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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Simon Burnton

Tour de France: Bernal set for title after keeping yellow jersey on stage 20 – as it happened

And with that, I’m done. It’s been a great few weeks. Daniel Harris will be here tomorrow for the final stage to Paris. Bye!

“Disappointed in Steven Kruijswijk and Emanuel Buchmann today,” writes, um, someone on Twitter. “So close to winning the race, maybe closer than they will ever get, and neither put pressure on Bernal or Thomas. No real attacks. Especially Buchmann only needing 20 seconds to make the podium.” It did seem slightly strange, but then things can seem a bit different when you’re riding up a mountain rather than sitting about in London.

Here’s our snap report on today’s stage, and Bernal’s overall victory.

Sir Dave Brailsford has a chat:

Brilliant. Everybody’s been questioning the team. It was a brilliant race, it was the most exciting Tour de France that we’ve taken part in. Credit to Alaphilippe, because he died for that jersey every day and he made a lot of people second think what they thought they knew. And I think Pinot did the same in the Pyrenees. But in the end strategy paid out over chaos, and teamwork paid out over individuals. You’ve got to wait until the end of the race to make a judgement, and that’s what’s happened. Everyone was questioning the team, and you can’t get better than second and first.

Geraint Thomas says he’s looking forward to going home and “getting out of this bubble. Because it’s intense, man, it’s a big, crazy circus. It’ll be nice to shut the front door, just watch BBC Breakfast and just chill.”

To get first and second, it doesn’t get any better. The fact that Egan’s won above me, it’s the best person to have in front of me. Obviously, it’s been a crazy year for me, but I can be happy and proud that I’ve done everything possible to be in the best shape here. And the whole team has been amazing. We’ve taken a lot of flak as always, but I think we’ve proven time and time again that we’re a real strong unit and we know how to ride well and perform in this race.

What’s next, he’s asked?

A burger.

And after all the predictions of chaos and doom, it was an entirely dry stage contested without any problems. The doubters, the doomsters, the gloomsters got it wrong again.

Some background on this year’s champion:

Jersey news: Peter Sagan will keep the green top, and wheelies his way over the line to celebrate. Romain Bardet keeps hold of the polka dots.

BORA-Hansgrohe rider Peter Sagan, wearing the green jersey, finishes in style.
BORA-Hansgrohe rider Peter Sagan, wearing the green jersey, finishes in style. Photograph: Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters
AG2r La Mondiale rider Romain Bardet of France celebrates on the podium, wearing the polka-dot jersey.
AG2r La Mondiale rider Romain Bardet of France celebrates on the podium, wearing the polka-dot jersey. Photograph: Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters

Updated

A great day for Bahrain Merida; not a great day for Bahrain.

So having celebrated this year’s tour, as many did, as the first in aeons that hasn’t been dominated and dictated by Team Sky, or Ineos as they are now, they still end up in first and second.

Updated

Here’s the top 10 of the GC after stage 20. Bernal is the virtual champion; Alaphilippe not just off the podium, but more than two minutes away from it.

Julian Alaphilippe crosses the line, more than 3min behind the winner. He had the most phenomenal fortnight, but there will be no place on the podium for him.

Valverde comes in second, with Landa third. Behind them Bernal and Thomas cross the line together, hand in hand.

Egan Bernal (left), wearing the overall leader’s yellow jersey is congratulated by teammate Geraint Thomas as he crosses the finish line.
Egan Bernal (left), wearing the overall leader’s yellow jersey is congratulated by teammate Geraint Thomas as he crosses the finish line. Photograph: Marco Bertorello/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

Vincenzo Nibali wins stage 20!

Nibali, with nobody else in sight, coasts over the line!

Vincenzo Nibali celebrates as he wins on the finish line of the twentieth stage.
Vincenzo Nibali celebrates as he wins on the finish line of the twentieth stage. Photograph: Marco Bertorello/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

400m to go: Mikel Landa attacks! Surely too late for the stage win, though.

700m to go: There’s no stopping Vincenzo Nibali now. What a brilliantly-judged ride this has been from the Italian.

1.5km to go: It’s five years since Nibali won a stage on the Tour de France. It looks like that run is about to end.

2km to go: Nibali has been awarded the combativity prize for the day. Which is fine, but what of the stage? He’s 30sec ahead of the rest still.

