Who’s Winning the 2020 Tour de France

Who won the Tour?

UAE’s Tadej Pogačar won the 2020 Tour de France on Sunday by finishing safely in the peloton at the end of Stage 21. Quick-Step’s Sam Bennett won the Tour’s final stage on the Champs-Élysées, his second stage win of this year’s race.

Pogačar was joined on the Tour’s final podium by Jumbo-Visma’s Primož Roglič and Trek-Segafredo’s Richie Porte. Bennett became the first Irishman since Sean Kelly to win the green jersey as the winner of the Tour’s Points Classification.

Only 21-years-old, Pogačar is the second-youngest winner in Tour history. The Slovenian won three stages on his way to the overall victory, including a stunning victory in Saturday’s individual time trial in which he overcame a deficit of about a minute to overtake Roglič, who entered the penultimate stage wearing the yellow jersey. Roglič and his Jumbo-Visma team dominated the race from start to finish, but fell short when it mattered most: the Tour’s only time trial, in which having the strongest team didn’t matter.

What About Next Year?

The last two Tours have now gone to riders under the age of 23, which sets-up an interesting battle between two of the Tour’s newest champions—Pogačar and INEOS Grenadiers’s Egan Bernal (last year’s winner)—and its older, former stars—Chris Froome (who should race next year for a new team, Israel Start-Up Nation). And of course, Jumbo-Visma will be just as strong next year, with Roglič and Tom Dumoulin both likely to return with the goal of putting this year’s disappointment behind them.

For now though, we’ll wait for October and the announcement of next year’s course. At that point we’ll have a better idea as to which riders have the best chance of winning the 2021 Tour de France.

Who’s Winning the Tour?

In one of the most exciting stages in Tour history, UAE’s Tadej Pogačar crushed the competition during Stage 20’s individual time trial, winning both the stage and taking the yellow jersey from Jumbo-Visma’s Primož Roglič. With one day remaining, the 21-year-old Slovenian looks set to win the 2020 Tour de France—and in incredible fashion.

Roglič fell to second overall, 59 seconds behind his compatriot. Trek-Segafredo’s Richie Porte finished third on the day and will end the Tour in the same spot overall, 3:30 behind Pogačar.

Who’s Really Winning the Tour?

After losing 1:21 to Roglič in the crosswinds on Stage 7, Pogačar’s chances of winning the Tour looked bleak. But the Slovenian fought back, winning Stages 9 and 15 and climbing back up the Tour’s General Classification. He then lost more time to Roglič on the Col de la Loze at the end of Stage 17, seemingly conceding the race. But then came Stage 20’s 36km ITT (with a finish atop La Planche des Belles Filles) and Pogačar more than delivered. He’ll end the race as the winner of three of the Tour’s leaders’ jerseys: yellow, polka dot (as the Tour’s King of the Mountains), and white (as the Tour’s best young rider). He’s also the second-youngest winner in Tour history.

The day’s other big winner was Porte, who rode his way onto the podium with a third-place finish on the stage. Porte’s set to transfer to INEOS Grenadiers in 2021, and the Australian was openly admitting that this would be his last chance to race the Tour as his team’s leader. He certainly made the most of the opportunity.

The day’s big losers were Roglič, who spent much of the race in the yellow jersey only to lose it dramatically on the Tour’s penultimate day, and INEOS Grenadiers’s Richard Carapaz, who entered the day hoping to defend his lead in the Tour’s King of the Mountains competition, but lost the polka dot jersey to Pogačar on the final major climb.

Who’s Winning the Tour?

