2019 Tour de France Stage 20 Results & Recap
Stage 20 of the 2019 Tour de France is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Nibali wins penultimate stage\nBy Clara Beard
Vincenzo Nibali displayed the fight of a champion on the abbreviated 20th stage of the Tour de France to the summit of Val Thorens. It’s the Italian’s sixth career stage win at the Tour. \n"It’s been a feeling of liberation when I crossed the line because the last few hundred meters felt like never-ending,” Nibali said. “My only way to make it was to attack from far out. With the advantage we had at the bottom of the climb, I believed I could make it. I hadn’t won since last year. It’s a nice revenge."
The world champion, Alejandro Valverda finished second and Mikel Landa took third. Egan Bernal (Team Ineos) finished fourth on the stage to secure the 2019 Tour de France before the final stage.
“We’re now close to making it official,” Bernal said. “There’s one stage left but, normally, if everything goes well, I can say that I’ve won my first Tour. The last climb has been very hard. Jumbo-Visma rode hard to make the podium. We were in a comfortable situation and I felt really well. I’m happy. I think I haven’t assimilated what has happened yet. It’s incredible to think that I have won my first Tour. I just want to get to the finish line in Paris tomorrow and after I’ll be calmer. Colombia is on the verge of winning its first Tour, I feel this is not only my triumph but the triumph of a whole country. We already had the Giro, La Vuelta, but the Tour was missing and it’s a great honour to think that I’m the one achieving this. My dad couldn’t talk at first but when he managed, he congratulated me. He was about to cry. For us, it’s a dream. We used to watch the Tour on TV and we thought it was something unreachable. As a kid, you think “how cool it would be to be there one day”, but it looked so far away. Here we are and I’m very emotional.”
On the 59.5km stage, 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. 23 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) were the riders who made the separation.
The large group managed a two-minute gap on the peloton, but as the gradient progressed, the peloton and the breakaway shattered.
Nibali, Zakarin, Gallopin and Woods rode out in front and Périchon bridged the gap. In the GC group, Jumbo-Visma set a strong pace and, with 13km remaining, Julian Alaphilippe was dropped and finished good enough to hold fifth place on GC.
Meanwhile, Nibali rode away from his competitors with fire in his eyes and took his first victory since last year’s Milan Sanremo.
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