Sam Bennett Wins Stage 21, and Tadej Pogacar Is Crowned Champion
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Two months later than expected, the 2020 Tour de France rolled into Paris, with Tadej Pogačar, who turns 22 years old on September 21, wearing the yellow jersey.
When the race started from the French Riviera more than three weeks ago, some people expressed doubts that the race would even reach the finish line, because of the coronavirus pandemic. The International Cycling Union (UCI) and the French authorities established extensive health measures, including multiple COVID-19 tests of the entire peloton during the race, and only allowing teams to bring 30 people into the Tour bubble.
Read below for stage-by-stage updates, results, and highlights.
Stage 21
Slovenian rookie Tadej Pogačar won the Tour de France on Sunday, riding triumphantly into Paris in the race leader’s yellow jersey at just 21 years old.
Pogačar became the Tour's youngest champion since 1904 as Ireland’s Sam Bennett won the 21st and final stage after the eight-lap dash around the iconic Champs-Élysées to clinch the green sprint points jersey.
The champion mounted the podium as the sun set behind the Arc de Triomphe to pick up the best climber’s jersey, the white top young rider’s prize and finally the Tour winner’s famous yellow jersey.
“I can’'t find the words to thank everyone, but it’s been amazing this three weeks where the fans cheered me all the way,” said Pogacar.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo stood alongside Slovenian President Borut Pahor while Pogacar unfurled his national flag and draped it over his shoulders.
Long-time race leader Primož Roglič ended second while Australia’s Richie Porte came third.
Pogacar’s UAE Emirates team pocketed 623,930 euros ($738,798) thanks to his victory.
Dressed in green, Bennett lifted his bike aloft after the race, which provided his second stage win.
“It was so hard but it was all worth it, I still can’t believe it,’ said the big sprinter after edging seven-time winner Peter Sagan to the green jersey.
This story will be updated. You can check live race results here.
Stage 20
Tadej Pogačar all but clinched the Tour de France on Saturday after his Slovenian compatriot Primož Roglič let a 57-second lead slip in a tricky individual time-trial, the last day of real racing.
The 21-year-old Pogačar will lead the peloton into Paris on Sunday wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey and, barring disaster, will climb onto the top step of the podium.
Pogačar pulverized the field with his stage-winning performance, and his team celebrated as they realized the 2020 Tour was theirs.
“My dream was just to take part,” said Pogacar about his first Tour de France. “I could hear nothing on the final climb, and I went for it with everything.”
Roglič had led the Tour since stage nine and his dramatic meltdown on the final climb means Pogačar become the youngest champion since 1904.
After the first 30 kilometers, Pogačar changed bikes, which took 12 seconds, to tackle the last 6K with an eight-percent climb at top speed.
The 30-year-old Roglič decided to change bikes once he began to crumble, but it became painfully clear he was in for a horrible finale.
Stage 19
Primož Roglič kept his lead in the Tour de France on Friday with just two stages remaining as Denmark’s Soren Kragh Andersen of Team Sunweb soloed to victory on Stage 19.
Sam Bennett inched further ahead in the race for the green jersey by beating rival Peter Sagan, who failed in the last two stages to leave the Irishman behind.
Roglič has a 57-second lead over his Slovenian compatriot Tadej Pogačar while Colombia’s Miguel Ángel López is third, one minute and 26 seconds behind the leader.
After three days ascending Alpine mountains, this stage had been described as an easy day for the overall contenders, and so it proved.
This was not the case for Deceuninck-Quick Step sprinter Bennett however, who fended off the seven-time green jersey Sagan in their close-run contest over the remaining sprint points.
Sagan made a bid for glory from 20K out, but Bennett was able to keep up as an escape group formed from which Andersen then launched his lightning strike with six kilometers left.
The peloton behind them slowed to a snail’s pace as many of the lesser riders realized their contribution to this Tour was essentially over due to the nature of the final two stages.
An individual time-trial on Saturday will see Roglič and his rivals for the yellow jersey race solo over 36km.