Stage 19 of the Tour de France looked on paper like a typical battle between the early break and the sprinters’ teams, but the Classics specialists had other ideas. The initial flurry of attacks produced just one lone breakaway rider, Deceuninck-Quick Step’s Remi Cavagna. That’s rarely a recipe for success and, sure enough, with the gap dwindling in the last third of the race, the pack slowed to delay the catch and counter-attackers went clear, led by Classics-style riders like CCC’s Greg van Avermaet and Matteo Trentin, Trek-Segafredo’s Jasper Stuyven, and Bora-Hansgrohe’s Peter Sagan. But of the 12 aspirants, it was Stage 14 winner Søren Kragh Andersen (Sunweb) who timed his own move right, jumping clear of the break with 16km to go and soloing home for a well-deserved second stage win and Sunweb’s third of this Tour.

Who’s Really Winning the Tour?

Yellow jersey Primož Roglič and his Jumbo-Visma team were only too happy to let the stage hunters duke it out, and aside from a minor crash and chase for EF Pro Cycling’s Rigoberto Uran (eighth overall), the contenders stayed quiet ahead of Saturday’s big time trial. Roglič has just one obstacle left to his victory in Paris: Saturday’s individual time trial with a summit finish on the La Planche des Belles Filles climb. With nearly a minute to second-place Tadej Pogačar (UAE-Emirates) his lead seems secure, but anything is possible. Pogačar, by turn, is clearly in command of the white jersey for the race’s best young rider. Look for the other GC placings to reorder some as well, and the race-within-a-race of INEOS-Grenadiers’s Richard Carapaz’s campaign to keep the KoM jersey, with points for the fastest ascent of the climb. Green jersey wearer Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quick Step) stayed comfortably in the lead in that competition and is a lock for the sprinters standings barring a surprise DNF.

Who’s Winning the Tour?

Michal Kwiatkowski has won a World Road Championship, Classics, and major stage races, but until today had never won a stage of a Grand Tour. That’s at least partly because of his choice to join INEOS-Grenadiers (then Sky) in 2016 and become arguably the best support rider on the team for Chris Froome and Egan Bernal in the Tour. But his reward came today when he and teammate Richard Carapaz emerged as the last survivors of the day’s big breakaway and cruised to the finish comfortably ahead of the chase. It was an action-packed final day in the Alps, with big climbs, attacks, and even a gravel sector, but yellow jersey Primož Rogliç played it cooler than Miles Davis and was well-protected and supported all day by his Jumbo-Visma team. Short of a major mishap, or implosion on the Stage 20 time trial, he’s all but assured of the win in Paris.

Who’s Really Winning the Tour?

Roglič has one test left in the Tour, but Jumbo-Visma have passed all theirs with flying colors. They’ve been unquestionably the strongest team in the race and, aside from a first-week hiccup where they appeared to spend their effort too early one stage, have precisely and commandingly controlled the race. Roglič has spent scant few kilometers of the Tour without at least one teammate by his side. He was on the right side of every crosswind split, has never been put in serious difficulty in the mountains even after fierce attacks by rivals like Tadej Pogačar (UAE-Emirates), and has nearly a minute advantage on Pog. He won’t breathe a sigh of relief until after the tricky Stage 20 time trial, however, which ends with a steep climb of the Planche des Belles Filles. But the route is ideally suited to his capabilities, and he could emerge there with his second stage win of the race and an even firmer grip on yellow.

Who’s Winning the Tour?

The queen stage of the 2020 Tour de France lived up to its hype with a thrilling high-altitude finish on the steep slopes of the Col de la Loze. Astana’s Miguel Angel Lopez has steadily improved throughout the Tour and appears to be hitting peak form for the final week. A perfectly timed attack late on the final climb gave him a slight gap to the other contenders that he held to the line. Overall leader Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) emerged as the best of the rest, ably dispatching rival and compatriot Tadej Pogačar (UAE-Emirates) to add to his lead in the yellow jersey.

Who’s Really Winning the Tour?

