cycling: Tour de France Stage #20: Ion Izagirre wins in the rain

Cycling: On the 20th stage of the Tour de France 2016, there was finally the first Spanish day success. Ion Izagirre (Movistar) prevailed in the downhill against Jarlinson Pantano (IAM) and Vincenzo Nibali (Astana). There were hardly any changes in the overall ranking.

The exciting starting position in the fight for the podium

Today, on the 20th and penultimate stage of the Tour de France 2016, the overall ranking should finally manifest itself. On yesterday 19st stage Romain Bardet (Ag2r) moved up to second place in the standings. The Dutchman Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo), on the other hand, flew back to tenth place. It also didn't go really well for the young professional yesterday Adam Yates (Orica BikeExchange). The Brit lost his podium spot to Nairo Quintana (Movistar). After all, he defended the white jersey from Louis Meintjes (Lampre-Merida), who came closer to him but still had a reassuring lead before today's stage. Overall, you can't say that the 2016 Tour de France was boring, even if there was never any doubt about Chris Froome's (Sky) Tour victory. Before tomorrow's Sprint Royal on the Champs-Élysées, things got really tough in the Alps today. 146,5 km had to be mastered from Megève to Morzine, with no fewer than four climbs standing in the way of the drivers. The Col de Joux Plane in particular, which belongs to the highest category, is one of the hardest climbs of this year's Tour de France with a length of 11,6 km and an average gradient of 8,5 percent. It was also the last peak that the riders had to climb this year before they had to go another twelve kilometers to the finish on an interesting descent. So the profile promised just as much excitement as the fight for the podium places. Less than two minutes separated seventh from third:

 

Roman Kreuziger challenges everyone

Today, too, most of the stage was completed in the pouring rain. This did not prevent around 30 drivers from pulling away right after the start. The field drove intensively behind, because with Roman Kreuziger (Tinkoff) there was no harmless driver in the leading group. Before the start of the race, the Czech was less than ten minutes behind Chris Froome (Sky). Once again Peter Sagan was there as a helper, who kept up the pace for Kreuziger. Also included in the huge escape group were Jarlinson Pantano (IAM), Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha), Vincenzo Nibali (Astana), Ion Izagirre (Movistar) and Julian Alaphilippe (Etixx-Quick Step), among others. After the lead had grown to more than six minutes, other teams had to take part in the follow-up work, since Kreuziger was already in second place in the overall standings. However, when the leading group finally fell apart on the last climb, he was no longer able to follow the best. Izagirre and Alaphilippe broke away while Nibali and Izagirre chased after them. Sure, because the Italian relied on the dangerous descent down to the destination. Known as one of the best downhill skiers in the world, he finally wanted to celebrate his stage win today.

Izagirre beats Nibali on the descent

At the top of the Col de Joux Plane, Pantano, Izagirre and Nibali formed a trio while Alaphilippe couldn't keep up. The stage win should be between them, with the field less than three minutes behind and Kreuziger somewhere in between. Meanwhile, Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) had his problems again today and was left behind several times. Likewise Fabio Aru (Astana). Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) wanted to take advantage of this, and his teammate Ilnur Zakarin was then waiting for him. The Russian is working his way up for the Spaniard to take him further up the standings. Of course, they were no longer able to intervene in the fight for the day's victory, because this was decided between the three leaders, while nothing worth mentioning happened at the back of the field of favorites. In the pouring rain we went down to the destination of Morzine. Nibali tried to show off his downhill skills to the full, but in the end Ion Izagirre surprisingly pulled away to take Spain's first stage win of the year. Second was Pantano. Nibali, despite being known as the best downhill skier in the world, couldn't keep up with the other two. Other than that, there weren't any major changes among the class riders, because everyone just wanted to get to the finish line in one piece. Chris Froome is expected to win the 2016 Tour de France ahead of Romain Bardet (Ag2r) and Nairo Quintana (Movistar). However, the efforts of Roman Kreuziger and Joaquim Rodriguez were worth it, as they improved from 12th and 11th to 10th and 7th. Fabio Aru and Bauke Mollema, on the other hand, were out of the top 10 on the last day in the mountains.

Tour de France Stage #20 – The day's result

Tour de France Stage #20 – The General Classification