The Tour de France then culminates in a kind of parade into Paris before a sprint around the Champs Élysées where Roglič looks likely to take the 2020 Tour title.
Stage 18
Primož Roglič retained his lead on compatriot Tadej Pogačar atop the Tour de France standings after stage 18 as British team Ineos claimed a one-two finish on Thursday.
Bedevilled by problems that saw them withdraw their captain Egan Bernal on Wednesday, teammate Michal Kwiatkowski won the stage as Richard Carapaz took the King of the Mountains jersey with the pair crossing the finish line three minutes ahead of the elite pack.
“I had the best legs ever, the way we rode together with Richard was just incredible,” said Ineos’s Polish rider, who is a former world champion.
“When Egan left the race, he was very sad but wished us well, and now we have this wonderful day,” he said.
“That’s the Tour de France,” he beamed.
In the race for the overall standings, only Saturday’s individual time trial presents a chance for the second-placed Pogačar to stage a coup.
Roglič leads Pogačar by 57 seconds with Friday’s stage 19 and the culminating run up the Champs-Elysees on Sunday both set to be decided in a mass bunch sprint.
Stage 17 winner Miguel Ángel López of Colombia is still third, 1 minute and 27 seconds off the lead.
Stage 17
Colombia’s Miguel Ängel López won stage 17 of the Tour de France on Wednesday to climb third in the overall standings. Race leader Primož Roglič extended his advantage.
The race climbed to 2,304 meters of altitude atop the Col de La Loze where Slovenian rookie Tadej Pogačar lost a handful of seconds to his compatriot Roglič in the race for the yellow jersey on a day the 2019 champion Egan Bernal withdrew.
“I’m glad this is behind me,” Roglič said after his toughest challenge; he merely needs to survive the last stages without a major incident to win this year’s Tour.
“Every meter counts on a climb like that,” the 30-year-old said.
Richard Carapaz produced a doomed solo bid for Ineos as the Giro champion was caught on the ever-changing gradient of the final seven kilometers above 2,000 meters as the top 10 experienced a slight shake-up.
A day after no riders tested positive for COVID-19, giving the race the green light to run all the way to Paris on Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron was present as the peloton struggled through villages full of ubiquitous baskets of flowers hanging from Swiss-style ski chalets.
In the rarefied air that suits the men from the Andes, the 26-year-old López leapfrogged compatriot Rigoberto Uran and extended his lead over Adam Yates and Richie Porte.
Roglič now leads his young compatriot Pogačar by 57 seconds, with just three real races left before the Tour reaches Paris.
Suffering from a bad back for a month now, Bernal, his Tour defense in tatters, said a sad goodbye to the 2020 edition when Ineos decided to protect the long-term interests of their 23-year-old captain by withdrawing him.
But his compatriot Astana captain López, who is known as “Superman” in his homeland after fighting off three thieves who tried to steal his bike, gave Colombia something to shout about.
López had complained earlier in the race that Jumbo-Visma’s dominance was suffocating the race, but saw his opportunity on a mentally challenging finale where the varying gradient called for constant adaptations.
“I felt strong coming into the race and on the Grand Colombier, which was the first big one [climb] of the race, like the ones I train on in Colombia, I felt good,” López said.
“I won many things in my life, but this is impressive and I worked so hard to get here.”
The 14-kilometer struggle up the Col de la Madeleine to its 2,000m summit was at the halfway point of the race.
Lopez made the difference on the even higher Meribel mountain with a sudden turn of pace while Roglič and Pogačar were watching each other.
“I felt at home over 2,000m, as I live at 2,500m above sea level,” he explained. “But I won’t win, the others ahead of me are too good on time trials. I’m just going to enjoy myself.”
The key remaining challenge is stage 20, a 36K individual time trial that runs over 30K of rolling terrain before tough 6K ascent.
Stage 16
Primož Roglič maintained the overall lead in the Tour de France on Tuesday as Bora’s German all-rounder Lennard Kämna won Stage 16.
Kämna came good after a long range breakaway, defeating Ineos rider Richard Carapaz over the final kilometers after the pair had been part of a rare large escape group.