Today was the most crucial day for Roglič to defend his yellow jersey and both the Slovenian and his team were well up to the task. They got an unexpected assist of sorts from Bahrain-McLaren, as that team did most of the work controlling the breakaway on the approach to the final climb and the ascent itself to try to set up a win for leader Mikel Landa. The pace was just hard enough to discourage attacks on the long, steep climb, but not so hard that Jumbo’s deep roster of talented support riders was in difficulty. And Bahrain’s tactic backfired hard when it burned through all of Landa’s support, while Jumbo still had two teammates. As a result, when Lopez attacked, even though Tom Dumoulin couldn’t keep pace Roglič still had Sepp Kuss, while an isolated Landa was dropped. Thursday’s stage will be tricky for Jumbo, but if they get Roglič safely through it with no time gap to his rivals, then he has a pretty clear path to the win in Paris.

Who’s Winning the Tour?

Primož Roglič defended his yellow jersey on Stage 16, surviving the first of three alpine stages to remain the overall leader of the 2020 Tour de France. The Slovenian finished with the other favorites on the uphill finish in Villards de Lans, maintaining his 40-second advantage over UAE’s Tadej Pogačar. EF Pro Cycling’s Rigoberto Uran still sits third overall, 1:34 behind the yellow jersey. BORA-Hansgrohe’s Lennard Kämna won the stage in Villard de Lans after attacking over the top of the Category 1 Montée Saint-Nizier-du-Moucherotte, holding off the rest of the day’s big breakaway to take a fantastic solo victory. INEOS Grenadier’s Richard Carapaz finished second, and Groupama-FDJ’s Sébastien Reichenbach was third.

Who’s Really Winning the Tour?

The Tour’s heads of state tested one another on the Category 3 uphill finish in Villard de Lans, with Pogačar and Astana’s Miguel Ángel López accelerating inside the final kilometer. Roglič was quick to respond to Pogačar, but López broke free to gain a handful of seconds. Tomorrow’s finish is on the Col de la Loze, one of the highest paved roads in France and easily the highest point in this year’s Tour. Roglič’s starting to look a bit shaky (despite the overwhelming strength of his team). His chances of winning the Tour might all come down to how he fares on the steep slopes of this massive climb.

Who’s Winning the Tour?

Thanks to a dominant performance by Jumbo-Visma, Primož Roglič defended his yellow jersey on the slopes of the Grand Colombier at the end of Stage 15 and remains the leader of the 2020 Tour de France. The Slovenian finished second to his compatriot, UAE’s Tadej Pogačar, on the summit of “Beyond Category” climb, while several of the Tour’s pre-race contenders lost time. Trek-Segafredo’s Richie Porte finished third. On the Tour’s General Classification, Roglič now leads Pogačar by 40 seconds (who gained a handful of seconds thanks to the time bonus he earned by winning the stage). EF Pro Cycling’s Rigoberto Uran finished ninth on the day and moved up to third overall, 1:34 behind Roglič. The riders get a rest day Monday, with the high Alps and an individual time trial looming in the Tour’s final week.

Who’s Really Winning the Tour?

The day’s biggest loser was the defending champion, Egan Bernal of INEOS Grenadiers. The Colombian was dropped far from the summit of the Grand Colombier and lost seven minutes to Roglič. Whether due to sickness or injury, Bernal’s chances to repeat last year’s victory are now gone. The same goes for Arkéa Samsic’s Nairo Quintana, who lost three minutes of his own on the Grand Colombier. But Colombian fans can take heart from the performances of Uran and Astana’s Miguel Ángel López, who moved up to third- and fourth-place overall, respectively. So with one week left, Roglič and Jumbo-Visma are in the Tour’s driver’s seat. But Roglič needs to be careful: he’s been winning races since the season re-started in July, and one has to wonder how much longer he can ride at such a high level. Pogačar is a clear threat to his compatriot’s yellow jersey, and Uran and Lopez are looking strong as well. So while the list of contenders is shorter, the Tour is far from over.

Who’s Winning the Tour?

