Stage 20: Tour de France Summary

Stage 20 of the Tour de France was hilly, with a big breakaway as riders were freed by their teams to go for the stage win, resulting in a long breakaway. It was interesting that Stage 20 took place in the rain, and the riders were slipping around. Several fell. It was a mess.

It was also interesting that the riders in the breakaway constantly attacked to try to win the stage. The general classification was decided yesterday, Tadej Pogacar will win the Tour de France. However, with teams freeing riders to go for the stage 20 win, it was high drama. Do you find this type of stage most interesting?

Stage 20 Summary

The big story was the awful weather, as the rain resulted in crashes and multiple breakaways. The other big story was the freeing of multiple riders, by their teams, to go for the stage win. That created chaotic uncertainty on the stage and a likely sprint to the finish line by members of the break. A third story was the stasis in the general classification, except for 10th place, where Jordan Jegat hopped Ben O’Connor by being in the breakaway.

The winner of stage 20, with the multiple breakaways and rain, was Kaden Groves. Interestingly, he was a replacement for fallen rider Jasper Philipsen. He is the second Australian to win a stage in this year’s Tour. It took 4 hours and 6 minutes, and it was good that he got the win on stage 20. Frank van den Broek finished second. He rode well and maintained about a ten-second advantage over the breakaway for the last ten kilometers.

Pascal Eenkhoorn finished third, the only time in the Tour he was out-sprinted by Jonas Vingegaard. Simone Velasco was fourth. Roman Gregoire struggled to fifth. Riders are exhausted and can barely ride in a straight line.

Riders from the yellow jersey group fell right by the finish line, almost causing Pogacar to fall. In the overall classification following stage 20, there were no real changes in the relative time differences, but there was a change in tenth place. Pogacar stayed in first, Vingegaard was in second place, and stayed 4:24 back. Lipowitz stayed in third, 11:09 back. Onley stayed in fourth place, 12:12 back. Felix Gall stayed in fifth place, 17:12 back.  Jegat took tenth place in the overall classification from O’Connor.

Troubles

As the Tour de France wraps up, it is appropriate to write about two problems for the sport of bicycle racing. First, viewership of the tour has plummeted, especially in the United States. Each year, about 3.5 billion people watch the tour annually. It is big business. However, most of the audience comes from cycling-mad European and South American countries. However, viewership in the United States is falling. There are many hypotheses about why this is. It seems the main cause is that consumers seem most interested in viewing short videos, not four-hour television programs.

A second problem is that teams are in financial trouble. These problems could be related, but you will see teams combining to save money, and some teams will just fold. This is coupled by the fact that many teams have not won a stage in the 2025 Tour de France. Winning a stage in the Tour means team notoriety, glory, and money. Tomorrow, we will see teams that have not won stages go for the win. Rain is forecast for Paris tomorrow. It will be chaos.

Conclusion

After stage 20, Grooves was quite happy. “In the end, I get my opportunities,” he said. He has now won stages at the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta d’Espana to go with this Tour de France win. Not bad for a replacement. He rode away from the breakaway and deserved the win.

Stage 21 is tomorrow. The Tour will end and the riders will go to Paris on Sunday. Since the stage will be mostly ceremonial, there will likely not be many changes to the overall classification, but there will be teams and sprinters going for the glorious win.  One thing to watch on stage 21 is the weather. On the trek to Paris, the riders ride over cobblestones. If they are wet, chaos will follow.