The victory was just reward for the 24-year-old who was beat to the line on the Puy Mary mountain last week. It was his first Tour de France stage win, and Bora’s first of this Tour.
Fifteen minutes further down the mountain the yellow jersey group ascended together with only Tadej Pogačar trying to upset Roglič and his Jumbo teammates.
Colombia’s Miguel Angel Lopez powered past them all over the final 200m but was followed closely over the line with no change at the top except for Nairo Quintana losing a little time.
Roglic leads Pogačar by 40 seconds with five stages remaining. Rigoberto Uran is third, trailing by 1 minute and 35 seconds, while Lopez and Britan Adam Yates round out the top five.
Stage 15
Egan Bernal’s defense of the Tour de France was reduced to cinders Sunday as the Colombian suffered a meltdown on the first major mountain of the race, while the overall leader Primož Roglič denied any suggestions he was doping.
With three massive mountains, the stage itself was won by 21-year-old rookie Tadej Pogačar, but the extent of the 2019 champion's astonishing collapse on the final climb is the story of the Tour so far.
“I lost three years of my life on that climb, I gave it everything,” said Bernal. “But I just couldn’t keep up.”
Jumbo-Visma’s Roglič retained the overall lead after the concluding 17-kilometer ascent of the Grand Colombier, which he ascended with four teammates.
Ineos captain Bernal slipped to eight minutes and 25 seconds behind in the yellow jersey standings in 13th place.
Ineos, formerly known as Sky, have won seven of the last eight Tours led by such luminaries as Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas, and this jaw-dropping defeat marks something of a turning point for the British team.
Dutch team Jumbo led the peloton up the Grand Colombier’s demanding climb in their yellow and black outfits with a relentless high tempo, but Roglič brushed off any suspicions of doping from the media.
“At 6 a.m. this morning I had a complete doping control, and just had another one right now,” Roglic said, looking flabbergasted when asked.
“There is nothing to hide from my side. You can definitely trust me,” Roglic added.
Third on the day behind Australian Richie Porte, Roglič attacked first, but his 21-year old compatriot had the edge over the final 50m.
“Unfortunately I was a bit short on the last climb, but it was a great day for us,” said the Jumbo leader, a former ski jumper who came to cycling late.
Roglič leads Pogačar by 40 seconds with six stages remaining, with Colombia’s Rigoberto Uran of Education First in third at 1 minute, 34 seconds, while Miguel Angel Lopez and Adam Yates round out the top five.
Stage 14
Denmark’s Søren Kragh Andersen (Team Sunweb) won Stage 14 of the Tour de France after a frantic run into Lyon on Stage 14 of the Tour de France on Saturday.
Slovenian Primož Roglič finished with an elite group of race contenders a few seconds behind the Dane to retain the lead in the overall standings ahead of a major mountain test on Sunday.
“We pulled it off, it’s the kind of thing you dream of,” Andersen said at the line.
The 158-strong peloton left a carnival atmosphere in rugby-loving Clermont-Ferrand for a tricky run over five small hills on a hot day, with Peter Sagan’s BORA-Hansgrohe team leading proceedings as the Slovak targeted winning a bunch sprint in Lyon.
With a perilous inner-city finish it was Andersen, however, who sprung a lightning attack in the final few kilometers to clinch a second win for his team this week after Marc Hirschi's solo win on Thursday.
Sagan came in fifth as the bunch sprinted to the line, but Ireland's Sam Bennett stays ahead of the seven-time Tour de France points winner in the race for the green jersey.
Stage 13
Daniel Martinez scored the first Tour de France stage win for U.S. team Education First on Friday as Slovenia’s Primož Roglič extended his lead at the top of the overall standings after a titanic mountain struggle.
Defending champion Egan Bernal dropped time over the final kilometer of the stage while Colombia’s Nairo Quintana and Frenchman Romain Bardet also fell further behind Roglič.
As the race hit a nine-percent incline on the day’s sixth and final climb, Roglič and Pogačar managed to drop a group of riders in the running to win the 2020 Tour.