Jumbo-Visma’s Primož Roglič finished safely in a reduced peloton at the end of a hectic Stage 14 in Lyon, defending his overall lead in the 2020 Tour de France. Team Sunweb’s Søren Kragh Andersen won the stage with a strong attack about 3km from the finish line, catching the peloton by surprise and holding them off to take the biggest win of his career. Mitchelton-Scott’s Luka Mezgec finished second and Cofidis’s Simone Consonni celebrated his 26th birthday by finishing third. On the General Classification, Roglič still leads UAE’s Tadej Pogačar and INEOS Grenadiers’s Egan Bernal by 44 and 59 seconds, respectively.

Who’s Really Winning the Tour?

Stage 15 takes the Tour into the Jura mountains for a super-hard stage that finishes atop the “Beyond Category” Grand Colombier. If Roglič manages to ride as well as he did on Friday’s summit finish on the Puy Mary, the Slovenian will head into the Tour’s second Rest Day firmly in the driver’s seat of the 2020 Tour de France.

Who’s Winning the Tour?

The Tour’s third summit finish held plenty of action as EF Pro Cycling’s Daniel Martinez emerged from the day’s big breakaway—big as in both that it went early in the 191.5km stage and was large in number—for a solo win atop the Pas de Peyrol, outdueling the BORA-Hansgrohe tandem of Lennard Kämna and Maximilian Schachmann to confirm that his August Criterium du Dauphiné victory was no fluke. Behind, another head-to-head battle was taking place between INEOS Grenadiers and Jumbo-Visma, the two heavyweight teams in the race. Jumbo clearly got the upper hand, as yellow jersey Primož Roglič held his grip on the race lead by matching pace with young attacker (and fellow Slovenian) Tadej Pogačar of UAE-Team Emirates.

Who’s Really Winning the Tour?

Lots of upheaval in the top 10 on a steep finish. It’s impossible to say how deep Roglič dug to defend his yellow jersey, as he was carefully poker-faced for much of the climb. Similarly, Pogačar seemed as comfortable as you can be riding near your anaerobic threshold on 12 percent gradients. That wasn’t the case for INEOS and defending Tour champ Egan Bernal. In a move that will doubtless be dissected for its wisdom, INEOS pushed the pace on the penultimate climb of the day and succeeded mostly in burning off their own teammates as the group dwindled to less than 15 riders. Isolated, Bernal didn’t have much help when the inevitable accelerations began and couldn’t stay with the Roglič/Pogačar pair.

Also in trouble were the French hopefuls Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) and Romain Bardet (Ag2r la Mondiale), the latter of whom was caught in a bad crash roughly mid-stage. But besides Roglič, no one could quite match Pogačar’s furious pace in the lead group, as other riders lost between 13 and 40 seconds at the finish. Pogačar jumped five spots to second overall, :44 down to Roglič, but the GC is starting to stretch out, with Bernal :59 down, Rigoberto Uran (EF Pro Cycling) at 1:10 and Arkea-Samsic’s Nairo Quintana, who also went down in the Bardet crash, at 1:12. Trek Segafredo’s Richie Porte climbed strongly and moved up two spots to ninth, but he’s regretting the 1:21 he lost in the Stage 7 crosswinds, and the DNF of teammate Bauke Mollema, who dropped out after crashing with Bardet and Quintana.

Who’s Winning the Tour?

The longest stage of the Tour de France ended with some serious fireworks as Marc Hirschi, a 22-year-old Swiss rider in his first Tour, emerged from a late-race break to take the solo win in Sarran. It’s a well-deserved victory for his Sunweb team, which has come close with two podium finishes by Hirschi and several top-five placings from sprinter Cees Bol, but hadn’t managed to unlock the right combination yet for a win. BORA-Hansgrohe did much of the work controlling the day’s early breakaway, likely looking to set up Peter Sagan for a stage win on favorable terrain. But it didn’t quite work out, as green jersey wearer Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quick Step) edged him out in the intermediate sprint, while the late breakaway took most of the points at the finish; the net was Sagan gained back only two points of his sizable deficit (now 66 points). Primoz Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) remains in yellow.

