31 kilometres stand between Geraint Thomas and Tour de France victory. It's the penultimate day, and the final yellow jersey hurdle... a rolling time trial in the Basque region to settle the general classification once and for all.
Thomas looks solid in the maillot jaune but stranger things have happened, and at the very least the podium spots are still to play for. We'll be bringing you full live coverage right here.
Lawson Craddock (EF-Drapac) is the lanterne rouge and will be the first rider to take to the course. He starts his ride at 12pm local time, so in around 10 minutes.
Setting off in reverse order of the general classification, the riders will set off at intervals of 1:30, and later on 2 minutes, all the way through to race leader Geraint Thomas, who is underway at 16:29.
Here's the start ramp. It's been raining this morning.
Craddock rolls down the ramp and the stage is therefore underway.
The American has been one of the stories of the Tour, having battled on since breaking his shoulder on the opening day, and having raised more than $100,000 for his local velodrome in the process. He now looks almost certain to reach Paris and complete the Tour.
The FDJ duo of Arnaud Demare and his leadout man Jacopo Guarnieri are the next to take to the course. They'll just try and get round safe and within the time limit, their thoughts very much on tomorrow's sprint on the Champs Elysées.
"The parcours is typically Basque, with rolling roads and sharp climbs that will sap already tired legs."
For a detailed look at this 31km route, have a read of Sadhbh O'Shea's stage preview.
Brollies out at the finish. With lots of narrow roads and fast downhill sections - not least coming off the Col de Pinodieta at the end - the rain will be causing some trepidation in the start paddock today.
Taylor Phinney (EF-Drapac) is off the ramp now, and he could give us a decent early benchmark. The American, however, comes in with bruises on his face, having collided with a tree yesterday, breaking his nose and eye socket. More on that here.
Two intermediate time checkpoints on today's course. The first comes at Ustaritz after 13 kilometres, the second at Souraide after 22 kilometres, both after uphill sections. Craddock has gone through the first in a time of 18:32.
— Daniel Ostanek (@LVCKV) July 28, 2018
Before we get into the thick of it, why not familiarise yourselves with the lie of the land. Yesterday we were treated to a breathless final mountain stage, which saw Thomas tighten his grip on yellow and Roglic leapfrog Froome onto the podium. Here's our stage report, with full results, video highlights and a photo gallery.
Maciej Bodnar has just started his ride. The Pole won in Marseille on the penultimate day time trial last year, and will be one of those 'non-GC' riders in the mix today, though this parcours may prove too hilly for him.
We have our first finisher...
Lawson Craddock crosses the line in Espelette and stops the clock on 47:34. He does so punching the air, greeting the fans who all know him by now. A nice moment.
We have our first finisher...
Lawson Craddock crosses the line in Espelette and stops the clock on 47:34. He does so punching the air, greeting the fans who all know him by now. A nice moment.
We have our first finisher...
Lawson Craddock crosses the line in Espelette and stops the clock on 47:34. He does so punching the air, greeting the fans who all know him by now. A nice moment.
LottoNL-Jumbo's Arnaud Jansen knocks a chunk out of the best time, clocking 44:54.
Hope you've been enjoying our podcasts during this Tour de France. Here's the latest effort from Dan and Ed, dissecting all of yesterday's developments.
Marco Marcato sets the fastest time but it might not last long, with the Mitchelton-Scott duo of Michael Hepburn and Luke Durbridge going strong. Hepburn is fastest at both checkpoints by some distance.
Lawson Craddock breaks down in tears beyond the finish line.
"It's been an incredibly testing Tour de France for me," he says. "I wasn't sure I could make it this far, and I just enjoyed crossing the finish line today, it was the final test to make it to Paris."
Marcato crosses the finish line and just sneaks the best time ahead of Jansen. Hepburn is on his way to the line, too, though.
Bodnar sets the fastest time now but bashes his handlebars in frustration as he crosses the line.
And now Hepburn finishes his ride. The Australian stops the clock on 42:16. That's a full 2:11 faster than Bodnar.
Hepburn reveals he hadn't reconned the course, and that he made a couple of errors on the technical course. Still, his time should stand for a while.
Just under three hours until Geraint Thomas' date with destiny. He's getting used to the daily yellow jersey press conferences by now, and here's what he had to say after safely negotiating yesterday's final Pyrenean hurdle.
Michael Hepburn responds to ITV despite them calling him Luke, and gives an insight into this 31km Basque course.
