The 2025 Tour de France continued Saturday with stage 20 – a 184.2-kilometer ride in continuously varied and hilly terrain on a route from Nantua to Pontarlier. Breakaway optimists were expected to dominate the stage and try to prevent the sprinters in the peloton from deciding the stage outcome in a mass sprint in Pontarlier. Several teams had yet to win a stage in this year’s Tour and this stage might well be the final reasonable opportunity as tomorrow’s Paris stage was normally dominated by tradition.

The riders left the town of Nantua under cloudy weather conditions and rain was expected to break out later in the stage. Kasper Asgreen attacked solo from kilometer zero and immediately showed admirable determination. The Danish rider from Team EF Education-EasyPost established a small lead, while multiple small groups were trying to break away from the main peloton and join Asgreen in front.

Asgreen was still solo in front after fifteen kilometers of fast racing. It had started raining and the Tour de France riders were now on more narrow mountain roads. US national champion Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) attacked with Asgreen teammate Ben Healy and Tobias Foss (Ineos-Grenadiers-TotalEnergies) - as well as Arnaud Demare (Arkea B & B Hotels) and Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor Pro Cycling Team), who was still viciously chasing the success he had deserved in this year’s Tour after many attempts and much misfortune.

The riders were already soaked from top to toe with 167 kilometers of stage 20 remaining and the weather gods were showing no signs of altering the racing conditions for the many exhausted riders that remained in the Tour peloton after almost three weeks of intense racing on the roads of France.

Asgreen got reeled in after persistent racing in front and the Dane was replaced by EF Education teammates Neilson Powless and Hary Sweeny who had joined forces with Raul Garcia Piera of Arkea B & B Hotels. The trio had fought its way to an advantage of sixteen seconds on Col de la Croix de la Serra (Category 3) with 163 kilometers to the finish line.

The trio, however, got reeled in shortly later because of the aggressive racing in the front part of the main peloton. Many teams were displeased with the situation in front and wanted to increase their likelihood of securing a stage win.

The riders entered the French department of Jura in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comte region of Eastern France. It was the final excursion through the many interesting regions of France before the race would conclude in Paris on Sunday.

Attacks were still being launched from the front of the peloton with 160 kilometers to the finish line and several teams were active – including Jayco-Alula, Movistar, Tudor Pro Cycling Team, Lidl-Trek, EF Education, UAE Team Emirates, and Visma-Lease a Bike.

Davide Ballerini opened a small gap to the peloton, but the Italian rider was only ten seconds ahead of the chasing peloton with 150 kilometers left.

Noteworthy riders, including Adam Yates, Victor Campenaerts, Sepp Kuss, Ben O’Connor, Oscar Onley, and Felix Gall were dropped from the main peloton on the hilly route in the coming kilometers. They were now chasing twenty seconds behind the main peloton. Meanwhile, a breakaway group had been established, which included Tim Wellens, Matteo Jorgenson, Ewen Costiou, Aurelien Paret-Peintre, Alexandre Delettre, Frank van den Broek, and Jarrad Drizners.

The chasing GC outsiders rejoined the main peloton in the following kilometers while a new front trio was formed that featured Wellens (UAE Team Emirates), Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), and Costiou (Arkea B & B Hotels). It was still raining, and the race situation still hadn’t settled.

125 kilometers of the stage remained. Wellens, Jorgenson, and Costiou were still in front, but a chase group had broken free from the chains of the main peloton. The group featured Harry Sweeny, Pascal Eenkhoorn, Romain Gregoire, Kade Groves, Matteo Trentin, Ivan Romeo, Simone Velasco, Jordan Jegat, Frank van den Broek, Jake Stewart. The front trio was 24 seconds ahead of the peloton, while the chase group was twelve seconds behind the frontmen. 

The skies were clearing up and the rays of the sun instilled new hope and energy in the riders. Race leader Tadej Pogacar had appeared very angry and irritated at the start again today and perhaps he had now let out steam, so the race could progress under more optimistic racing conditions. Perhaps the strong and dominant Slovenian rider was planning an attack on the Montmartre climb in tomorrow’s parade stage into Paris.