Who’s Really Winning the Tour?

As with Stage 11, there were no changes to the overall classification; the contenders were happy to let stage hunters play the lead roles ahead of Friday’s Stage 13 summit finish on the Pas de Peyrol. Today wasn’t quite a day off for Roglič and Jumbo, but any stage that they don’t have to patrol the front and everyone stays upright is a good one for the Tour's main favorite. Bennett’s attentiveness in the intermediate sprint strongly limited any damage from the stage finish, where he wasn’t in the main group. It’s one fewer opportunity that Sagan has now to retake green. Even as that competition looks to be escaping Sagan’s grasp, the KoM standings tightened today as Hirschi is now within five points of Benoit Cosnefroy’s lead. Expect some action there on Friday.

Who’s Winning the Tour?

With a flat, short course and light winds mostly from behind, the expectation was Stage 11 could be among the fastest of this year’s race. Instead, it was a decidedly more stately affair, thanks to the fact that no one really wanted to try a breakaway except Groupama-FDJ’s Matthieu Ladagnous, who spent a good chunk of the stage out front alone as the pack soft-pedaled to delay the catch. Once it was finally made, the stage was set for a sprint finish, and on a slightly uphill finale Lotto-Soudal’s Caleb Ewan nudged out Peter Sagan (BORA-Hansgrohe) and green jersey wearer Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quick Step) for his second victory of this year’s Tour. And we say “nudged out” in the literal sense, as there was plenty of contact in the final 100 meters; thankfully no one crashed.

But Sagan was relegated to last place in the group for pushing past Jumbo-Visma’s Wout van Aert. That’s significant because it means he doesn’t get the sprint points for his finish, which are crucial to his fight in the best sprinter competition. Bennett now has a sizable lead there with 243 points to Sagan’s 175. With only three possible sprint finishes left in the Tour, that margin could be enough to deny Sagan an eighth green jersey.

The yellow jersey stayed with Primoz Roglič and his Jumbo-Visma team, which had zero trouble keeping him in the race lead and essentially got a day off as sprinters’ teams did much of the work at the front.

Who’s Really Winning the Tour?

There was, unsurprisingly, no change to the top 10 overall classification today, and that likely will be the case until Friday at the earliest. But there were still a few events of note. UAE-Emirates Davide Formolo didn’t start today due to crash injuries on Stage 10. Together with Fabio Aru’s dropout, that leaves wunderkind Stage 9 winner Tadej Pogačar awfully thin on support for the mountains. A little further down the standings, Astana’s Miguel Lopez lost Ion Izagirre today to a hard crash. Meanwhile Jumbo, INEOS Grenadiers, Ag2r la Mondiale and other contenders’ teams are at full strength. In fact, most teams still have their full complement of eight riders, but the looming Alps (and next Monday’s second rest-day COVID-19 tests) could change that. For Pogačar in particular, it means he’s likely to be isolated on summit finishes.

Who’s Winning the Tour?

Jumbo-Visma’s Primož Roglič finished safely in the leading peloton at the end of Stage 10, defending his overall lead in the 2020 Tour de France. The Slovenian still leads INEOS Grenadiers’s Egan Bernal (the defending champion) and Cofidis’s Guillaume Martin by 21 and 28 seconds, respectively. Quick-Step’s Sam Bennett won the stage on the Île de Ré, defeating Lotto-Soudal’s Caleb Ewan and BORA-hansgrohe’s Peter Sagan to take the first Tour de France stage victory of his career. The win also puts the Irishman into the green jersey as the leader of the Tour’s Points Classification.

Who’s Really Winning the Tour?

The Tour is essentially halfway over, and Roglič—and his Jumbo-Visma team—look pretty strong. But the Tour’s top-7 riders are separated by only 44 seconds, and the race’s final week is jammed with mountains. If Roglič timed his peak too soon—as he did during last year’s Tour of Italy—he could fade just as his rivals ride themselves into form.