Bernal now looks under severe pressure from Roglič, the Vuelta a España champion, who has a powerful team around him.
Bernal’s team Ineos said their 23-year-old leader was improving each day from a bad back.
“We will do better on the really tough stages,” Ineos director Benjamin Rasch said.
The holder of the green jersey, Irishman Sam Bennett, and the vastly experienced Peter Sagan will likely renew their struggle for sprint points on Saturday’s 194-kilometer run over five small hills between Clermont-Ferrand and Lyon.
This story will be updated. You can check live race results here.
Stage 12
Persistence finally paid off for Marc Hirschi as the Swiss rider for Sunweb rode a breakaway to a Stage 12 victory in the Tour de France on Thursday, putting behind him two gut-wrenching near misses.
There was no change in the overall standings a day ahead of a massive mountain slog with Jumbo-Visma’s Primož Roglič 21 seconds ahead of defending champion Colombia’s Egan Bernal of Ineos.
In Stage 2, the 22-year-old Hirschi was passed at the line by flying Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe on Nice’s iconic Promenade des Anglais.
He then suffered another blow when the Slovenian pair Tadej Pogačar and Roglič caught and beat him at Laruns in Sunday’s ninth stage.
But the Sunweb man finally found the right formula to produce a heroic long-range solo victory on the Tour’s longest stage of 218-kilometers from the chateau-dominated town of Chauvigny over four rolling hills to Sarran in central France's pastoral heartland.
“I haven’t been sleeping well, and I had a bad back, but I said to myself just go for it,” Hirschi said.
“I never would have believed it and even in the final kilometer I still didn’t allow myself to hope,” said the 2018 under-21 world road race champion.
“I was so close twice, so it’s an unbelievable feeling.”
Hirschi was given a late scare again by Alaphilippe but the Frenchman quickly abandoned his late pursuit.
“He deserved his win, I’m glad for him, I just didn’t have the legs. He was too strong,” Alaphilippe said at the line.
The Tour takes in Europe’s largest volcano Friday with the 70-kilometer in diameter Puy Mary on the Cantal Massif with the peloton to ascend to 1783 meters.
“Our team needs a win,” Bernal warned at the finishing line Thursday.
Stage 11
Australia’s Caleb Ewan narrowly won stage 11 of the Tour de France on Wednesday after a frantic bunch sprint was decided on a photo-finish. Primož Roglič retained the overall lead.
The Lotto-Soudal rider, who won three stages in the 2019 Tour de France, edged Tuesday’s stage winner Sam Bennett, who retains the green jersey, and peloton superstar Peter Sagan.
“Once you get one you want two, and now I have two. I want a third on the Champs Elysees in Paris,” said the sprinter, who also won stage three at Sisteron.
Ewan is a wily sprinter, known for cool-headed analysis in the heat of the action, and he now has five Tour stage wins in total.
“I was really close to the front, I was more forward than I wanted to be, but I dropped back into the bunch to watch,” the 26-year-old said.
“I just kept calm and waited for the right gap to open. I didn’t know if I’d won because I threw the bike and was looking down.
“But sometimes you can just feel it,” he added.
His win is doubly impressive as his team has already lost three riders.
“We no longer have the men to protect me, but I don’t mind, they got me there,” said the affable and popular rider.
The finish line at the Tour de France is equipped with cameras in either corner that can take thousands of images per second, and each bike is equipped with a micro-chip, delivering instant results.
Stage 10
Irishman Sam Bennett was left in tears after sprinting away to claim his first stage win on the Tour de France on Tuesday after an Atlantic coast run from Oleron to the island of Saint-Martin-de-Re.
Wearing his Irish champion's tunic Bennett narrowly edged Australia’s Caleb Ewan while peloton superstar Peter Sagan came third to cede the green jersey. The Deceuninck — Quick-Step team rider’s stage 10 victory, on his Tour debut, ensured he reclaimed the sprint points green jersey.
Ewan quickly rode alongside the winner to fist bump in a rare show of empathy between sprinters.
