Tour de France 2025 Stage 20

July 26, 2025 Today is the last real chance for most teams to get a win because tomorrow is the Champs Elysées and, even though there is now the Montmartre climb to contend with, they won't want to leave an opportunity slip by. The 184KM route from Nantua to Pontarlier runs along the Western edge of the Jura Mountain range but never ventures in too deep. The foothills are quite lumpy however and the roads will make for great racing. After 12KM, the riders have the 12KM, 4% climb of the Col de la Croix de la Serra. A 14KM descent takes them into Saint-Claude where the undulations continue. Over the next 75KM, the road rolls up and down, through the intermediate sprint in La Chaux-du-Dombief at 113KM to go and eventually down into Salins-les Bains with 67KM to go. The hardest climb of the day begins in Salins-les Bains. The Côte de Thésy is only 3.5KM long but it averages over 9% and if a large break is away, it will likely split up there. There are three more climbs in the final 45KM of the stage and all are between 3-4KM long at around 5%, the last one coming 10KM from the finish. The race rolled out from alongside the Lac de Nantua and at KM0, Kasper Asgreen of EF-Education EasyPost attacked. There was a group that tried to come across but they got stranded in the middle and were caught. The bunch continued to the climb of the Col de la Croix de la Serra all together. Asgreen had 30 seconds but his teammate, Ben Healy, attacked on the climb and had the entire peloton on his wheel which brought the gap down to 15 seconds. Healy went a few more times and Asgreen was caught with just under 9KM still to climb. Rain started to fall and it quickly turned into a deluge. Numerous groups tried to break free but the race was still together at the top with 159KM to go. The wet descent proved to be more selective than the climb. Davide Ballerini of XDS-Astana broke away with Matteo Jorgenson of Visma-Lease a Bike and Mauro Schmid of Jayco AlUla but through Saint-Claude at the start of the Côte de Valfin, the race was back together with about 40 riders at the front. A group containing Oscar Onley of Picnic-PostNL and Felix Gall of Decathlon AG2R was off the back by 35 second after the Côte de Valfin but they were able to rejoin with 134KM to go. Jorgenson was at it again, this time with Tim Wellens of UAE-XRG and Ewen Costiou of Arkéa-B&B Hotels. The bunch was still very active and with 121KM to go, a group of 10 split off and bridged up to the leaders. The ten new riders included Iván Romeo of Movistar, 11th overall Jordan Jegat of TotalEnergies, Pascal Eenkhoorn of Soudal Quickstep, Harry Sweeny of EF-Education EasyPost, Romain Grégoire of Groupama-FDJ, Kaden Groves of Alpecin-Deceuninck, Matteo Trentin of Tudor Pro Cycling, Simone Velasco of XDS-Astana, Frank van den Broek of Picnic-PostNL, and Jake Stewart of Israel-Premier Tech. Through the intermediate sprint, the break had 45 seconds but Jayco AlUla were still chasing as Jegat was threatening Ben O'Connor's top 10 on GC. The roads dried out and the gap started to grow as UAE-XRG followed and shut down moves from the bunch. Jayco AlUla were still chasing but more to just control and with 82KM to go, they had pegged the gap at 2 minutes. The break continued to ride well together and they started the Côte de Thésy at 66KM to go with a gap of 2 minutes 30 seconds as storm clouds were gathering in the distance. The race started to split up on the climb with Jegat going clear from the break and attacks going from the peloton. At the top, Sweeny joined Jegat to make two leaders with the rest of the break at 25 seconds. A group of around 10 riders broke away from the peloton but they never got within 2 minutes of the original break and eventually filtered back into the bunch. Jegat was cooked and had to let Sweeny go on the uphill dragging roads with 54KM to go. Rain began to fall once again with 46KM to go on the first of three small climbs before the finish. Sweeny was reeled in by the rest of the original break at the base of the Côte de Longeville with 26KM to go with the exception of Costiou who was dropped and Wellens and Jorgenson who marked each other out of the break. Romeo attacked half way up the climb and dragged Grégoire, Groves, Stewart, van den Broek, and Velasco clear of the rest. On the descent, Romeo took a wet corner too quickly and his wheels went out from under him. He slid and hit a concrete curb quite hard. Grégoire also fell while the others stayed upright but had to course correct. After the crash, Groves, Stewart, and van den Broek were the ones to get moving the quickest and were together at the front. Van den Broek wouldn't pull so Stewart let Groves's wheel go with 16.5KM to go to force him to come through. Van den Broek did not bite and Groves put on the gas and was clear. Neither Stewart or van den Broek wanted to chase and the gap went out. Riders consolidated into groups behind but no one was going to bring Groves back. The Australian took the win to give Alpecin-Deceuninck their third stage win of the race. The win also puts Groves into the list of men who have won a stage in all three Grand Tours. In the race for the minor placings, van den Broek broke clear of the chase group and time trialed for over 10KM to take second place, 54 seconds behind Groves. Eenkhoorn did the same for third place. The rest of the original break was led in by Velasco, 1 minute 4 seconds down. In the Tour, one man's jubilation is another's disappointment. The GC group all came in together over 7 minutes down and with Jegat finishing 6 minutes ahead, it means Ben O'Connor will lose his tenth place. Jayco AlUla tried to keep things close but they ran out of horse power and the brave move from Jegat paid off for a special result for himself and his team.