The Tour Faces A 5,450-Metre Alpine Death March Before Paris

The Tour de France will say goodbye to the mountains with a stage designed to test every remaining reserve of strength. The 20th stage covers 170.9 kilometres from Le Bourg-d’Oisans to Alpe d’Huez and accumulates 5,450 metres of climbing. With three hors catégorie passes, a first-category ascent and very little flat terrain, it is the last major opportunity to alter the overall standings before Paris.

The difficulty begins almost immediately. The Col de la Croix de Fer, 24 kilometres at an average of 5.2%, reaches its summit after only 33.7 kilometres. It will offer the ideal launch pad for a large and powerful breakaway, while teams with ambitions in the general, mountains or stage classifications will have to make decisions much earlier than usual.

After the descent, the race tackles the Col du Télégraphe, 11.9 kilometres at 7.1%, followed by the Col du Galibier. The latter rises for 17.7 kilometres at 6.9% and takes the peloton to an altitude of 2,642 metres. Fatigue from three weeks of racing, the thin air and the succession of climbs could make the Galibier far more selective than its average gradient suggests.

There will still be no respite. The Col de Sarenne, 12.8 kilometres at 7.3%, is the third hors catégorie climb of the day. Its summit comes with only 14.4 kilometres remaining. A technical descent will then lead to the final four kilometres of Alpe d’Huez, where the stage winner and the last verdicts among the favourites will be decided.

Tadej Pogačar starts with a commanding lead of 7:11 over Remco Evenepoel after winning the previous day on Alpe d’Huez. That advantage gives the yellow jersey room to control the race, but a stage of this magnitude never allows complete relaxation. Evenepoel must defend second place, while Isaac del Toro and Paul Seixas are separated by just 24 seconds in the fight for third and the white jersey.

Juan Ayuso reaches the final mountain stage in seventh overall, 15:58 behind Pogačar. After losing time on Friday, the Spaniard is 2:49 behind teammate Mattias Skjelmose and 2:58 behind Lenny Martinez. The podium is now distant, but this brutal route gives him one last chance to recover positions and finish the Tour on a stronger note.

The time limit will provide another race within the race. Sprinters and tired domestiques will need to form an organised gruppetto to survive the four major climbs and secure their place in Paris. At the front, meanwhile, the breakaway, the mountains classification and the final battles for the top ten promise action from the opening kilometres.

The peloton departs at 11:20. Several hours later, after one of the greatest accumulations of climbing in the race, Alpe d’Huez will close the Tour’s mountain chapter. The yellow jersey appears secure, but almost everything behind it remains vulnerable.