"The roads are quite slippery. It wasn't raining when I was out but it was raining all morning. It's quite a technical course with turns and everything, up and down. You really have to be on it, stay concentrated. There were a few corners there that I mucked up, but I hadn't seen the course until I rode it.
How long will he stay in the hotseat? "It's the Tour de France, there are plenty of good guys here, so we'll see."
"It's ridiculous."
Safe to say Tom Dumoulin wasn't happy yesterday as Primoz Roglic disappeared on the descent of the Aubisque to take the stage victory and close the gap on GC. The reason? The TV motorbike, the slipstream of which Dumoulin claims helped the Slovenian get away. Roglic is now just 19 seconds behind Dumoulin and the pressure is very much on today. Here's the full story.
You should have the provisional leaderboard on the right-hand-side of your screens. No one troubling that top 5 for the time being.
Lotto Soudal's Tomasz Marczynski goes fourth fastest with 44:50.
Peter Sagan rolls down the ramp
He's doing so having won a big battle yesterday. After crashing at high speed two days earlier, the world champion struggled through the final Pyrenean stage in a bid to make the time cut and stay in the race. He called it the toughest day he's ever had on a bike. More here.
We are trying to update our leaderboard, but no sooner do we get one rider in than another changes....
Nils Politt has come in with a time only 29 seconds behind Hepburn, for second place provisionally.
So we now have the top five in there: Hepburn ahead of Politt, Durbridge, Burghardt and Schär.
Hepburn also has the best times at both intermediate time checks.
Taylor Phinney meets a tree face-on; Team Sky car gets egged, Robert Gesink extends with Jumbo; and Philippe Gilbert gets out of hospital. Read all the Tour Shorts here.
Sky's Castroviejo has put in a new best time at the first intermediate time check, one second faster than Hepburn.
Peter Sagan not in a rush here, and why should he be. All he has to do is finish within the time limit today and tomorrow, to claim the green jersey. He leads that ranking by several hundred points, so there is no way he can lose it on the road.
Castroviejo, Spanish ITT champ, is only second at the second time check, 10.32 down on Hepburn.
Sylvan Dilier of AG2R has now moved into 4th place at the finish, with a time of 43:44.
Swiss ITT champion Stefan Küng (BMC) has started now. Some are considering him a dark horse to win today.
Sunweb's Chad Haga brings in a good finish, in 3rd place, only 34 seconds down.
Castroviejo too misses out on a new best time, but can still slide into second place, 8 seconds down.
Taylor Phinney said in an interview with Eurosport that because of his broken nose, he will not be able to fly to Paris with the others. He will have to get there another way, but didn't seem bothered by the prospect of a long car or team bus ride.
Nikias Arndt of Sunweb is now in fifth place, giving Sunweb 4th and 5th.
Peter Sagan has now crossed the finish line, 5:48 down. No doubt he will be very satisfied with that time.
A new best time for Soler of Movistar -- by exactly one half of a second! But now he is shown in second place, with the same time as Hepburn!
A new best time at the second time check for Sunweb's Soren Krogh Andersen, 1.8 second up!
Confirmation that Soler has indeed posted the best time, by five hundredths of a second!
Name a more aero TTer than Jonathan Castroviejo...
Here's Soler on his way to the hotseat
Stefan Kung crosses the line four seconds down on Soler and Hepburn. A good ride from the BMC rider but maybe a tad too hilly for him to take the win.
Some confusion over Soler's time. The Tour's Twitter account suggests his time has been corrected and he's in second place behind Hepburn...
But it's all arbitrary as Soren Kragh Andersen approaches the line. He's definitely heading for the hotseat.
41:43 for Soren Kragh Andersen!
That's the fastest time so far by a full 31 seconds
Julian Alaphilippe, Robert Gesink, and Adam Yates have all recently taken to the course.
Here comes Kwiatkowski on his way to the line, and this looks good...
He makes it!
41:42 for the Sky rider, who beats Andersen's time by just over a second.
In the current top 10, you'll notice three Sky riders and three Sunweb riders...
The waiting game
A quick word with the new leader Kwiatkowski
"Half the course is all about how well you've recovered after so many stages, and for sure I was motivated to do it well because it's pretty much the last day that I could show myself in this race."
The roads are much drier now, which will favour the GC riders still to come.
It's going to be quite the battle. Thomas, Dumoulin, Roglic, Froome... the top four are all quality time triallists well suited to the hilly demands of this course, and it'd be little surprise if they took the top places on the stage.
