A short, but potentially brutal stage awaits the riders of the Tour de France on Saturday when they tackle a trip of 133.5 kilometres which includes no fewer than 6 categorised climbs.
STAGE 19 WRAP
Friday’s Stage 19 was another brilliant stage and the battle for the breakaway was intense and when it finally went a few teams who had missed the break decided it wasn’t over and chased it down, before a 2nd break went up the road to contest the victory. The pace was on throughout the stage and in the end it was Mohoric who somehow threw his bike across the line first to stop Asgreen from getting back-to-back stage wins. O’Connor finished 3rd and once again Philipsen won the sprint behind the podium places.
JERSEY UPDATE
Barring accidents virtually all of the classifications have been decided other than the King of the Mountains which will come to a head in Saturday’s 20th Stage. Ciccone currently leads from Gall and Vingegaard and he is a 5/10 favourite to wear the Polka Dot Jersey into Paris.
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STAGE 20 BETTING – Click here to bet
Jonas Vingegaard 15/10
Tadej Pogacar 5/1
Felix Gall 10/1
Simon Yates 12/1
Thibaut Pinot 20/1
Tom Pidcock 20/1
Pello Bilbao 22/1
25/1 and better the balance
ROUTE
The riders start climbing gradually virtually from the off and before long they tackle a Cat 2 climb of 11.5 kilometres averaging 5.2%. There are then 2 more Cat 2 climbs and a Cat 3 before Petit Ballon a Cat 1 climb of 9.3 kilometres at an average of over 8%. A quick descent follows and then it is the final climb of the Tour de France, the Col du Platzerwasel which measure 7.1 kilometres in length at an average increase of 8.4%. The stage does not finish on the summit, but around 8 kilometres later on the Plateau.
VERDICT
This could be another fascinating battle between the breakaway and the General Classification riders. The early climb means we should get a strong break going away and it is going to be interesting to see if anybody threatening the top positions will get into the break and perhaps force some of the other teams to chase hard.
Vingegaard is assured of the Yellow Jersey so his team certainly don’t have to chase, but with an easy stage on Sunday it is likely that he wants to sign off this Tour with a stage win.
UAE will also be interesting to watch as Pogacar, while clearly not going to challenge for the Yellow Jersey, would also like to finish strong with a stage win.
I don’t expect the break to be given too much leeway on this stage and expect everything to come together some time up the final climb and a win for Yellow Jersey, Vingegaard is my call.
Suggested Bet: Vingegaard win at 15/10
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