Mauro Schmid crashed from the front of the peloton in a curve and other riders magically avoided getting implicated in the crash. Schmid fortunately appeared relatively unharmed, and the Swiss national champion of Team Jayco-Alula got back on his bike.

The chase group joined the front trio, and the thirteen-man group fought on with a lead of fifty seconds and 110 kilometers remaining. Samuel Watson of Team Ineos-Grenadiers-TotalEnergies had formed a chase duo with Brent van Moer of Lotto-Caps and the duo was thirty seconds behind the frontmen. The chase was now taking place on dry roads.

Tadej Pogacar moved to the front of the peloton and signaled he wanted to put a halt to any further attacks from the peloton. The GC leader wanted to race the remaining one hundred kilometers of the stage at a more relaxed pace, possibly while reloading for a planned show performance in the roads of Paris in tomorrow’s final stage.

Clement Champoussin crashed in the rear part of the main peloton and slid across the tarmac. The Frenchman got back up and had suffered abrasions.

Pogacar was close to the front of the main peloton along with his UAE Team Emirates colleagues when 85 kilometers remained. The break only had an advantage of two minutes, and it appeared possible Pogacar was chasing a stage victory in today’s stage already. The short, but very steep, Cote de Thesy climb (Category 2) climb would soon be on the racing menu.

Despite crashing earlier, Mauro Schmid had bravely returned to the front of the main peloton and was delivering powerful chase work while followed by riders from Team Visma-Lease a Bike and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe.

The thirteen-rider front group reached Cote de Thesy with a lead of 02:30 minutes over the chasing main peloton, where Axel Laurance (Ineos-Grenadiers-TotalEnergies) attacked with Mathis Le Berre of Arkea B & B Hotels. 65 kilometers remained to the finish line in Pontarlier.

Laurance left Le Berre behind on the climb but had only opened a small gap to the main peloton. The front group was now 02:45 minutes ahead of the main peloton and Jordan Jegat had attacked for Team TotalEnergies and was eleven seconds ahead of the other frontmen.

Wout van Aert attacked with eight other riders from the main peloton. Meanwhile, Harry Sweeny had accelerated from the front group and joined Jegat.

Sweeny reached the summit of Cote de Thesy ahead of breakaway companion Jegat. A Wellens-Jorgenson chase group was 23 seconds behind. Laurance was 02:14 minutes back with Storer, while a strong van Aert group was 02:24 minutes back at the summit.

The main peloton was 03:33 minutes back and it appeared there would be no battle between Pogacar and Vingegaard in today’s stage. The hypothesis was confirmed when UAE Team Emirates riders moved to the front of the main peloton and took control while signaling a stop to further attacks from breakaway optimists.

Perhaps inspired by the amazing performances from teammate Ben Healy, Harry Sweeny left Jordan Jegat behind and now had fifty kilometers to the finish line. But the Australian rider had only a twenty-two second lead over the strong chase group, which featured Wellens, Jorgenson, Groves, Trentin, Romeo and other riders. The van Aert group was now 02:40 minutes behind.

Sweeny impressively continued to fight on and had increased his lead to forty seconds with 45 kilometers to the finish line. It had started raining again and the wet racing conditions could possibly improve the chances of additional success for the EF Education-EasyPost team, which had admirably managed to reboot after Richard Carapaz had been forced to exit the team roster due to illness.

Sweeny had increased his lead to 53 seconds when forty kilometers remained. The EF Education rider almost crashed when he hit some road furniture, but the Australian navigated the obstacle very cleverly.

Mateo Jorgenson and Jake Stewart attacked from the chase group with 37 kilometers remaining. The duo got caught and counterattacking efforts were initiated.

The accelerations in the chase group caused Sweeny’s advantage to drop to sixteen seconds with thirty kilometers to the finish line. The first chase group featured Eenkhoorn, Gregoire, Groves, Van den Broek, and Stewart. Trentin, Romeo, Velasco, and Jegat were 18 seconds behind on the wet and slippery roads, while Wellens, Jorgenson and Costiou followed forty seconds behind. A Van Aert group was now almost five minutes behind on the narrow and winding countryside roads.