3k to go: Time is running out and Nibali remains on his own at the front, 40sec ahead of his closest rival.

Bahrain rider Vincenzo Nibali is cheered on.
Bahrain rider Vincenzo Nibali is cheered on. Photograph: Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

4km to go: “While on the subject of bad news for the French, how’s Bardet’s jersey looking? Is he in danger of losing that too?” wonders Nick Honeywell. Yates would seem his big worry at the moment: 27 points behind, but with 40 points up for grabs at the summit.

5km to go: It was Simon, not Adam, Yates in that three-man attack party, and they’re less than 30 seconds behind Nibali now.

5.5km to go: There’s your answer: Barguil, Marc Soler and Simon Yates attack.

Updated

6km to go: The question is, does anyone want to stop Nibali more than Nibali wants to not to be stopped? “It’s been a wonderful three weeks and even though this stage is shortened, it certainly seems to be on the edge of an explosion,” says David Alderton. “I don’t think one could have asked for more from the race as a whole: it has had amazing time saving skills in Alaphillipe’s descending, a superbly tight GC competition, and drama with Pinot losing so much time, making it all back over a weekend, then having to retire yesterday. Thomas has been stellar throughout, too. What positive stories for all. All in all a brilliant event, and life is richer for it.”

7km to go: Alaphilippe is now fifth in the on-the-road standings, with Emanuel Buchmann moving into fourth. There is a big gap between fifth and sixth, or at least there was at the start of the day.

8km to go: David Gaudu is falling behind now, another Frenchman in trouble. He’s only 22, and has had a fantastic Tour until this point.

9km to go: Alaphilippe is already nearly a minute behind the yellow jersey group. Pinot yesterday, and now this: it’s a bad end to a great few weeks for the French.

11km to go: Kruijswijk was about 40sec behind Alaphilippe this morning, but no longer.

12km to go: Meanwhile at the front, Vincenzo Nibali goes it alone! He shoots off ahead of the breakaway group, and nobody can stick with him.

13km to go: Alaphilippe is falling back! He has dropped out of the back of the peloton, and though Enric Mas is going to try to help him up the hill, he looks knackered.

13km to go: Laurens De Plus has a long go at the front of the peloton, paving the way for Steven Kruijswijk’s bid for podium glory. The bid itself, though, is yet to be seen.

14km to go: If you massively slow down the sound of excited Colombians, the result is extremely scary.

15km to go: The leaders’ lead is disappearing fast: down to 1min 10sec now.

16km to go: Richie Porte has been dropped now. He’s 10th in the GC, 35sec ahead of Barguil, who is looking strong.

17km to go: Dylan van Baarle has been dropped, leaving four Ineos riders in the peloton: Bernal, Thomas, Jonathan Castroviejo and Wout Poels.

Updated

18km to go: The five lead, by about 1min 50sec now, though Omar Fraile is about to join them. Alaphilippe remains in the peloton, and in second. “Do teams ever make deals in-running to help each other?” asks Noel Fitzpatrick. “Maybe if one has a GC candidate but no domestiques left, and the other has a good team but no one in the race for a jersey/podium?” Certainly riders chat during the race, and assist each other when there’s mutual benefit. I’m not sure about your example, and whether a team would help out someone else’s rider simply because they don’t have much else on, but most things that can happen have happened.

20km to go: The front five retain their two-minute lead. Behind them, Ineos move back to the front of the peloton.

Alberto Bettiol (right) and Lilian Calmejane ride in a breakaway.
Alberto Bettiol (right) and Lilian Calmejane ride in a breakaway. Photograph: Jeff Pachoud/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

24km to go: The front five is about a minute away from the peloton, but behind them a once-large breakaway group has fallen apart. There are, officially, 12 men between them and the peloton, but the situation is very fluid.

26km to go: Périchon has rejoined the leaders, so there’s now a front five. “25km to decide a brilliant Tour, and despite it feeling like Bernal holds all the cards, the last few days has shown no one knows anything,” writes Guy Hornsby. “I really feel for Alaphilippe, but fear he may have burnt himself on the descent only to be completely distanced on the final climb. He’s been utterly gracious. In fact, Rowe/Martin aside it’s been a pretty calm Tour. What a final shoot out we have, strap yourselves in!”

