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Key events
There was a time when British riders were like hen’s teeth in Tour, as Joe Roberts remembers: “1996 on the slopes of Alpe D’Huez, me and my mate Will with a small Union Jack waiting for Chris Boardman then riding for Gan. We were in a sea of Dutch fans when they took great pleasure in telling us over their loudhailer that he had pulled out, we were gutted but still saw Marco Pantani on a flyer. Also caught a fierce close up glare from Bjarne Riis as we stepped too close.”
43km to go Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon) and Maxim van Gils (Red Bull Bora-Hansgrohe) have got back to the GC group on this descent. They’ve taken another five seconds off the gap to the breakaway.
48km to go Pogacar is leading the GC riders down this descent an chipping away at the lead. I don’t think he’s thinking about Del Toro and has his eyes on another stage win. The gap is 4mins 30secs.
51km to go Riccitello is a slight man and has been buffeted by the wind on the descent down the Galibier and has lost some ground. He’s 14secs behind the leaders.
A few more Tour memories for you. “I was in Dunkirk for the Grand Depart in 2001 and I saw David Millar overcook it on the last bend before the finish of the individual time trial,” writes Anthony Margetts. “He was leading at the time but his wheel clipped the barrier and he fell so he did not win the stage but it was close.”
Nicholas von Maltzahn is taking us further back: “In 1978 I was visiting my grandmother just as the Tour came through her part of Switzerland. She liked us all to convene for breakfast, lunch, tea, and dinner, day by day, but leave was given and so I saw the Tour for the first time! It wound its way up the Mont Pélérin and then flashed down and away to the west. I found myself soon after in Paris and surprised to meet with final stage on the Champs Élysées!”
Finally, Jon Sofier has a hazier recollection: “I arrived in France in 1990 and soon became friends with another Englishman, who was a passionate Tour de France fan. Every summer we’d head off to a different corner of France, following the race and discovering places we might never otherwise have visited.
“On the evening of 13th July 1993, we pitched our tent on the slopes of the Galibier, ready to watch the Bastille Day stage the following afternoon. Still relatively new to France, we had no idea what was about to happen. As midnight struck, everyone around us produced fireworks. The mountain erupted in a dazzling display of light and colour, creating one of the most unforgettable moments of my time in France.
“Of course, the memory may have been softened just a little by the generous quantities of champagne that our fellow campers insisted on sharing with us!”
59km to go Pogacar has trimmed the gap to the breakway back below five minutes with this effort. It looked like Del Toro was struggling a bit, but he’s hanging on. Ayuso has got back on to the break, by the way.
Carapaz secures the mountains classification
He’s the king of the mountains with those 20 points. Chapeau, Richard!
61km to go Pogacar has taken over at the front of the GC group and has distanced a few riders already. This is all for the benefit of Del Toro.
61.5km to go Ayuso is clawing his way back to this lead group. He’s sticking around at about 15secs back.
65km to go Carapaz loves an attack and he’s gone again. Does he want to shake off a few of the in the group he thinks are just there for the ride? It’s worked. Carapaz smiles as Matthew Riccitello (Decathlon), Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Jai Hindley (Red Bull Bora-Hansgrohe) rejoin him. Ayuso has not been able to keep the pace. That’s good for the breakaway, without a true GC threat in the break they will be more free to ride away. Their gap to the yellow jersey is now five minutes.
65.5km to go Ayuso told TNT pre-stage that he’s been struggling all race but he’s in the break today. He looks like he’s been feuding with his support vehicle on the climb, chucking away the bidons and gels handed to him, not quite sure what the issue is. This time the hand goes up and he accepts everything given to him.
66km to go Healy has done his work and peels off. Chapeau. Carapaz can seal the mountains classification with these 20 points. There are 20 more on the day’s final climb and four on offer tomorrow, but Paret-Peintre and Pogacar will be too far behind when Carapaz goes over the top in 5.7km.
67km to go Healy is doing the lord’s work for Carapaz in this breakaway, just pulling and pulling away on the front. They have about 7km to go until the summit and 20 more polkadot points.
71km to go Davide Piganzoli (Visma Lease-a-Bike) and Tobias Foss (Netcompany Ineos) are being left behind by the break. Thymen Arensman is still in the break for Netcompany Ineos, who are yet to win a stage.
72.6km to go Ben Healy is not hanging around, the break had taken their foot off the accelerator a bit and the EF Education-EasyPost man wasn’t having it. This burst from Healy has made a few in the break uncomfortable but grown the gap back to 4mins 30secs.
