for news and discussion of professional cycling
22 Jul | 20th stage | 133 km | Belfort - Le Markstein | Mountain | Live Tracker | Results
The last mountain stage of the tour, this will more than likely go to a breakaway. I don't think we will see much GC action, but the fight for king of the mountain could make up for that. I'm hoping Zimmerman can get a stage win, he has been on the attack so many times. The same could be said for Skjelmosse and the Danes are on fire this tour, so he might just get it.
I could see Tadej going for the stage win with Simon to solidify their 2nd and 3rd place in the GC. Depending on how early they attack, they could force Jonas to react.
And even if they don't initiate,Tadej and Simon could be forced to attack by the contenders for 3rd place making moves.
I reckon the GC podium place will be pretty competitive today. Between 3rd and 6th is barely 2 minutes - Adam Yates has three riders to mark which won't be easy.
It is not impossible that if he hasn't recovered from stage 17 that Pogacar cracks on an early hard-raced climb and drops out of the GC altogther.
Gall and Ciccone fighting for KOM should be fun.
I expect some shake up in the top 10 today. Rodriguez (+ 1:16), S. Yates (+ 1:34) and Bilbao (+2:15) are pretty close to the podium. So, I could see INEOS, Jayco and Bahrain go all out on UAE.
Besides that I am rooting for Gall to be in the breakaway and win the battle over the KOM.
This will be a fun race day, with two battles, one for KOM and one for third place.
I saw de Jongh on Dutch tv yesterday and he said that Ciccone only needs to win 3 of the mountains to be sure of the win, I think Gall is going to give him a great battle. I think Jonas Is close enough too to win it too if he wants but he will have to defend yellow first and foremost.