“It hasn’t sunk in yet,” Bennett said at the finish line before bursting into tears and thanking his team and his family.
Jumbo-Visma’s Slovenian leader Primož Roglič holds on to the overall lead with Colombia’s defending champion Egan Bernal in second place in the general classification, 21 seconds behind.
It was a dramatic start to the day, as Tour director Christian Prudhomme tested positive for COVID-19.
The spectacular run between the two Atlantic Islands, both of which are connected to the French mainland by road bridges, was largely free of the cross-winds that could have blown the race wide open.
Stage 9
Slovenians took the laurels in the Tour de France on Sunday, September 6, as rookie Tadej Pogačar won a Pyrenean mountain slog, and his compatriot Primož Roglič grabbed the overall lead.
Adam Yates of Britain made a valiant effort to keep hold of the yellow jersey but fell gradually away on the final climb as the gradient hit 12 percent.
Pre-Tour favorite Roglič has been the form man this season and after Sunday’s second-place finish, leads Ineos leader Egan Bernal of Colombia, the Tour’s defending champion, by 21 seconds.
“Everybody dreams of wearing the yellow jersey one day in his life, so first off, I’m just happy how things are,” said Roglič, the reigning Vuelta a España champion.
“It’s a fight for every second now and lots of things will happen to each of us on the road to Paris,” he said.
When asked if he worried that Bernal was breathing down his neck after Jumbo put the hammer down for nine days, he shrugged.
“No one could go as hard as Egan did there on the last climb,” he said.
“We can enjoy a well-deserved rest day now,” he said.
Pogačar said that he remembered little of the frantic sprint that gave him his first Tour de France win, as he pipped Roglič and Swiss rider Marc Hirschi, who had set the pace for much of the day, on the line.
“I wanted to gain as much time as possible,” said Pogacar, who twice lost time earlier in the week, but is now within 41 seconds of the lead. “Ten seconds bonus for the stage win in the sprint is great but I don’t know what happened in it.”
French pair Guillaume Martin and Romain Bardet are third and fourth overall with Colombian duo Nairo Quintana and Rigoberto Uran within touching distance.
The 153-kilometer ninth stage set off from Basque town Pau, and there were many spectators in berets along the route, and took in five climbs including two category 1 mountains.
Pogačar and Roglič narrowly avoided disaster as they crossed the final summit, Col de Marie Blanque, together. Pogačar turned around to see where Bernal was, and he swerved and clipped Roglič. Both did well to stay in the saddle.
“I was careless, I thought I’d gone past everyone,” Pogačar explained.
Bernal’s defense of the title is going to plan according to team principal Dave Brailsford.
“So far so good,” he told AFP ahead of the stage. “It’ll be a race of attrition with people going out ahead and falling off the back.”
The longer climbs awaiting the Tour in the latter stages should suit the slightly built 23-year-old too, and there has been no sign of panic despite the frequent and repeated attacks from his rivals.
“There’s a long way to go before we get to Paris,” said Roglič, clutching the stuffed toy lion the overall leader is awarded on the podium.
Monday is the first rest day but a nervous wait for results of COVID-19 swab tests awaits the riders with a ban on teams with two positive cases.
Stage 8
Nans Peters scored his first home stage win on the Tour de France on Saturday with Britain’s Adam Yates clinging on to the overall lead on a tough Pyrenean stage that caused a shake up.
Chief amongst the day’s victims was fancied French climber Thibaut Pinot, who dropped out of the race for the overall standings entirely on the penultimate climb.
Peters achieved his win over three major mountains in the presence of French Prime Minister Jean Castex, producing a brilliant long-range solo breakaway.
“I told myself, believe, believe believe,” said the AG2R rider who finished the 141km run from Cazeres-sur-Garonne to Loudenvielle in just over four hours.
But there was also a ferocious battle on the final climb of the dreaded Col de Peyresourde.
Yates, defending Tour de France champion Egan Bernal, and French climber Romain Bardet were all dropped and appeared doomed. All three, however, swooped down the daredevil final descent to dramatically claw their way back closer to the two form men, Primož Roglič and Nairo Quintana.
