As it happened: Breakaway succeeds on tough, rainy stage 20 of the Tour de France

Thanks for joining us today, for a stage that delivered all of the breakaway action we were anticipating.

We’ll be back again tomorrow for the intriguing new-look finale in Paris - but in the meantime head over to our other live report, where we’re covering the opening stage of this year’s Tour de France Femmes.

Avoiding that late drama with the crash, the yellow jersey finished safely with all of the other GC men.

An always-welcome sighting of Didi the Devil earlier in the stage, still with the energy to offer an impressive leap for the camera.

Despite the presence of so many winless teams in the break, it was Alpecin-Deceuncink - who already had two wins to their name prior to Groves’ triumph - who took the victory. The team are prolific in Grand Tours, and despite the disappointment of Philipsen’s early abandon have had an excellent Tour, with three stage wins from three different riders. Only UAE (5) and Soudal-QuickStep (4) have more.

Frank van den Broek took second place; a more frustrating result than his one from last year, where he could celebrate with his teammate Romain Bardet, but a reminder of his considerable talent. At the age of 24, he still has plenty of time to try and win one.

Even more impressively, this isn’t even the kind of stage you’d expect Groves to compete in. The bunch sprints are his speciality, and where his multiple stages in the Giro and the Vuelta have come from.

We’ve always known he’s a superior climber to most other sprinters, and often uses that to drop his rivals on more selective sprint days, but seeing him win on a breakaway stage like this is a whole new frontier.

As for the stage winner: when Kaden Groves entered this Tour, he would not have anticipated a chance to go for a stage, as his Alpecin team’s third man in the hierarchy behind Philipsen and Van der Poel. But with both of those riders having left the race, he seized his opportunity.

Touzé is back on his bike and rolls over the finish line.

Damien Touzé seems worst affected from that crash - he’s got up, but gingerly.

Nobody appears hurt, and no GC rides were involved.

Despite the calm in the peloton, there’s been a slow-speed crash in the peloton as they approach the finishing straight.

Tenth-place is Jegat's - the peloton are still yet to finish, over five minutes after the Jegat chase group.

Now we wait for the peloton to arrive, and see if Jegat has taken over O’Connor in the GC standings.

Velasco wins the sprint for fourth-place ahead of Grégoire, Stewart and Jegat.

Pascal Eenkhoorn jumped out of the chase group to take third-place.

Van den Broek holds on for second place.

The Australian can hardly believe it as he crosses the line, shaking his head and covering his mouth with his hand.

GROVES WINS

Groves goes under the flamme rouge with a lead of 50 seconds. The win will be his.

1KM TO GO

Groves’ Alpecin team car moves to the side of him and is cheering him on. He’s looking fine and good for the win.

Groves looks distressed though, gesticulating to his radio.

This is now Groves' to lose - he's looking strong and still leads by 45 seconds with just 3km to go.

Groves is maintaining his lead, at 47 seconds on Van den Broek. The 3rd group on the road is a further 13 seconds behind.

5KM TO GO

Back in the peloton, Ben O'Connor was working himself at the front in defence of his tenth place, but has sat up shaking his head. He's clearly run out of legs.

Groves leads by 43 seconds, with 7.5km left to ride.

Right now it' still advantage Groves, with Van den Broek not making up the ground quick enough.

Neither Groves nor Van den Broek have won at the Tour before - the former has at both the Giro and Vuelta, and the latter handed his teammate Romain Bardet on the opening day of last year's race. They both have a chance to make this the biggest day of their careers so far.

Groves still leads, with a gap of under 50 seconds on Van den Broek.

10KM TO GO

Van den Broek has dropped Stewart on an ongoing drag uphill, which has caused all these various chase group to split.

Stewart and Van den Broek have dropped the others in the chase group.

Incidentally, the peloton is almost 5 minutes behind, which means Jegat is now virtual tenth place on GC over O’Connor. That might mean the others in the chase group can lean on the Frenchman to lead, knowing he’s thinking about GC rather than the stage.

Jorgenson is leading the 3rd group on the road, which is only 10 seconds behind the second group.