Who’s Winning the Tour?

Jumbo-Visma’s Primož Roglič is the new overall leader of the 2020 Tour de France after the Slovenian finished second to UAE’s Tadej Pogačar on Stage 9 in Laruns, France. Michelton-Scott’s Adam Yates entered the day wearing the yellow jersey, but the Briton cracked on the steep slopes of the Col du Marie Blanque, while Roglič, UAE’s Tadej Pogačar, Bahrain-McLaren’s Mikel Landa, and INEOS Grenadiers’s Egan Bernal (the Tour’s defending champion) surged ahead a few kilometers from the summit of the Category 1 climb. Team Sunweb’s Marc Hirschi almost held off the four general classification (GC) contenders to take what would have been a fantastic stage victory, but the Tour rookie was caught inside the final 3km and ended the day in third.

The Tour now heads into its first rest day with Roglič atop the GC. He leads Bernal and Cofidis’s Guillaume Martin by 21 and 28 seconds, respectively.

Who’s Really Winning the Tour?

As expected, the Col du Marie Blanque produced some fireworks, but not enough to create huge time gaps by the time the stage finished in Laruns. Overall, the Tour’s top seven riders are all within 44 seconds of one another, with two weeks and lots of mountains still to come. If the last two stages are any indication, Roglič might find his toughest challenge to come from his compatriot Pogačar, who would be in yellow were it not for the time he lost in the crosswinds on Stage 7.

Who’s Winning the Tour?

Mitchelton-Scott’s Adam Yates managed to keep the yellow jersey as the leader of the Tour de France during Stage 8, fighting his way back to the group of favorites after getting dropped twice on the final climb. The stage was won by AG2R’s Nans Peters, who finished alone almost seven minutes ahead of Yates and the rest of the Tour’s GC contenders. However, Yates still leads the Tour by 3 seconds over Jumbo-Visma’s Primož Roglič and 9 seconds over Cofidis’s Guillaume Martin.

Who’s Really Winning the Tour?

A full week into the Tour, a handful of favorites have started to separate themselves from the rest, led by Roglič, who’s now the clear leader of his team, and Arkéa–Samsic’s Nairo Quintana, whose attack over the top of the Col de Peyresourde reminded us of the rider who first set the Tour on fire when he made his debut back in 2013. (Quintana is currently 13 seconds back.) UAE’s Tadej Pogačar had a terrific day as well, attacking to take back half of the time he lost in Friday’s crosswinds. He’s now ninth overall, only 48 seconds away from the yellow jersey.

Stage 8 effectively ended the Tour hopes of two Frenchmen: Groupama-FDJ’s Thibaut Pinot and Quick-Step’s Julian Alaphilippe. But luckily for the home fans, Martin and AG2R’s Romain Bardet both looked strong, with Martin one of only a few riders able to attack on the Peyresourde and Bardet escaping near the finish to gain a few seconds. The Frenchmen now sit third and fourth on the Tour’s General Classification.

Who’s Winning the Tour?

It should’ve been a relatively easy and straightforward day at the Tour de France: neither especially long, nor hilly, and with a profile that strongly suggested a bunch finish. But the Vent d’Autan had different ideas. The notorious winds that blow from the south/southeast in this region of France created havoc as Bora-Hansgrohe raced aggressively to force splits in the peloton early in the stage. Initially, no major contenders were caught out, but a number of sprinters were—good news for Peter Sagan. But as the day wore on, the 47.5km per hour average speed began to wear out other riders (speeds hit almost 100kph on one descent); a second split late in the race caught out best young rider Tadej Pogačar (UAE-Emirates), among others, and the lead group at the end numbered just 41 of the 172 starters. No team capitalized more than Jumbo-Visma, which not only nabbed another stage win for its young fuoriclasse talent Wout van Aert, but kept both of its GC contenders up front and safely out of trouble, all while letting other teams do most of the work. Adam Yates continues to lead the race overall, but he was the only member of his team to make the front group, a possible warning sign for this weekend’s Pyreneean stages as he’ll likely be isolated on climbs.