Slovenian rookie Tadej Pogačar conversely managed to break from this group and gain 37 seconds back of the valuable time he lost on Friday.
Drama never seems to be far away from Pinot, a hero in France whose fall 3km from the finish of Stage 1 finally took a terrible toll here. Grimacing, he began clutching at his sore back on the penultimate climb when the Jumbo-Visma team put the hammer down.
His teammates fell back to help him struggle sadly up that hill, patting him on the back and comforting the emotional climber.
“I’m disgusted for him, a year’s work gone up in smoke. He won’t win the Tour de France and it’s not because of his form,” said national team boss Thomas Voekler.
Sunday’s Stage 9 is a 153km mountain stage between Pau and Laruns with two category 1 mountains, a tricky final descent and an 8km flat run to the finish line that promises to be a desperate affair.
Stage 7
Wout Van Aert picked up his second stage win of the 2020 Tour de France on Friday as aggressive tactics and brutal crosswinds combined to produce a thrilling race.
British rider Adam Yates retained the yellow jersey while Peter Sagan took the green points jersey after his Bora team led a carefully plotted and brilliantly executed attack to drop his sprint rivals. Slovenian Tadej Pogačar, Colombian Richard Carapaz, Spaniard Mikal Landa, and Australian veteran Richie Porte all trailed home, one minute and 21 seconds behind.
Yates said he had been expecting an easy day, on what was billed as a straightforward flat run through France’s rugby club heartland round Albi, ahead of two monster Pyrenean stages.
“It was full gas all the way today, from start to finish there were anxious moments,” Yates said.
Starting at 150 kilometers, Bora launched an unexpected assault, cranking up the pace with attacks to exploit the crosswinds, split the pack, and shed Sagan’s rivals in the points classification—Irishman Sam Bennett, who started the day in green, and Australian Caleb Ewan.
“Our director was against the idea at first, but we did this once in 2013 and it worked, I won,” said Sagan, who only came 13th after his bike lost its chain at the critical moment in the sprint.
Egan Bernal, the 23-year-old Ineos leader, seemed unconcerned by teammate and compatriot Carapaz’s plunge down the standings.
“Today was okay, I’m more focussed on the weekend with two really hard mountain stages,” said Bernal, who performs better on the plains.
“I’m going back to my bus to relax and focus on the mountains,” he said.
Saturday’s stage, going from Cazeres-Sur-Garonne to Loudenvielle, features two category one mountains and one beyond-category climb, but both the weekend races end with dangerous descents.
Sunday’s stage nine has five climbs on its 153-kilometer run from Pau to Laruns, ending in a 20K descent.
Stage 6
Alexey Lutsenko of Astana won stage six of the Tour de France on Thursday completing a long breakaway over two mountains in the magnificent Cevennes National Park.
Briton Adan Yates held on to the overall leader’s yellow jersey despite a trademark kick to the finish by Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe attempting to snatch it back. He clawed back a few seconds, but not enough to take the lead.
“It went really well, with an escape with big riders we needed to control, but a good day for us,” Yates said.
“Tomorrow should be easy,” said Yates when asked about Friday’s flat stage, where he will likely keep the overall lead.
There was no other attempted attacks from among the favorites on a mountain stage. The race, which culminates in Paris on September 20, still a long way to go.
Lutsenko, of Kazakhstan, started the day trailing Yates by more than five minutes as the peloton left the Ardeche region. He joined an escape group including Olympic champion Greg Van Avermaet on his golden bike, who finished third, 55 seconds behind. Spaniard Jesus Herrada was second.
“That was the most beautiful win of my career,” said the Kazakh national champion, who has also won a Vuelta stage. “It was important for my team Astana too.”
Lutsenko did not falter on the final climb.
“Near the end I knew Herrada couldn’t catch me,” he said.
Alaphilippe lost the yellow jersey on Wednesday when a careless late water-bottle pick-up cost him a 20 seconds time penalty.