Van den Broek and Stewart have been caught by Eenkhoorn, Velasco and Jegat. Can they work together and gain the 30 seconds they need to bring Groves back?

That might be the winning move! Groves already has 20 seconds ahead of the other two.

With 17km to ride, Groves has attcked Stewart and Van den Broek, who are looking at each other.

GROVES ATTACK

Grégoire has bridged up to Jorgenson, Wellens and Trentin, who have also been joined by Sweeny.

Eenkohoorn is only 10 seconds behind the leading trio. He might be able to catch them yet.

Grégoire is back on his bike and racing.

The tthree leaders are 15 seconds ahead of Eenkhoorn, and 25 seconds ahead of a chase group containing Jorgenson, Wellens and Trentin. It's unclear where Velasco and Grégoire are, but Romeo was hurt from the crash and seems unlikey to continue.

20KM TO GO

As a result, Stewart, Groves and Van den Broek now lead the race.

Romeo has crashed on the descent, followed by Grégoire. Velasco was also held up.

CRASH

Romeo, Grégoire, Groves, Velasco, Van den Broek and Stewart are the 6 riders at the front of the race, in the aftermath of that climb.

Five riders have managed to stick with Romeo, as the near the summit.

Romeo attacks from the breakaway.

Groves is setting the pace in the front group. Seeing as he's the sprinter of the group, you might have thought he's be hanging on at the back, but is looking really strong.

Further behind, the Van Aert group is no longer in no-man's land and has been caught.

Sweeny has been caught.

Even going uphill these wet roads are dangerous - both Sweeny and Groves briefly lost control of their wheels and nearly fell.

The breakaway groups are on the last climb of the day, the Côte de Longeville. With an average of 6% for 2.6km, it’s tough enough to cause gaps.

COTE DE LONGEVILLE

The Jegat group is back with the Groves group, so it’s now a nine-man chase group bearing down on Sweeny.

Sweeny doesn’t look set to lead the race for much longer - he’s just a handful of seconds ahead of the chasing quintet.

Harry Sweeny, braving the weather to lead the race alone.

All these fractured groups are riding well - The Groves group is just 16 seconds behind Sweeny, and the Jegat only 25 seconds behind him.

30KM TO GO

Jorgenson and Wellens have been joined by Costiou. They're actually the fourth group on the road - Sweeny leads, following by the chasing Groves quintet, then followed by a four-man group containing Jegat.

Jorenson and Wellens are in a duo behind those five, working together to try to rejoin them.

Another shake up in the break has seen Eenkhorn, Groves, Stewart, Van den Broek and Grégoire go clear from the rest.

That said, their deficit to Sweeny is coming down - it’s now at 40 seconds.

There are a few signs of the chase breaking down a bit - Jorgenson and Stewart have attacked the others.

The Van Aert group is stuck in no-man’s land. They’re still 4 minutes behind Sweeny, but 1:30 over the peloton.

Sweeny grows his lead a little more, to 55 seconds. He's taking risks on this descent, and had to bunny hop over a traffic island to avoid crashing.

40KM TO GO

The weather’s taken another turn for the worse - it’s raining again, subjecting the rivers to another wet descent.

Sweeny is growing his lead, to 45 seconds over the chase group. Could this be another long-range victory, in the manner of his EF teammate Ben Healy? Sweeny certainly has a huge engine, but this still feels like a big ask.

The riders are climbing up a hill that, though uncategorised by the organisers, certainly looks tough enough to merit being an official climb.

Jegat leading the race on the Côte de Thésy, before he was caught by Sweeny.

Sweeny is committed to this move, but only has 15 seconds on the chasers. The other groups are much further behind, though: the Van Aert group is at 3:00, and the peloton at 4:45. This does look like it'll be a day for the break.

50KM TO GO

He won't have much problem getting back to the peloton, where the pace has slowed.

Vingegaard has had to stop to change bikes, with some kind of problem with his.

Jegat is back in the chase group, perhaps a little bit sheepish.

Sweeny has dropped Jegat - the Australian was moments earlier remonstrating with Jegat for not taking a turn, and has now dropped him completely.