Who’s Really Winning the Tour?

Jumbo-Visma is in the driver’s seat for this Tour, with favorite Primoz Roglič in second overall and Tom Dumoulin just 10 seconds behind his teammate in 5th place. The team has already won three stages, and is seeing its competition slowly whittled down by attrition. Today it was Pogačar, the Trek-Segafredo duo of Bauke Mollema and Richie Porte, and INEOS Grenadiers’s Richard Carapaz who lost time (Carapaz initially made all the selections but had an untimely mechanical that knocked him back to the second group). With his Bora team’s aggressive, opportunistic riding, Sagan is back in his customary green jersey for best sprinter. It’s unusual for Deceuninck-Quick Step to be caught out on a day like today; usually the Classics-savvy team is the one using echelons and crosswinds to put other teams in difficulty. But Sam Bennett, who started the day in green, missed the split, which cost them. Opportunities for sprints and points for the Irish sprinter will be harder to find now, with just three or four possible bunch finishes left in the Tour.

Who’s Winning the Tour?

The presence of a GC contender (Miguel Ángel López) didn’t stop Astana from sending one of its best riders in the breakaway today, and they came away with a stage win for their trouble as Alexey Lutsenko managed to stay clear of the pack for a solo victory. Said peloton seemed only too happy with that turn of events. After a fast stage that saw the field get whittled down significantly before the climbing even started, Adam Yates didn’t seem to have much trouble defending his yellow jersey. His Mitchelton-Scott team got a big helping hand from INEOS Grenadiers, who largely set the pace on the climbs for the last hour. Julian Alaphilippe, who controversially lost yellow yesterday by penalty, made a late attack inside the final kilometer, but was unable to get nearly enough of a gap to regain his race lead.

Who’s Really Winning the Tour?

Two days after Jumbo-Visma controlled the first summit finish using the team-time-trial technique that INEOS perfected in winning six of the last seven Tours, INEOS showed today that it’s still got some horsepower too by deploying the same approach. There have been questions about INEOS’s strength after it left former Tour winners Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas off the roster since they didn’t seem in top shape. But today, at least, they showed the same kind of depth and control they’ve had in the past. Jumbo still looks like the strongest team in the race, but it’s clear INEOS isn’t giving up its position as stage racing’s dominant team, at least not without a fight.

Who’s Winning the Tour?

Surprise! After easily defending the yellow jersey in the first summit finish yesterday, Julian Alaphilippe lost it today in a sprint, of all things. That’s despite finishing 16th, on the same time as stage winner Wout van Aert. And despite a comfortable (by sprint finish standards) lead of four seconds to Adam Yates, who is—checks notes—NOT a sprinter. So what gives? Some eagle-eyed commissaire spotted TV footage of Alaphilippe taking a water bottle from a roadside Deceuninck-Quick Step team staffer with 17km to go.

According to racing rules, feeds inside 20km to go are verboten, and the penalty is a 200 Swiss franc fine and a 20-second penalty. The fine? Whatever; Alapanache is racing wearing a $120,000 luxury watch. But the 20-second time penalty knocks him down the standings to 16th overall. The new yellow jersey is Adam Yates of Mitchelton-Scott, who’s not too pleased by the circumstances of how he took the lead, and now his team has to defend on a mountain stage.

Who’s Really Winning the Tour?

Jumbo-Visma isn’t really here for stage wins, but they’re so deep and strong they’ll get them anyway, and not just from their yellow-jersey hopefuls like Primoz Roglič, who took yesterday’s summit finish. Today it was the multi-talented Wout van Aert taking the uphill sprint at Privas from a mix of pure speedsters and all-arounders. It’s van Aert’s second stage win in as many Tour entries, and adds to a growing stack of wins he’s racked up in only his second season on the WorldTour. With Roglič in second overall and two stage wins already, things are shaping up nicely so far for the most powerful team of 2020.