Alaphilippe and the 170 other riders embarked on the 191-kilometer route through dozens of pretty villages perched along the gorges. Though most of the signs were in support of the emotional Thibaut Pinot.
Notoriously moody, Pinot stopped to chat with the press Thursday, which was interpreted as a good sign by the French media pack.
“I’m feeling better and better,” said Pinot, who fell hard on day one in the rain at Nice.
Stage seven takes the peloton back through the plains with a 168K run to Lavaur, where British sprinter Mark Cavendish won back in 2011.
Stage 5
Dutch team Jumbo-Visma made it two stage wins in two days as Wout van Aert edged a tight bunch sprint on a narrow winding finish of the fifth stage of the Tour de France on Wednesday.
And Britain’s Adam Yates of the Mitchelton-Scott team reluctantly took the yellow jersey as leader Julian Alaphilippe of Deceuninck - Quick-Step was given a 20-second penalty for taking a water bottle at the 17-kilometer mark. Riders are not allowed to take supplies from team cars in the final 20 kilometers of a stage for safety reasons.
“Nobody wants to take the jersey like this. I was on the bus, and we were about to leave for the hotel when I got a call.
“Tomorrow I’ll give it everything to defend the jersey, and we’ll see day by day. ... It’ll be a big fight tomorrow and Julian will want to show he’s still here,” Yates said.
Deceuninck-Quick Step's Alaphilippe, who wore the jersey for 14 days during last year's Tour, took the news on the chin.
“What can you do,” Alaphilippe said. “They decided to impose a 20-second penalty and it’s their choice.
“There will be other days and other opportunities,” he said.
In another change of jerseys, Ireland’s Sam Bennett, who is on the same Deceuninck team as Alaphilippe, clinched the green sprint points shirt from seven-time winner Peter Sagan by finishing third.
Stage 4
Race favorite Primož Roglič clinched the first summit finish of the Tour de France to win the fourth stage, but failed to drop any of his key rivals in the process, including overall leader Julian Alaphilippe. Defending champion Egan Bernal and Frenchman Thibaut Pinot also held on.
On a perfect day for racing on Tuesday, Roglič climbed to third overall behind Alaphilippe and Adam Yates as he edged home his Slovenian compatriot Tadej Pogačar on the rolling 160.5-kilometer run to the finish line situated 1,850 meters above sea level.
The Alpine stage had been billed as the moment the true form of the various contenders would be revealed; the riders jostled and postured over the final kilometer of the 7.1K climb ascent to Orcieres-Merlette—at a 6.7 percent average incline. Sixteen riders finishing at the same time, with the top three taking small time bonuses of 10, six and four seconds.
“It was quite a hard day actually and it was a nice win,” said former ski jumper Roglič, who has kept a low profile since a horrible crash saw him pull out of last month’s Criterium Dauphine before the final stage despite leading the race.
“I feel a little better every day, not quite the same as I was but I saw on Stage 2 that I could still ride a bike,” added Roglic, who had to chase Alaphilippe after the home favorite’s stage-winning performance on Sunday.
“Deceuninck [Alaphilippe’s team] set a high pace, so I knew we were just racing for the win today and not the overall lead.
“We know what kind of champion Julian is, we saw last year he almost finished top. ... Thibaut [Pinot] is also a threat.”
Stage 3
Australian rider Caleb Ewan produced a late burst of speed to pass a stunned Sam Bennett of Ireland right at the finish line of the third stage of the Tour de France on Monday, August 31.
Ewan, 26, won three stages on the 2019 Tour, but started this year’s race on his backside after a bruising fall on crash-strewn opening stage. France’s Julian Alaphilippe retained the leader’s yellow jersey after the 198-kilometer stage from the football stadium in Nice, France, to the hilltop town of Sisteron in the Haute Provence region.
The timely win gives the Lotto-Soudal team a double boost after the team was reduced from eight to six riders during Stage 1 when Philippe Gilbert broke a knee while John Degenkolb was thrown off the race for being too slow.
