Izagirre claims stage 20 as Froome sets up third Tour de France victory
Chris Froome has effectively secured his third Tour de France title, and second in succession, after managing to stay upright despite torrential rain on the final Alpine stage from Megeve to Morzine.
Ion Izagirre saved the Tour de France for Movistar by claiming his second grand tour stage win with an excellent display of descending skills in Morzine on stage 20 of the race. Having gauged his effort perfectly on the climb to make it back to the leaders, he dropped Jarlinson Pantano (IAM) and Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) on the tricky, wet descent and soloed to victory on the final mountain stage of the race.
Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) and Roman Kreuziger (Tinkoff) were the only GC riders to attack and was rewarded by moving into the top 10 while Chris Froome (Sky) finished safely to virtually secure the overall victory ahead of Romain Bardet (Ag2r) and Nairo Quintana (Movistar).
Froome leads Bardet by 4.05 and Quintana by 4.21 and now just needs to get safely through the final stage which is the traditional ceremonial affair in Paris. After an opening section with a small climb, the race ends with 8 laps of the well-known 6.5km circuit where the sprinters are expected to battle it out for the win.
Tour de France 2016 – stage 20 results (Megève – Morzine):
| 1 | Ion Izagirre (Movistar) |
4:06:45 |
| 2 | Jarlinson Pantano (IAM) |
+19” |
| 3 | Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) |
+42” |
| 4 | Julian Alaphilippe (Etixx – Quick-Step) |
+49” |
| 5 | Rui Costa (Lampre – Merida) |
+01’43” |
| 6 | Roman Kreuziger (Tinkoff) |
+01’44” |
| 7 | Wilco Kelderman (LottoNl-Jumbo) |
+02’49” |
| 8 | Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) |
+03’24” |
| 9 | Daniel Martin (Etixx – Quick-Step) |
+04’12” |
| 10 | Romain Bardet (AG2R) |
,, |
| 11 | Nairo Quintana (Movistar) |
,, |
| 12 | Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) |
+04’14” |
| 13 | Adam Yates (Orica-BikeExchange) |
,, |
| 14 | Louis Meintjes (Lampre – Merida) |
,, |
| 15 | Rafal Majka (Tinkoff) |
+04’17” |
| 16 | Damiano Caruso (BMC) |
+04’18” |
| 17 | Wouter Poels (Sky) |
,, |
| 18 | Geraint Thomas (Sky) |
,, |
| 19 | Sergio Henao (Sky) |
,, |
| 20 | Christopher Froome (Sky) |
,, |
General classification after stage 20:
| 1 | Christopher Froome (Sky) |
86:21:40 |
| 2 | Romain Bardet (AG2R) |
+04’05” |
| 3 | Nairo Quintana (Movistar) |
+04’21” |
| 4 | Adam Yates (Orica-BikeExchange) |
+04’42” |
| 5 | Richie Porte (BMC) |
+05’17” |
| 6 | Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) |
+06’16” |
| 7 | Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) |
+06’58” |
| 8 | Louis Meintjes (Lampre – Merida) |
,, |
| 9 | Daniel Martin (Etixx – Quick-Step) |
+07’04” |
| 10 | Roman Kreuziger (Tinkoff) |
+07’11” |
| 11 | Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) |
+13’13” |
| 12 | Sergio Henao (Sky) |
+18’51” |
| 13 | Fabio Aru (Astana) |
+19’20” |
| 14 | Sébastien Reichenbach (FDJ) |
+24’59” |
| 15 | Geraint Thomas (Sky) |
+28’31” |
| 16 | Pierre Rolland (Cannondale-Drapac) |
+30’42” |
| 17 | Mikel Nieve (Sky) |
+38’30” |
| 18 | Stef Clement (IAM) |
+38’57” |
| 19 | Jarlinson Pantano (IAM) |
+38’59” |
| 20 | Alexis Vuillermoz (AG2R) |
+42’28” |
