Tour de France 2018: results of the 20th stage

The penultimate stage of the Tour de France – an individual time trial of 35 kilometers between Saint-Pée-sur-Nivelle and Espelette – was the last test for the leader of the general classification, Gerainta Thomas (Team Sky). Behind him Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) and Primoż Roglić (LottoNL-Jumbo) hope that for a little more than 40 minutes of solitary combat, they manage to compensate for the losses suffered by the holder of the yellow shirt and cause a sensation.

Fans of the Vistula have counted on the good performance of our cyclists: Maciej Bodnar (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Michał Kwiatkowski (Sky). The big chances of success were especially for the latter, whose road profile seemed to perfectly match. Some short but fairly steep climbs (including the Pinodieta Pass located just before the finish line – 900 meters with a slope of 10.2%) gave it some advantage over the "typical" counter specialists. the watch. The other Poles – Tomasz Marczyński (Lotto Soudal), Paweł Poljański and Rafał Majka (both Bora) were not lucky for a high position

"Bodi" left for the tour at 12:31, unfortunately n & # 39; 39, failed to fight even for the top ten. Already after the first measure of time it was obvious that the country champion in an individual round during the Pyrenean alley was serious. His time – 44 minutes and 27 seconds allowed to take the place in sixth. The "Kwiato" did a lot better. Having nearly three weeks of hard work for Sky's leaders, the cyclist entered the finish line with the fastest time – 41 minutes, 42 seconds 39 bc, ahead of leader Soerena Kragha Andersen (Team Sunweb) A second

Kwiatkowski for the leader of the "hot chair" and nervously awaited the performances of the next players. The non-handsome (eg Ion Izaguirre of Movistar), who followed him, could not improve his score. In the meantime, the rain started on the road, which greatly hampered the competitors' task from the end. However, they presented a great class. There was a big lap: Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) in the "overall standings" and Bob Jungels (Quick-Step Floors) only slightly down. They delighted sky leaders Christopher Froome and Geraint Thomas, recording the best results on the first measure of time – better by 20 and 34 seconds respectively from "Kwiato". The "Papillon de Maastricht" was also excellent – Tom Dumoulin

Neither Zakarin nor Jungels finally succeeded in doubling the Pole, but Froome (time: 40 minutes and 53 seconds), Dumoulin (40:52) and Thomas (41:06) "Kwiato" had to settle for fourth place. The drama survived Primoz Roglić. The Slovenian, instead of catching Thomas, recorded gigantic losses and finally fell from the podium of the overall standings to which Froome returned. Dumoulin held the second place.