Stage 20 of the 2024 Tour de France is a crucial mountain stage that could potentially decide the overall winner of the race. The stage starts in Nice and finishes atop the Col de la Couillole, covering a distance of 132.8 kilometer with 4,600 meters of total elevation gain.
A break from the opening kilometers would not be in the cards, while among the early moves and jockeying from riders there was nothing which would stick.
In the early kilometers, Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek) was first to push across the line at the intermediate sprint on the day, however Biniam Girmay's (Intermarché–Wanty) hold on the Green Jersey as leader of the points classification was not under threat at the 2024 Tour de France.
With 114 kilometers to the finish, Bruno Armirail (Decathlon–AG2R La Mondiale) and Wilco Kelderman (Visma-Lease a Bike) lead the day as a two-man breakaway with a 17 second gap on the Yellow Jersey group of around 15 riders. Two kilometers later, Enric Mas (Movistar) joined Armirail and Kelderman.
On the summit of the first climb, at the Category 2 Col de Braus with 108 kilometers to go, Enric Mas was able to arrive in first, followed by Bruno Armirail, Wilco Kelderman, and Matteo Jorgensen (Visma-Lease a Bike) as fourth across the line, followed by Richard Carapaz (EF Education–EasyPost). Matteo Jorgensen beat Carapaz with a quick burst on the arrival at the summit, meaning Richard Carapaz did not score a point at Col de Braus.
With 96 kilometers to go on the day Jan Tratnik (Visma-Lease a Bike), Richard Carapaz, Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates), Romain Bardet (Team dsm–firmenich PostNL) and Clément Champoussin (Arkéa–B&B Hotels) have created a gap on the descent and had a lead of 1:50 over the Yellow Jersey group.
First to the summit of the Category 1 climb at the Col de Turini was Polka Dot Jersey holder Richard Carapaz, who was working hard to capture points to keep his lead in the King of the Mountains classification after missing out on the Col de Braus.
With 74 km to go, a three-man chase group, made up of Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X-Mobility), Jasper Stuyven, Kevin Geniets (Groupama-FDJ), joined the lead group to create a single lead group of 10 riders at the front ahead of the Yellow Jersey pack. Over the next kilometer, arriving at the summit of the Category 1 Col de Turini with 73 kilometers to go, Richard Carapaz was able to take charge and arrive first, taking the maximum points on the climb. Carapaz was followed by Marc Solermarc, Bruno Armirail, Jan Tratnik, Enric Mas, and Wilco Kelderman.
With 42 kilometers to go, holding a 4 minute lead over the Yellow Jersey grou, the breakaway began to fill with tactical bursts. Jan Tratnik was the first to make an attack, but was caught by the rest of the lead group quickly. Soon, Marc Soler would make his own move off the front, but like Tratnik, he was swiftly brought back in by the breakaway group at the front.
As the final climb of the day began to the summit of the Col de la Couillole, the Soudal-Quick-Step team picked up the pace in the Yellow Jersey group, seeking to bring back the breakaway at the front which held a 3 minute gap. With 13 kilometers to go, both Simon Yates (Team Jayco–AlUla) and Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers) were dropped from the Yellow Jersey group.
With 11 kilometers to go, Enric Mas and Richard Carapaz put in a kick at the front, looking to hold off to the line.
Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick-Step) attempted to attack from the Yellow Jersey group with 7 kilometers remaining to the summit, but Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) both quickly responded.
With just 2.5 kilometers left on the day, Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard caught the two riders remaining at the front, Enric Mas and Richard Carapaz, creating a group of four from which each rider would compete for victory on the penultimate stage of the 2024 Tour de France.
800 meters from the summit Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard separated from Enric Mas, who was dropped quickly, and Richard Carapaz, who fought on 5 seconds behind Pogačar and Vingegaard.
With 200 meters to go, Tadej Pogačar put in his final kick. Jonas Vingegaard did not put in a matching move, meaning Pogačar glided to a summit victory on the penultimate day of the 2024 Tour de France.
This stage underscored the dominance of Pogačar at this year's edition, and put one more feather in the cap of the Slovenian rider who held firm grasp as the best general classification rider over all three week.
With this, Tadej Pogačar all but solidified his victory at the 2024 Tour de France, while Biniam Girmay would retain the Green Jersey holder as leader of the points classification to secure his victory in this classification. Remco Evenepoel, although not being able to hold on with Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard, will be keep his place as Best Young Rider going into the final day.
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