Sunweb manager Iwan Spekenbrink has suggested that freshness will be a major factor and that Roglic is fresher than Dumoulin, who of course rode the Giro d'Italia in May. 19 seconds is the gap and, after yesterday's stage win, the momentum does seem to be with the Slovenian.
Record-breaker Sylvain Chavanel stops the clock on 43:24. He's not going to trouble the top of the standings but he'll ride into Paris tomorrow to complete his 18th Tour de France.
Adam Yates has just set the fastest time at the first checkpoint. No, really.
The big names are warming up now
Into the top 15 we go. Here are the start times of the remaining riders.
131 Egan Bernal (Col) Team Sky 16:01:00 132 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 16:03:00 133 Pierre Latour (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 16:05:00 134 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team 16:07:00 135 Bob Jungels (Lux) Quick-Step Floors 16:09:00 136 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin 16:11:00 137 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team 16:13:00 138 Daniel Martin (Irl) UAE Team Emirates 16:15:00 139 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 16:17:00 140 Mikel Landa (Spa) Movistar Team 16:19:00 141 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo 16:21:00 142 Chris Froome (GBr) Team Sky 16:23:00 143 Primoz Roglic (Slo) LottoNL-Jumbo 16:25:00 144 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Sunweb 16:27:00 145 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky 16:29:00
Word on the street is that Tom Dumoulin misplaced his world champion's rainbow skinsuit, or forgot to pack it in the first place. Cue panic stations, not least for the UCI, who are protective of those rainbow bands. Luckily enough, Flory Hernandez was on hand over the Spanish border in San Sebastian to make a new one from scratch. It has just been delivered to the Sunweb bus.
Bernal, Valverde, and Latour are out on course. Latour should go well here, and it'll be interesting to see how Bernal does. He's been one of the stars of this Tour and everyone's talking him up as a future Tour champion. We know he can climb but he's also no slouch against the clock, and this time trial should offer some indication as to his all-round abilities.
Bob Jungels sets off. He's 11th overall and the top 10 seems too much to ask, unless Ilnur Zakarin, four minutes ahead, has some sort of disaster.
Here comes Yates, who looks to have paid for those early efforts. Still, he sets the fifth best time at the finish, and that is quite some ride from the British climber. He's gone quicker than Kung, Castroviejo and Poels.
Quintana is off the ramp now. He's in 9th overall more than 10 minutes down on Thomas. Could you have imagined that at the start of the Tour?
Here's a shot of provisional leader Kwiatkowski
Dan Martin and Romain Bardet are off the ramp, and now Mikel Landa is lining up.
Chris Froome is warming up
Dan Martin is out on course. He has just been awarded the 'super combativity' award for the 2018 Tour de France.
Kruijswijk heads out. He needs to hold Landa to three seconds in order to cement a place in the top five.
And now Froome rolls off the ramp. He needs 14 seconds on Roglic to make the podium.
Roglic takes to the ramp. He jumped onto the podium yesterday with a stage win in the Pyrenees, but he can also time trial with the best of them. One of his first big statements of intent came with his victory in the stage 9 TT at the 2016 Giro.
And now for Tom Dumoulin, who has explained that skinsuit business...
"My skinsuit got lost. I always give some stuff at the beginning of the Tour to the bus or the truck so that I don't need to carry it around for three weeks. My bag with all my skinsuit and everything got lost. It was a bit of a panic but Etxeondo, our clothing sponsor, saved my life brought in a new one this morning. They actually made it, because they are in the Spanish Basque Country, and it was crazy. It's all good now."
Dumoulin is 2:05 behind Thomas. Realisitically, the only way he can win this Tour is if Thomas crashes or has an inexblicably disastrous day.
And now for Geraint Thomas, who stands at the precipice of greatness. 31 kilometres stand between him and victory at the Tour de France. He rolls down the ramp in his yellow skinsuit!
And with that all the riders are out on the course.
A reminder of the overall standings and what's at stake.
1 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky 79:49:31 2 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:02:05 3 Primoz Roglic (Slo) LottoNL-Jumbo 0:02:24 4 Chris Froome (GBr) Team Sky 0:02:37 5 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo 0:04:37 6 Mikel Landa (Spa) Movistar Team 0:04:40 7 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:05:15 8 Daniel Martin (Irl) UAE Team Emirates 0:06:39 9 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team 0:10:26 10 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin 0:11:49
Zakarin sets the fastest time at the first checkpoint, 8 seconds quicker than Yates. This course will certainly suit the Russian all-rounder.
