Stage 20 of the Tour de France was a day with 'Mathieu van der Poel' written all over it, but in the Dutchman's absence, it was Alpecin-Deceuninck teammate Kaden Groves who put on a masterful performance to get in and animate the breakaway, before finally slipping clear 16 km from the finish for an emotional victory at his debut Tour.
It was far from an easy day in the Jura hills, with intermittent downpours making the already tricky terrain treacherous in places. A number of nasty crashes punctuated the stage, including up front in the breakaway where Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) and Iván Romeo (Movistar) came a cropper through a fast and wet corner – the moment the final selection was made. And in the peloton, the day was complicated by Jordan Jegat's (TotalEnergies) presence at the head of the race, meaning Jayco-AlUla was determined to keep the gap under control for stage 18-winner Ben O'Connor who started the day 10th overall.
Despite the best efforts of the Australian himself along with an almighty pull from Mauro Schmid, who'd crashed early in the stage, O'Connor was unable to muster the firepower nor the allies needed to keep Jegat in check, which meant that the Frenchman was able to clamber back into the top 10 overall. His was the only significant GC movement of the day.
[race_result id=17 stage_id=86015 count=10 gc=0 year=2025]
[race_result id=17 stage_id=86015 count=10 gc=10 year=2025]
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