Who’s Winning the Tour?

Deceuninck - Quick-Step’s Julian Alaphilippe defended his overall lead in the 2020 Tour de France on Stage 4 in Orcières-Merlette, the Tour’s first summit finish. The Frenchman looked calm throughout the final Category 1 climb, tucked comfortably in the front of the pack as riders from Jumbo-Visma and INEOS Grenadiers set the pace. Jumbo-Visma’s Primož Roglič rewarded his team’s efforts by winning the stage, UAE’s Tadej Pogačar and Cofidis’s Guillaume Martin finished second and third, respectively.

Who’s (Really) Winning the Tour?

The Tour’s first summit finish didn’t reveal much, as almost all of the prerace contenders finished together atop the Category 1 climb to Orcières-Merlette, with Roglič winning the “sprint.” Expect Alaphilippe to retain the yellow jersey until at least Thursday, the Tour’s next uphill finish, when the Frenchman and his Quick-Step teammates will once again be tested by Jumbo-Visma and INEOS. That said, there’s still much harder racing to come, and Jumbo and INEOS are happy to have another rider and team defending the jersey, confident that Alaphilippe is not a true threat to win the Tour overall.

Who’s Winning the Tour?

To no one’s surprise, Julian Alaphilippe and the powerful Deceuninck-Quick Step team had little trouble keeping the yellow jersey on the French rider’s back on Stage 3, a transitional stage that led the race away from Nice and toward the mountains. DQS is a hungry team, and it had designs on a sprint win today for Sam Bennett. He’d have gotten it, too, were it not for Lotto-Soudal’s Caleb Ewan in a where’d-he-come-from finish to deliver the victory. It’s sorely needed: Lotto had the worst start to the Tour with a COVID-19 scare after two staffers tested positive and were quarantined, and then lost Philippe Gilbert and John Degenkolb to Stage 1 crashes.

Who’s Really Winning the Tour?

In this strange Tour, Alaphilippe and DQS’s typical aggressive tactics may actually be the smartest move in the fight for the general classification. No one can predict what the next few weeks hold and how many riders make it to Paris, or if the race has to stop short. So getting the goods while the getting is good is…good, and no team is more temperamentally suited to that approach than DQS. None of the yellow jersey hopefuls lost time today on a relatively quiet stage, but spare a thought for Cofidis’s Anthony Perez, who did the hard work in the break to take the lead in the climber’s jersey competition, but won’t get to wear it after crashing out on the day’s big descent with a broken collarbone.

Who’s Winning the Tour?

As many expected, Deceuninck - Quick-Step’s Julian Alaphilippe won Stage 2 of the 2020 Tour de France. The Frenchman attacked on the final climb of the day, then outsprinted his two breakaway companions to take the stage and the yellow jersey as the new leader of the Tour’s General Classification. Marc Hirschi, 21, finished second for Team Sunweb, and Mitchelton-Scott’s Adam Yates was third. UAE’s Alexander Kristoff, who started the day in the yellow jersey, finished well behind the leaders, so Alaphilippe now leads the Tour by 4 seconds over Yates and 7 seconds over Hirschi.

Who’s Really Winning the Tour?

Alaphilippe is one of the Tour’s biggest question marks. He won two stages and spent 14 days in yellow during last year’s Tour, ultimately finishing fifth overall in Paris. But this year it remains to be seen what he hopes to accomplish. If he’s indeed going for the General Classification, then today he gained time on his rivals by winning both the stage and the bonus sprint at the top of the day’s final climb. The day’s biggest loser was EF Pro Cycling’s Daniel Martínez. Winner of the recent Critérium du Dauphiné, the Colombian crashed while descending the Col d'Èze. He was able to rejoin the leading peloton but was dropped when the pace picked-up again. In the end he lost 3:38 and—most likely—his hopes of a high finish in Paris.