74km to go The riders are off the false flat after the summit of Télégraphe and now on the slopes of the Galibier. The gap to the break is back down below four minutes. The GC riders, notably Bahrain Victorious, reacted to ensure that Ayuso did not get too far ahead.
“You asked for Tour memories and I have quite a few,” writes Roderick MacFadyen. “In 1991 I started a new job in France with a then-huge now-vanished computer company, DEC, and in July 1991 a few of us went to see the Tour stage 17 on Alpe d’Huez. It was very busy but I don’t think anything like as frantic as the crowds seen yesterday. Here’s a nice photo, Gianni Bugno leading Miguel Indurain and Luc Leblanc. Bugno would go on to take the stage and Indurain his first overall win.”
“In 1991 I persuaded my boyfriend to head to Paris for the last stage,” emails in Brónagh McAtasney. “I had to compromise with a visit to Jim Morrison’s grave in Père Lachaise but it was worth it.
“We got a great spot right at the Arc. No big screens and little French made it a challenge to follow what was happening but the crack was great and the rush of the riders passing lap after lap I will never forget.
That was the finish where Djamolidine Abdoujaparov crashed horribly and was practically dragged across the line. I bought L’Equipe the next day and carried it about like the smug Parisian I knew I wasn’t. Great times.”
Love it, keep them coming!
Carapaz takes ten more polkadot points
No challengers in the breakaway with Paret-Peintre gone, so Carapaz eases to his latest points haul.
87km to go How much time is too much time for Pogacar? Currently the break has a 4mins 41secs lead over the GC riders. Ayuso is back in the virtual top five as part of this break.
92km to go Interesting ripple in the polkadot battle, Paret-Peintre looks like he’s struggling on this climb, he’s fallen off the back of the breakaway group.
96km to go The breakaway leads the peloton by 3mins 14secs and are now on the Col du Télégraphe, which today is actually the first part of the Col du Galibier.
“A few years ago (2024) we were in Nice for the final stage,” writes Iain Blythe via email. “We didn’t have clue where to go to best watch but were directed to the outskirts of the city centre where a gentle curve in the road ensured we could see for about a kilometre of the race. The first rider we saw was Cav which set me off for the rest of the day. Also my first encounter with the caraavan – we had arrived too late at other stages over the years and did not reaslise just how insane that is!”
But did you get a polkadot bucket hat, Iain? That’s a prize I desperately want.
Pedersen secures the green jersey!
The great Dane sprints ahead but there’s no contest and Pedersen takes the 25 points at the Saint-Julien-Mont-Denis checkpoint. The 82-point lead Pedersen now has over Jasper Philipsen means the Belgian cannot overhaul the Lidl-Trek rider. Pedersen has now won all three grand tour points classifications.
112km to go For all the talk of illness in UAE Team Emirates-XRG camp earlier in the week, Pogacar has four teammates with him and Isaac del Toro in the same group.
117km to go The speeds are up again as the riders hit another downhill section, real set of your pants stuff, this.
I asked for Tour memories, but I like mountain experiences too. Anthony Rockhead emails in: “Hi Tom, today’s route was the L’Etape sportive last Sunday. As a competent Sunday cafe rider it was far and away the hardest thing that I’ve ever done in my life. I shall be reliving the experience today in awe of the pros who will be completing the course in around a third of my time.”
Another from Samir Dawlatly: Hi Tom, I’m by the side of the road in St Jean de Maurienne. Our campsite is just up the road. I’ve been marvelling at the scrum over the tat chucked out from the caravan. I tested out Telegraphe and Galibier earlier this week, just to show the Tour how it was meant to be done! At 5mp/h, with frequent stops I believe is par for the parcors.”
I’ll take more Tour stage ride stories too. Email link at the top of the page.
123km to go So we now have the green jersey with the polkadot jersey at the head of the race and the yellow jersey 1min 20secs back. They’re still descending the Col de la Croix de Fer, but currently on a little bump before the road drops off again.
135km to go Pedersen is on the downhill now, surely he’ll catch the break, but will Carapaz try and stay out alone? You would not put it past him.
Carapaz takes the first mountains points of the day!
That attack worked a treat for Carapaz, he’s taken 20 polkadot points and extends his lead in the classification over Pogacar to 21. Paret-Peintre takes 15 and is now second in the mountains standings.
138km to go Tiesj Benoot has gone off the front of the GC group, following Pedersen. Is he trying to bridge to the break to act as a satelite for Seixas?
138.5km to go Carapaz will reach the summit in 1.7km and he has 20secs on Paret-Peintre who chased his attack from the breakaway.
