO MOS. CASTRO DE HERVILLE (202.2KM)
Clément Champoussin (Fra) Ag2r Citroën, in 5-21-50
Primož Roglič (Slo) Jumbo-Visma, at six seconds
Adam Yates (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers, at 8s
Enric Mas (Esp) Movistar, at same time
Jack Haig (Aus) Bahrain-Victorious, at 12s
Chris Hamilton (Aus) DSM, at 16s
Mikel Bizkarra (Esp) Euskaltel-Euskadi, at 23s
Ryan Gibbons (RSA) UAE Team Emirates, at 26s + combatively award
Gino Mäder (Sui) Bahrain-Victorious, at same time
Floris De Tier (Bel) Alpecin-Fenix, at 50s
Others:
Abandoned : Miguel Ángel López (Col) Movistar Team
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GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE 20
Primož Roglič (Slo) Team Jumbo-Visma, in 83-11-27
Enric Mas (Esp) Movistar Team, at 2-38
Jack Haig (Aus) Team Bahrain Victorious, at 4-48
Adam Yates (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers, at 5-48
Gino Mäder (Sui) Team Bahrain-Victorious, at 8-14
Egan Bernal (Col) Ineos Grenadiers, at 11-38
Sepp Kuss (USA) Team Jumbo-Visma, at 13-42
Guillaume Martin (Fra) Cofidis, at 16-11
David De La Cruz (Esp) UAE Team Emirates, at 16-19
Felix Großschartner (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe, at 20-30
YOUTH STANDINGS AFTER STAGE 17
Gino Mäder (Sui) Bahrain-Victorious, 83-19-41
Egan Bernal (Col) Ineos Grenadiers, at 3-24
Juan Pedro López (Esp) Trek-Segafredo, at 18-04
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A lot to pick the bones out of this stage but all credit due to Clément Champoussin for being out there all day in the breakaway, and after getting caught taking the opportunity to attack again and win on the summit finish line.
The strange abandonment of Miguel Ángel López which for whatever reason gifts his 3rd podium position to Jack Haig, and while on the subject of Bahrain Victorious, Egan Bernal finishing almost 7 minutes down in a trailing peloton gifts the white jersey to Gino Mäder.
Team DSM have another fantastic day, Romain Bardet and Michael Storer in the breakaway mopping up the hog-share of mountain points, two times stage winner Storer will be crowned King of the Mountains tomorrow.
After four hard days in the mountains and hills it will be interesting to see who has the legs to go for a super quick time. Primož Roglič is obviously the favourite, but there could be an outside chance for a challenger, perhaps Josef Černý can give the red jersey a run for his money, incidentally the entire eight man Deceuninck - Quick-Step team finished yesterdays stage in the very last eight positions; all over 41 minutes down, so perhaps saving energy for today’s fun at the time trial.
The top ten GC looks pretty much set to probably remain as is, but with the exception of David de la Cruz only 8 seconds down from 8th place Guillaume Martin who is doomed to be eaten for breakfast.
The predicable end to this Vuelta but despite the domination of Primož, IMO this tour was an excellent one, great courses, exciting bike racing, breakaways, lots of jersey swops, a few new names to remember; notably Aussies, Michael Storer and Jack Haig, and the hat-trick scoring mustachioed Dane, Magnus Cort who almost make it four wins today missing the victory by only 15 seconds
Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread!
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Anyone have cycle-race withdrawal symptoms - The Tour of Britain is underway
I watched some of the 1st stage Tour of Britain [ Live on ITV4 ] today and was surprised to see crowds of local Cornish people who cared enough to step out to the road side to cheer them go by
A good summary (again) of the tour and a view I share - that it was very enjoyable for more than one reason and actually had its fair share of surprises.
Many thanks, Debs, for maintaining thread and your pertinent comments.
I missed much of the penultimate stage which was another fascinating one. What happened to Bernal? Did he have a bad day? I really couldn’t understand what the Ineos strategy was over the race - maybe their problem was that neither Yates nor Bernal could maintain consistency from day to day.
Anyhow, as you said, it was a fascinating race. Even if the winner was clear from quite early on, there were many unpredictable stages and some proper racing. I felt sorry for Magnus Cort yesterday - he has been brilliant throughout, but despite his excellent TT it was just inevitable that he would be overtaken by Roglic.
I would like to thank @Debs so much, as myself and MrsT had never paid the slightest attention to cycling as a sport. It was your Tour De France thread that started it all for us. We haven’t missed a single race or stage since then, that’s been shown on Eurosport or ITV4. I can’t believe it’s taken us all these years to finally watch and appreciate the sport and human effort that goes into it, these guys are just super human. MrsT always wondered how they took there bathroom breaks, now she knows!
Big Thanks to @Debs
POINTS CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE 19
Primož Roglič (Slo) Team Jumbo-Visma
Michael Storer (Aus) DSM
Egan Bernal (Col) Ineos Grenadiers
Bahrain-Victorious - Team Classification leader
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE 20
YOUTH STANDINGS AFTER STAGE 17
FINAL POINTS CLASSIFICATION
FINAL MOUNTAINS CLASSIFICATION
FINAL TEAM CLASSIFICATION