Thomas in yellow
Bardet is half a minute down on Zakarin at the first split. Dan Martin nearly a minute.
Live timings suggest Roglic is going quicker than Froome, by some seven seconds.
A great shot of Dumoulin and Thomas a few minutes ago.
Landa is more than a minute down on that Zakarin time at the first split. Quintana has lost even more.
Bob Jungels is going well... The Quick-Step rider, 11th overall, sets the fastest time at the second checkpoint, beating Kwiatkowski by 2 seconds.
Here comes Zakarin towards the second checkpoint.... and he's still going well. He goes a full 10 seconds quicker than Jungels.
Froome goes fastest at the first checkpoint!
He clocks 16:45. That's six seconds quicker than Zakarin's time.
Now we wait for Roglic, Dumoulin, and Thomas to go through...
Roglic is 30 seconds slower than Froome at the first split!
The Slovenian is slipping off the podium...
Has Rolgic set off conservatively? Has Froome set out too hard? We'll find out in the second half of the course but those are significant gaps for 13km.
Bernal finishes 1:07 down on teammate Kwiatkowski.
Scare for Thomas!
The yellow jersey's wheel locks up around a corner. He keeps it upright, but the heart rate will have kicked up a few beats.
Dumoulin goes through the first checkpoint two seconds slower than Froome.
Here's a shot of Dumoulin on the early part of the course.
Wow!
Thomas sets the fastest time at the first checkpoint, a full 14 seconds quicker than Froome, and 16 quicker than Dumoulin.
Thomas could be on his way to a third stage win and the overall victory.
Bardet is in 14th place, 52 seconds down on Zakarin at the second split.
Slightly disappointing ride from Latour, perhaps, as he finishes 1:15 down on Kwiatkowski. The Frenchman, however, wraps up the white jersey for best young rider. A fine achievement.
A few drops of rain once again as Dumoulin takes on the second downhill section.
Jungels comes to the line... and finishes two seconds down on Kwiatkowski.
Next up Zakarin. Has he been able to hold on?
Froome comes to the second checkpoint... and he's 28 seconds up on Zakarin!
Zakarin comes to the line, and it looks like he has indeed faded...
Having been 13 seconds up on Kwiatkowski at the second checkpooint, Zakarin finishes 12 seconds down. Still, a good time.
Roglic comes to the second checkpoint now. What's the damage to Froome?
50 seconds is the damage! This is only going one way. Roglic, it seems, wil be knocked off the final podium.
What about Dumoulin?
He's two seconds slower than Froome. That was the case at the first checkpoint, too.
And now for Thomas. Has he managed to extend his lead at the second checkpoint at 22km?
Thomas is fastest at the second checkpoint!
The leader is crushing this time trial and stamping his authority on this race. He's winning this by 13 seconds.
Quintana finishes now, and does so 3:15 down on Kwiatkowski.
And now Dan Martin crosses the line. He's not a specialist either but he finishes 1:50 down and cements his place in the top 10.
Bardet comes to the line. Not a bad ride for the Frenchman, who limits the damage to 1:06 on Kwiatkowski. That's 17th place provisionally.
Bardet made up time in the second part of that course. That steep climb of the Col de Pinodieta clearly played to his strengths.
Froome is on the climb now, on the double-digit gradients.
Roglic grapples his way up and over the climb. He looked far less smooth than Froome.
Dumoulin is forced out of the saddle on the climb now.
Landa comes to the line and loses more than 2 minutes. He justs holds on to 6th place, with Bardet breathing down his neck.
Kruijswijk goes 12th provisionally, 54 seconds down on Kwiatkowski.
Froome comes towards the line now.... he's going to set the fastest time
40:50 for Froome!
That's nearly a minute quicker than Kwiatkowski.
Roglic comes into the final kilometre, and he's definitely off the podium.
Roglic stops the clock on 42:03.
And now for Dumoulin. This is going to be close with him and Froome.
40:52 for Dumoulin!
It seems Froome's time has been revised to 40:53, which means Dumoulin is in the lead!
But here comes Thomas...
Thomas is into the final kilometre and perhaps he faded - relatively - on the climb, because he's going to struggle to set the fastest time here.