Sweeny reached Cote de Longeville solo, but the first chasers were just eight seconds behind. It appeared it was game over for Sweeny after a very courageous and watch-worthy effort from the EF Education-EasyPost rider. The wet roads were slippery on the climb and Groves almost crashed.

Ivan Romeo attacked for Team Movistar 700 meters from the summit of Cote de Longeville.  The Spanish national champion got reeled in by Stewart and his fellow chasers with 300 meters to the summit of the Category 4 climb.

There would be no rest for the wicked in today’s stage and the attacking efforts continued on the narrow roads of the descent that followed. Twenty-two kilometers remained.

Romeo, Velasco and Gregoire crashed on the wet descent. Romeo’s clothes were torn to pieces as he had hit both the tarmac and the curbstone at high velocity. Groves, Van den Broek, and Stewart were now in front with Eenkhoorn chasing. Wellens, Jorgenson, Sweeny, and Trentin were thirty seconds behind.

Kaden Groves of Alpecin-Deceuninck left his two fellow frontmen behind approximately sixteen kilometers from the finish line. Van den Broek and Stewart were each waiting for the other to reel him in. It did not take long before Van den Broek and Stewart were 23 seconds behind, with the Jorgenson group closing in on them from behind.

Australian rider Kaden Groves continued to impress on the wet roads of the Jura region and had increased his advantage to fifty seconds when he was ten kilometers from the finish line in Pontarlier. 

Van den Broek attacked from behind and was now aiming to catch Groves before the finish line. Meanwhile, the two chase groups were merging behind him.

It had stopped raining when Groves was five kilometers from the finish line and a likely stage victory. Van den Broek was 47 seconds behind, while the eight-rider chase group was almost a minute back. The group featured Wellens, Jorgenson, Eenkhoorn, Sweeny, Gregoire, Velasco, Jegat, and Stewart.

Kaden Groves proved both the fastest and the smartest rider in stage 20. The Australian rider crossed the finish line in Pontarlier as winner of the stage for Team Alpecin-Deceuninck. What a great feat after his stage victory in this year’s Giro d’Italia. Frank van den Broek of Team Jayco-Alula was the next rider to reach the finish line, while Pascal Eenkhoorn completed the stage podium for Soudal-QuickStep.

“So many emotions to win here. We came to the race with so many plans and some plans haven’t gone the right way. Then today I had super legs and then we get a third stage win,” stage winner Kaden Groves told Roadcycling.com shortly after the stage.

“We weren’t sure if we wanted to go for the stage today or tomorrow and with the cold weather and all, but I gave it a shot today and winning is pretty incredible. Now I’ve shown I’m good enough to win in the Tour. I tried to play my cards right to get in the right move. Then came the selection and I rode full gas all the way to the finish line and now I’m going to enjoy it on the Champs Elysees tomorrow,” Groves explained after his emotional stage win.

Tadej Pogacar remains general classification leader before the final stage of this year’s Tour de France. Jonas Vingegaard is 04:24 minutes behind in second place, while Florian Lipowitz is in third place, 11:09 minutes behind the leader. Oscar Onley is fourth in the GC, Primoz Roglic is fifth, Felix Gall is sixth, while Kevin Vauquelin is seventh. Tobias Halland Johannessen is eighth, while Ben Healy remains ninth and Jordan Jegat climbed to tenth in the GC for Team TotalEnergies.

The Tour de France 2025 will conclude on Saturday with stage 21 - a 132.3-kilometer ride in hilly terrain on a route from Mantes-la-Ville to Paris Champs-Elysees. Race organizer A.S.O. has altered the traditional design of the final parade stage to include the Cote de la Butte Montmartre climb - known from the Paris Olympics – which will have to be climbed three times before stage 21 and the Tour de France 2025 concludes on the Champs-Elysees.

Stay tuned to Roadcycling.com for complete coverage from the 2025 Tour de France.