Kaden Groves clinches first Tour de France stage victory as Tadej Pogacar takes one more step to overall title
Kaden Groves won stage 20 of the Tour de France from a breakaway in Pontarlier as Tadej Pogacar came through the penultimate day unscathed to ensure he will wear yellow into Paris on Sunday.
Groves left Frank van den Broek and Briton Jake Stewart behind with 16 kilometres of the rolling 184km stage from Nantua remaining, taking advantage of their hesitancy to quickly build a lead as he won by 55 seconds from Van den Broek, completing a trilogy with wins in all three Grand Tours.
Behind, the peloton rolled in some seven minutes down, happy to survive a damp day that saw several riders crash as Pogacar retained his four-minute 24-second lead over rival Jonas Vingegaard on the last day before Paris.
The addition of three ascents of the Montmartre climb to Sunday’s finale may rule out the usual Champs-Élysées sprint and keep the racing on for one more day – subject to a threat of rain – but Pogacar can almost start celebrating his fourth Tour title and begin plotting a record-equalling fifth.
“Today we weren’t sure whether to go for the stage or wait for tomorrow, but when the rain falls, I have a super feeling normally in the cold weather,” an emotional Groves said.
“It’s my first ever solo win, and it’s a Tour stage, so it’s pretty incredible.
“There’s so much pressure at the Tour. Having won in the Giro and won in the Vuelta all I ever get asked is if am I good enough to win in the Tour and now I’ve shown them.”
Groves’ first career Tour stage win was a third of this race for his Alpecin-Deceuninck team but the first since stage two, with their previous two winners Jasper Philipsen and Mathieu van der Poel since lost to injury and illness.
Stage 20 was likely earmarked for Classics specialist Van der Poel but Groves demonstrated his class as not just a sprinter but an all-rounder, as he looked among the strongest riders on the day’s punchy climbs through the Jura hills.
Fourteen teams started the day without a win in this Tour so a furious fight for the breakaway was expected, but such was the pace that it was more a case of riders falling off the back than launching off the front of a rapidly-shrinking peloton.
It was down to less than 50 when Tim Wellens attacked on the second-categorised climb, leading to 13 riders getting themselves clear before the peloton sat up with a little under 100km to go.
A long-range attack from Harry Sweeny came to nothing as the groups came back together, but after a nasty crash for Ivan Romeo and local rider Romain Gregoire, only Groves, Stewart, Van den Broek were left with 20km left.
When Groves attacked, Stewart and Van den Broek looked at each other, and in that moment the stage was decided.
Pogacar mathematically secured the king of the mountains’ polka dot jersey early on this stage, with yellow set to follow on Sunday provided he crosses the line in Paris.
