July 27/19 18:16 pm - Tour de France: Stage 20

Posted by Editoress on 07/27/19
 

Vincenzo Nibali, the 2014 TDF winner, made iup for a disappointing Tour as he claimed a solo victory at Val Thorens at the end of the 59-km 20th stage. This is his sixth stage win, adding to his previous five. Egan Bernal rode home safely to retain the yellow jersey on the eve of the grand finale in Paris.

29 riders in the lead, including Nibali
155 riders took the start of stage 20 in Albertville. Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-Merida), Magnus Cort (Astana), Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates), Alberto Bettiol (EF Education First), Kevin Van Melsen (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) and Lilian Calmejane (Total Direct Energie) rode away at km 2.

Twenty-three riders chased them down: Elia Viviani (Deceuninck-Quick Step), Tony Gallopin (AG2R-La Mondiale), Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida), Sébastien Reichenbach (Groupama-FDJ), Nelson Oliveira (Movistar), Omar Fraile and Gorka Izagirre (Astana), Michael Woods (EF Education First), Daryl Impey (Mitchelton-Scott), Joey Rosskopf (CCC), Vegard Stake Laengen (UAE Team Emirates), Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo), Nicolas Roche (Sunweb), Pierre-Luc Périchon (Cofidis), Jens Keukeleire (Lotto-Soudal), Niccolo Bonifazio and Anthony Turgis (Total Direct Energie), Ilnur Zakarin and Nils Politt (Katusha-Alpecin), Frederik Backaert (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Stephen Cummings and Ben King (Dimension Data) and Maxime Bouet (Arkéa-Samsic). It made it a front group of 29 riders at km 19 with an advantage of two minutes over the peloton led by Team Ineos.

Julian Alaphilippe dropped with 13km remaining
Périchon and Turgis attacked from the lead bunch at the bottom of the 33.4km long climb to Val Thorens. The lead group had begun to come apart and at 30km before the finish, Nibali and Zakarin formed a leading trio along with Périchon. It quickly became a quartet including Nibali, Zakarin, Gallopin and Woods. Périchon bridged the gap. Jumbo-Visma took over from Ineos leading the peloton strongly up the climb. Fraile caught up with the five leaders 17km before the finish. With 15km to go, the time difference between the six escapees and the yellow jersey group was 1:15. With 13km remaining, Julian Alaphilippe was dropped, soon followed by Romain Bardet while Nibali rode away solo at the front. The 2014 Tour de France winner had 1m lead over the main group with 10km to go and 35s with 5km to go.

Nibali's first win since the 2018 Milan-Sanremo
Nibali forged on, struggling towards the end of the climb but held off a late surge by Mikel Landa and then Alejandro Valverdewho had attacked from the yellow jersey group led in the final part of the climb by Gregor Mühlberger (BORA-hansgrohe). Valverde also attacked, catching and passing Landa in teh final 100 metres, but wasn't able to rein in Nibali.

This is Nibali's first victory since Milan-Sanremo last year and Bahrain-Merida's second stage win in this Tour de France after Dylan Teuns on stage 6. Bardet retains the polka dot jersey and  Bernal retains the yellow jersey. Alaphilippe drops down to fifth overall while Kruijswijk moves into the top 3 along with Team Ineos' duo Bernal-Thomas.

Mike Woods finished 36th on the stage at 5:06 back and sits 32nd in the overall at 1:20:40 back.

Jerseys after Stage 20

Yellow - Overall GC:  Egan Bernal (Team Ineos)
Green - Points:  Peter Sagan (BORA-hansgrohe)
Polka Dot - KoM: Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale)
White - Best Young rider: Egan Bernal (Team INEOS)
Best Team: Movistar Team

Combative: Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida)

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