28km to go: There is now a front four, composed of Nibali, Gallopin, Ilnur Zakarin and Michael Woods. Alaphilippe, it seems, is aiming to keep his place on the podium rather than attack in search of that yellow jersey.

30km to go: We follow a motorbike as he accelerates past the peloton, which is strung out all over the place. There are a couple of Ineos riders among the stragglers already: Michal Kwiatkowski and Gianni Moscon.

40km to go: Soggy whoppers? That’s terrifying.

31km to go: Three riders have broken clear at the front, including Pierre-Luc Périchon and Vincenzo Nibali.

33km to go: The climb has begun! Of the 29 people in the breakaway Sebastian Reichenbach is the best placed in the GC standings, sitting as he does in 18th place, 41 minutes behind Bernal.

Team Ineos cycling team rides uphill.
Team Ineos cycling team rides uphill. Photograph: Jeff Pachoud/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

35km to go: Two Lotto Soudal riders, Thomas de Gendt and Tim Wellens, are trying to join the leaders, who have now amalgamated into one large group, 2min 30sec ahead of the peloton. Wellens is 12 points behind Romain Bardet in the race to the polka dot jersey, and needs to ace this climb if he is to win it.

38km to go: Just a few kilometres now from the start of the climb, which is when the real action is going to happen.

43k to go: The front six is made up of Cort, Dylan Teuns, Rui Costa, Alberto Bettiol, Kevin Van Melsen and Lilian Calmejane.

Alberto Bettiol (right), Kevin Van Melsen (second right), Dylan Teuns (centre) and Rui Costa (second left) ride in the breakaway
Alberto Bettiol (right), Kevin Van Melsen (second right), Dylan Teuns (centre) and Rui Costa (second left) ride in the breakaway Photograph: Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

45km to go: The leading group continues to pull clear of the peloton, with the gap now at 1min 40sec. There is a further group of 23 about 30sec ahead of the peloton.

47km to go: A nice moment from today, as Alaphilippe and Egan Bernal, the man who took his yellow jersey yesterday, come together this afternoon.

51km to go: Ineos are at the front of the peloton, in control. A few more riders have bridged the gap to the leading group, but none of them are GC contenders.

54km to go: Five riders went with Cort, and they’ve established a small advantage “That weather in Val Thorens has nothing on what university bike racers face in the northeast US,” writes David Singerman. “I remember one surreal day of racing into headwinds so strong that you needed your littlest gear just to crawl downhill, and when the course looped and the headwinds became tailwinds you upshifted all the way to avoid spinning out at 40mph while flying uphill. Oh and also rain was bucketing down, so you could actually see the wind coming because the gusts stood up actual waves in the four inches of standing water on the road. Bernal and co. will be fine.”

56km to go: Magnus Cort is at the front at the moment, not that it means a great deal.

58km to go: The race has almost immediately turned onto a dual carriageway, allowing everyone loads of space in which to do anything.

59km to go: The yellow flag has been waved, and they’re off!

The rollout has started to roll. It’s due to last just a few kilometres.

Here’s the general classification, as it stands. There could be some changes to those podium positions today.

Everyone’s gathered for the start. Action imminent.

Nobody has reported this on British TV, but I suppose you never know.

A good little interview from a little earlier with Geraint Thomas:

I think it’s safe to say today’s mini-stage is happening. It’s due to start in about seven minutes.

Here’s the stage profile: a kind of flattish bit, and then a by no means flattish bit.

A few hours ago the picture was considerably grimmer. I’m hearing it has improved sufficiently for the shortened stage to be completed.

OK, if this is the worst they’ve got I think we’re on for action.

But then these guys should know, and then they very much seem to be expecting action.

For now, the riders are preparing to ride. Apparently the weather in and around Val Thorens has been pretty wild today.

Hello world!

This year’s tour has been gripping, but yesterday it took a turn for the ridiculous. It was the four-overthrows-off-Ben-Stokes’s-bat of stage cycling, as a blizzard - a blizzard - forced stage 19 to be abruptly curtailed, and left today’s 20th stage shrouded in uncertainty. So much so that even after the stage was rerouted and massively shortened, nobody quite knew if that would be enough. Even this afternoon, about an hour before the scheduled start, the teams weren’t entirely sure where, when or even if it would happen.

So, hello. Let’s hope we get some cycling to watch, but either way, I’ll let you know what’s happening - or, indeed, if nothing is.

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