139km to go Pedersen has gone off again! He’s clearly not sure that the peloton is motivated to reel in the break before the intermediate sprint and is now chasing down the break.
140.5km to go Carapaz isn’t hanging around as he looks to secure the polkadot jersey. He’s gone with 3.5km to go to the summit to make sure Paret-Peintre can’t outsprint him in the run the line.
141km to go The riders just enjoyed the little respite of a little descent but now the pain starts again on the final five kilometres to up the summit. The breakaway’s lead is 50secs.
147km to go Pedersen is back on. The Tour de France green jersey is the only grand tour points classification missing from his palmarès, that’s some motivation.
148km to go You have to love Pedersen. He’s trying to bridge across to the peloton and looks like he’s swallowed a mouthful of wasps. Pure pain. What a rider.
149km to go Pedersen’s little batch of riders are hanging around, they’re only 25secs behind the peloton. With 12km to go to the top of this climb, Pedersen could get back on or even aim to catch the main group on the descent to make a bid for the intermediate sprint.
151km to go The original breakway is no more, but we now have 15 riders in a bigger lead group. Carapaz and his polkadot rival Valentin Paret-Peintre are both in there, as is Juan Ayuso, who lost time yesterday, and Sepp Kuss, who was in the break that was caught by Pogacar’s record-breaking ascent of Alpe d’Huez.
154km to go He’s hung with the climbers for the last few days but Mads Pedersen has lost ground to the peloton today. If he were able to get back on and win the intermediate sprint the Dane would sew up the green jersey today. Pedersen has only won stage in this year’s race but his lead goes to show how imperious he has been in the intermediates.
156km to go My inbox is open for your emails today. I had a lot of incredible submissions when I tried this earlier this week, so let’s go for it again: send me your favourite Tour de France memories. I’d love to hear your stories of watching either on the side of the road, mountain or on your sofa, just a meaningful moment. The email is in the link at the top of the page.
157km to go Barguil and Steinhauser have pulled clear, but Abrahmsen is on their tail. The peloton is not far back, just 33secs. The riders are on the first of four categorised climbs today, this is one of three hors category mountains in today’s road book. The Col de la Croix de Fer is 24km at an average of 5.2%, but much of it steeper than that. It looks bloody tough.
What's happened so far...
Playing catch-up a little on today’s stage (my bad, folks), six riders went away after three kilometres, one of those, Baptiste Veistroffer of Lotto Intermarche, has already fallen back, but Joris Delbove (TotalEnergies), Jonas Abrahmsen (Uno-X Mobility), Warren Barguil (Picnic PostNL), Xabier Azparren (Pinarello-Q36.5) and Georg Steinhauser (EF Education-EasyPost) remain out in front albeit they’re now fragmenting.
Here’s what the riders are tackling:
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William Fotheringham's stage guide
William Fotheringham
Stage 20, Saturday 25 July: Le Bourg d’Oisans to l’Alpe d’Huez, 170.9km
Up the Alpe for a second time in two days, but this finish uses the barely used back way up the narrow and equally tough Col de Sarenne, defying protests from local ecologists concerned at the race passing through an environmentally sensitive area. The Sarenne is preceded by the classic Alpine super category double whammy of the Croix de Fer and Galibier, making this the hardest stage of the Tour, potentially decisive for the overall or, assuming Pogacar and Vingegaard have an iron grip on the race, at least a final reshuffle of the standings before Paris.
Preamble
I imagine when the course designers drew up today’s stage they were pretty happy with themsleves, a brutal test that would shake out a worthy winner of the Tour de France. It’s quite a Giro-esque approach. What they should have accounted for was a race a long since over as a contest. Tadej Pogacar’s descimation of Alpe d’Huez (part one) confirmed what we all knew weeks ago, he has no challengers.
What we are left with is a monster of a stage, 170.9km of almost wall-to-wall climbing, where the yellow jersey has said his focus is helping to secure the young rider’s classification for his teammate, Isaac del Toro. Whether you to choose to believe that Pogacar will pass up the opportunity for another stage win is up to you, but this is not the duel we were promised.
However, for Paul Seixas and the French public a rider on the podium would be something to cherish so there is at least some jeopardy to be rung from this year’s Tour.
Richard Carapaz will also be an animating figure. He is in the polkadots now after finishing third yesterday and he has said that his goal is to hang on them. Pogacar looms large here too.
For Pogacar surely the next thing on his checklist at the Tour de France is Lance Armstrong’s unofficial record of seven titles and passing Mark Cavendish’s record tally of stage victories will fall as a consequence.
