Le TOUR’20 Stage 20: Tour Time Trial Upset!

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Stage Report: An unbelievable climax to the 2020 Tour de France as ‘Young Gun’ Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) stormed the climb of La Planche-des-Belles-Filles. The Slovenian not only took the stage win, he demolished his countryman, Primoz Roglič (Jumbo-Visma), to slip into the yellow jersey with just the ride to Paris on Sunday.

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First man down the start ramp – Roger Kluge

Stage 20 Route:
Tour director, Christian Prudhomme describes the stage: “The end of Tour time-trials are the less predictable of the discipline. They’re even less when the course on the menu is an uphill climb like the one to La Planche-des-Belles-Filles, 5.9kms long at an average of 8.5%. If the gaps are small, the positions on the podium could dramatically change.”

Tadej Pogačar turned the Tour de France upside down in the penultimate stage. The young Slovenian won the time trial to La Planche des Belles Filles and rode Primož Roglič out of the leader’s jersey. With a lead of 57 seconds on his closest competitor, Tadej Pogacar, Primoz Roglic’s overall victory in the Tour de France looked fairly safe, but the UAE Team Emirates rider gave it 100% on the road to La Planche des Belles Filles to thoroughly demolish his fellow countryman and strip him of the leader’s jersey.

Points leader, Sam Bennett was tenth man off

The day started with Roger Kluge, more than an hour later, the red lantern rouge was the first rider to take the hot-seat, but his time was soon improved by teammate Frederik Frison. They would not set a target time for the favourites. It was Rémi Cavagna who put up a top time, he was the first rider to finish within the hour, with a time of 57 minutes and 55 seconds. The French time trial champion would sit in the hot-seat for quite some time.

One time TT specialist – Tony Martin

Many of the other top clock riders were unable to get close to Cavagna. Soren Kragh Andersen, Kasper Asgreen, Nelson Oliveira and Thomas De Gendt were minutes short, while David de la Cruz was close at 43 seconds. We had to wait until the top 30 of the general classification for any improvements.

Good crowd on the climb to see Tim Declercq

Most of the top 30 riders also couldn’t shake Cavagna’s time. Daniel Felipe Martinez, Lennard Kämna, Thibaut Pinot and Julian Alaphilippe all couldn’t manage to come close to Cavagna.

Early leader with a time of 57:54 – Rémi Cavagna

Wout van Aert was the first rider in the top-30 to look like a stage winner. The Belgian champion gained time on the French champion and at the finish, Van Aert recorded the new best time: 57 minutes and 26 seconds.

Bennett used his road bike on the climb

Just before 5pm, Alejandro Valverde was the first rider of the top-10 to start his race. The Spaniard did not have much of a chance to move up a place in the standings with Tom Dumoulin. In fact, Dumoulin managed to overtake Valverde halfway through the time trial.

Popular with the fans even without a green or rainbow jersey – Peter Sagan

The Jumbo-Visma Dutchman rode an excellent time trial. Dumoulin was close to Cavagna at the first intermediate point. At the same time Adam Yates and Rigoberto Uran lost their lead over Dumoulin in the general classification.

Maybe not as many fans as normal, but still enough for encouragement

Not a bad time for breakaway specialist Thomas De Gendt

At the second intermediate point, Dumoulin turned his loss on Cavagna into a lead. Unlike Cavagna and Van Aert, Dumoulin did not change bikes for the clim. At the finish it turned out to be a good choice as Dumoulin came in with a lead time of 57 minutes and 16 seconds, moving up to seventh overall.

A tough finish for stage 20

A storming ride from Wout van Aert to go into the lead

Pogacar was making the battle for the yellow jersey very exciting. The Slovenian had already taken twelve-seconds from Roglic at the first intermediate point. At the foot of La Planche des Belles Filles, Roglic had only a 21 second lead on the virtual overall standing.