Thomas sees Froome and Dumoulin's times slip by
41:06 for Thomas
With that, though, Thomas wins the Tour de France
The Welshman punches the air as he crosses the line. The I's will be dotted and the T's crossed in Paris tomorrow, but Geraint Thomas is a Tour de France winner.
Confusion in the hotseat too as Dumoulin and Froome wonder about the times, but confirmation comes through that the stage victory is indeed Dumoulin's.
So, Tom Dumoulin wins stage 20. Geraint Thomas wins the overall.
Stay with us and we'll bring you all the post-stage reaction and the best photos.
The final overall podium
Geraint Thomas (Team Sky)
Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb)
Chris Froome (Team Sky)
Thomas embraces his wife Sara beyond the finish line.
Stage 20 top 10
1 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Sunweb 00:40:52 2 Chris Froome (GBr) Team Sky 00:00:01 3 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky 00:00:14 4 Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Team Sky 00:00:50 5 Søren Kragh Andersen (Den) Team Sunweb 00:00:51 6 Bob Jungels (Lux) Quick-Step Floors 00:00:52 7 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin 00:01:02 8 Primoz Roglic (Slo) LottoNL-Jumbo 00:01:12 9 Marc Soler (Spa) Movistar Team 00:01:12 10 Michael Hepburn (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott 00:01:23
General classification after stage 20
1 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky 80:30:37 2 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Sunweb 00:01:51 3 Chris Froome (GBr) Team Sky 00:02:24 4 Primoz Roglic (Slo) LottoNL-Jumbo 00:03:22 5 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo 00:06:08 6 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 00:06:57 7 Mikel Landa (Spa) Movistar Team 00:07:37 8 Daniel Martin (Irl) UAE Team Emirates 00:09:05 9 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin 00:12:37 10 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team 00:14:18
Now we can hear from the stage winner Tom Dumoulin, and boy is he in good spirits
"Ah that's crazy! I didn't know anything about the split times. I still thought Froome was one second ahead of me when I crossed the line. Everyone was saying I was second by one second. That's crazy. Wow! What an amazing last day. I was so nervous. This morning we found out that we lost the skinsuit, so Exteondo, our sponsor, they're from the Basque Country on the Spanish side and they made a new one - they were sewing it this morning! I'm forever thankful because otherwise I wound't have been finishing in this beautiful world champion's jersey.
"It's crazy! I has such a hard time yesterday, and all my frustration came out at the finish. Today I cannot believe this. It's amazing. One second...!"
Thomas poses with a Welsh flag alongside compatriot and team manager Dave Brailsford. The pair embrace and Thomas breaks down in tears...
And now Thomas steps out onto the podium to receive another yellow jersey. One day to go, but job done.
A disappointing ride from Roglic, who slips off the podium, but the LottoNL rider has no regrets...
"I did what I could. I'm happy with it," he says. "I had good feelings, and I produced good power. It was what we could manage at the moment. For sure there are no regrets. It has been a crazy Tour. I'm really happy and proud."
And now we can hear from Thomas, who is so overcome with emotion he can barely speak.
"I can't believe it. I'm welling up, man. I don't know what to say. It's just... overwhelming. I didn't think about it all race, and now suddenly... I won the Tour, man! Ah...
"I felt good, I felt strong. I felt really good actually. I heard I was up and maybe I was pushing it a bit hard on some of those corners. Nico told me to relax, take it easy and just make sure I won the Tour. And that's what I did. I can't speak. It's jsut incredible. I believed I could beat the giuys here but to do it on the biggest stage of all, over three weeks... it's insane. The last time I cried was when I got married... I don't know what's happened to me..."
And with that, he breaks down and can't continue the interview
Here's Brailsford speaking to Eurosport
"We talked about when he's ridden in big Olympic finals, and it was a similar type of day, when you have to make sure you focus on the process, and don't let your mind wonder about all the 'what ifs'. All you can do is focus on the process. He's done that over the years and those years of experience, he brought to the table today. He was nervous, but that's always going to be happen at this level - it's human - but it's how you manage it, and he mananged it well today."
This was Thomas' finish line celebration
And here he is on the podium
Here's our report page, where you'll find a full write-up, full results, and a photo gallery
City Hall will be illuminated bright yellow tonight and tomorrow night to mark @GeraintThomas86 becoming the first Welshman to win the Tour de France @TeamSkyhttps://t.co/wlZ7LWqliC pic.twitter.com/ue2Qtsjfl1
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