“It worked perfectly to plan, I had to move just at the right moment. It was disappointing to lose two risers on day one, but everyone has pulled together and we’ve done quite well,” Ewan said.
“The world is watching and everyone would like to be here at this, it’s the biggest race in the world, and I’m delighted.”
This stage was a more leisurely run through a national park located between the Mediterranean and the foot of the Alps, winding through oak and pine-forested hills.
With around a third of the peloton nursing grazes and bumps from that bruising first stage, and with a speedy stage two in their legs, the teams took it slowly before the Tour was treated to its first real sprint.
“Today was one of the few real sprint opportunities, so we weren’t going to give that up,” Ewan said after stepping off the podium.
Stage 2
A year after thrilling his home nation for a fortnight on last year’s Tour de France, Julian Alaphilippe of Deceuninck - Quick-Step produced an almost carbon-copy capture of a stage win Sunday to claim the overall leader’s yellow jersey again.
On the day’s final climb, Alaphilippe launched a blistering attack—accompanied by Swiss rider Marc Hirschi and British rider Adam Yates—to clinch bonus seconds at the summit, before a white-knuckle descent to the finish line in Nice. The second stage victory also gave him bonus seconds.
Delirious with joy at his repeat performance, Alaphilippe began punching towards the sky, as he turned to see just how close the peloton was to overtaking the escape trio on the Promenade des Anglais finish line.
The set-up of the second stage was eerily similar to how Alaphilippe stole away from the peloton last year on day three to Epernay; he led the Tour for 14 days before wilting on the penultimate stage to finish fifth overall.
“I really wanted to try something and I had nothing to lose,” Alaphilippe said. “It really hurt me, I was digging deep at the end there. ... [Wearing the yellow jersey is] a great pride and responsibility, and I will defend this honor day by day, I won’t be giving it up tomorrow that's for sure.”
While Alaphilippe may be happy following his win, Team Jumbo-Visma may however be furious at the circumstances.
Shortly after Alaphilippe’s attack, Team Ineos’s Michal Kwiatkowski somehow backed into Jumbo co-captain Tom Dumoulin and knocked him to the floor.
The Dutch outfit had been leading the head of the peloton all day, but suddenly they had to slow down and abandon their pursuit of Alaphilippe.
Stage 1
Norway’s Alexander Kristoff of UAE Team Emirates won the first stage of the Tour de France on Saturday, August 29, in a mass bunch sprint—after a late pile-up crash—along the iconic Promenade des Anglais in Nice, France.
Kristoff takes hold of the race leader’s yellow jersey following a stage littered with crashes; the first rain in the Mediterranean city since June, a slippery 154-kilometer loop around Nice, turned the opening jaunt of the 21-day race into a lottery.
Key victims of the multiple crashes included French hopeful Thibaut Pinot and Julian Alaphilippe; Astana captain Miguel Angel Lopez of Colombia suffering a jaw-dropping downhill slide that saw him slam face-first into a traffic sign.
Top riders, led by the Jumbo team, were shocked by the crash. A truce was called that slowed down the race.
“That was great for me, allowed me to get right back in,” 33-year-old Kristoff, who had been around six minutes adrift after his own tumble, said.
Alaphilippe was forced to fight back alone from two minutes down after a mechanical issue. Fan favorite Pinot was involved in the last of many falls as the peloton swept along the rain-sodden seafront walkway.
The 2020 Tour set off two months later than planned due to the coronavirus pandemic and under strict health protocols, which allowed only 100 spectators at the finish line. French government minister Michel Blanquer sent out a rare message of hope the Tour would make it all the way to Paris in three weeks’ time.
“You can’t rule out the cancellation of the Tour, but it has been so well prepared that the possibilities of it happening are very slim,” he said.
Sunday’s 186-kilometer stage also starts and ends in Nice, but cyclists are expected to ride under blue skies through the Alps in the Nice backcountry.
“The Tour has never gone so high, so early,” Tour chief Christian Prudhomme said of the two climbs of Colmiane and Turini, both over 1500m high just a few kilometers back from the beachfront walkways.
This story will be updated throughout the Tour.
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