Tom Dumoulin was strong enough to go ahead of his teammate

The Tour de France was in Pogacar’s grasp

After a bad bike change Roglič, it became clear that a sensation was in the making. Roglič quickly lost more time to Pogačar on La Planche des Belles Filles. It was not going to be Roglic, but Pogačar who would win the 2020 Tour de France. With a one of the most powerful rides seen in many a year, the young UAE Team Emirates rider wrote cycling history on La Planche des Belles Filles.

With all the excitement, the ride from Richie Porte to take third place on the stage and move onto the podium, was almost lost. A great day for the Australian, but disaster for Miguel Ángel López who dropped to sixth overall.

The final push to take stage, KOM, white and yellow jersey

Stage winner and overall leader, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): “I think I’m dreaming. I feel like my head is exploding. It’s really crazy. I was happy with the second place and now I’m here with the yellow jersey. I don’t know what to say, it’s unbelievable. I’m really proud of the team. They did such a big effort over three weeks. I feel sorry for Primoz Roglic. He had done a very good Tour de France so far, he was superior during the whole Tour de France, his team did an amazing job and he had a bad day today. For me, to wear the yellow jersey on the final day, it’s just a dream and a big achievement. It’s amazing. It was not just me racing today. It’s the fruit of a team work from the day we reckoned the course. I knew every corner. I knew where to accelerate. After the great job of my staff and team mates, I just had to push on the pedals. My legs were really good. I was listening to the times through the radio on the flat part of the race but once on the climb I didn’t hear anything because the fans were too loud. I knew climb very well so I just went full gas. Calling my girlfriend was the first thing I wanted to do after the race. Actually, my dream was not to win the Tour de France, it was only to be on the Tour de France. Even after finishing third at La Vuelta, I didn’t think I was able to win a Grand Tour. I just knew I could compete with the best. If you ask me in one week or one month, I will still not believe that I’ve won the Tour de France.”

Phenomenal

4th on the stage, Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma): “We are very disappointed. Everything went perfectly, actually, we worked very hard for it and there was no indication that it would go wrong today. It hurt my eyes how Primoz was getting more and more in trouble. He didn’t look as smooth as usual, he missed that cadence. And before the start it all looked so good… But it is a combination of Pogačar who rides really fantastic with Primoz who does not reach his normal level, that ensures this result. We went all out every day. We gave everything and did everything perfectly. We were ready to celebrate, so to speak, so it’s very difficult to deliver this at the last minute.”

The end of the Roglič dream

# Just the final stage to Paris on Sunday, but keep it PEZ for Ed’s ‘Final Tour Rant’ on Monday. #

Tour de France Stage 20 Result:
1. Tadej Pogačar (Slov) UAE Team Emirates in 55:55
2. Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Jumbo-Visma at 1:21
3. Richie Porte (Aus) Trek-Segafredo
4. Wout van Aert (Bel) Jumbo-Visma at 1:31
5. Primož Roglič (Slov) Jumbo-Visma at 1:56
6. Rémi Cavagna (Fra) Deceuninck – Quick-Step at 1:59
7. Damiano Caruso (Ita) Bahrain-McLaren at 2:29
8. David de la Cruz (Spa) UAE-Team Emirates at 2:40
9. Enric Mas (Spa) Movistar at 2:45
10. Rigoberto Urán (Col) EF Pro Cycling at 2:54.

Tour de France Overall After Stage 20:
1. Tadej Pogačar (Slov) UAE Team Emirates in 84:26:33
2. Primož Roglič (Slov) Jumbo-Visma at 0:59
3. Richie Porte (Aus) Trek-Segafredo at 3:30
4. Mikel Landa (Spa) Bahrain-McLaren at 5:58
5. Enric Mas (Spa) Movistar at 6:07
6. Miguel Ángel López (Col) Astana at 6:47
7. Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Jumbo-Visma at 7:48
8. Rigoberto Urán (Col) EF Pro Cycling at 8:02
9. Adam Yates (GB) Mitchelton-Scott at 9:25
10. Damiano Caruso (Ita) Bahrain-McLaren at 14:03.

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