Despite all of the attacks, the yellow jersey has come under no pressure, and UAE have control of the peloton.

Jegat and Sweeny are maintaing their lead, which is at about 20 seconds.

Laurance and Storer have been caught by the Van Aert group, which also contains Woods, Teuns, Barguil and a few others.

Laurance and Storer reached the top of the climb over 2 minutes behind the leaders, and behind them are countless other small groups of attackers ahead of the peloton.

Sweeny and Jegat reach the top of the climb together, over 20 seconds ahead of the chasers.

Sweeny is up to Jegat already, making up the 20 second deficit in no time.

Sweeny has had enough of the pace in the chase group and has attacked in pursuit of Jegat.

Wout van Aert is one of the riders who attacked out of the peloton, and is pressing on up the climb with about 5 riders on his wheel.

Jegat is 15 seconds ahead of the rest of the group, who have remained all together.

It’s all kicking off in the peloton, with multiple more attacks being made.

The Frenchman has already frustrated everyone in the break with his presence, and now stands to make more enemies as he drops them on the climb.

Attack from Jegat in the break.

Laurance has droped Le Berre on these steep slopes.

Laurance has attacked out of the peloton on this climb, having tried and failed to get into the break earlier He's joined by Le Berre.

Things could be about to get interesting. The riders have just started climbing Côte de Thésy, which, averaging 9% for 3.5km, is by far the steepest climb of the day.

COTE DE THESY

The break has gone out some more, to 2:30. They’re not guaranteed survival just yet.

70KM TO GO

The fastest man in the group is Kaden Groves. The Australian has been up there in some of the bunch sprints since teammate JAsper Philipsen abandoned, placing third at Laval on stage 8, and nobody in the group will want to take him on in a group finish.

Another danger man is Matteo Jorgenson. If the American is recovered from the problems that saw him fall out of GC contention he’ll be very strong, and can excel in terrain like this.

Wellens will surely be feared by the others in the breakaway, especially considering the stage he won last weekend at Carcassonne. The one concern for the Belgian is that he might have burnt a lot of energy earlier on in the stage, having been the main instigator of several moves.

Though the break is full of riders representing teams without a stage win, arguably the strongest names there are riding for those that already have - notably UAE with Wellens, and Visma with Jorgenson.

De Lie is back in the autobus. He's had to fight hard for that, having been dropped at the very start of the day.

Schmid continues to work at the front of the peloton, and is keeping the gap to the break at just over 2 minutes. This is some effort from the Swiss rider considering how hard he fell earlier, not to mention the effort he made to get back into the peloton.

80KM TO GO

Of the 13 teams represented in the break, 8 of them are among those seeking a first stage win at this Tour: Groupama-FDJ (Grégoire), Movistar (Romeo), XDS Astana (Velasco), Picnic PostNL (Van den Broek), IPT (Stewart), Total Energies (Jegat), Tudor (Trentin) and Arkéa - B&B Hotels (Costiou). They will be especially desperate to put that right today.

Mechanical for Axel Laurance, who’s off the back of the peloton getting it sorted.

Here are the 13 riders in the break. There are some strong riders here, as you'd expect - only those with great legs can get into the break this deep into a Tour, especially on a day as hotly contested as this.

Mauro Schmid is back pulling at the front of the peloton, having made his way back to it. Despite his fall, he's still being tasked with controlling the breakaway in defence of O'Connor's then place on GC. The Australian can only afford to lose 4:08 to Jegat.

2:10 for the break over the peloton now. For the first time all day, the race has settled down.

90KM TO GO

That is indeed it. The gap’s grown to over two minutes, and no more last-ditch attacks are being made from the peloton.

It’s notably slowed in the peloton. It seems the riders up the road will be allowed to be the day’s break.

Another crash, this time Clément Champoussin falling at the back of the peloton. It was a high speed one and he skidded, and seems to have escaped with just brusing.

The front group is growing it's lead, which is now 1:30 over the peloton. Meanwhile Watson and Van Moer look set to be caught.

100KM TO GO

Further behind, De Lie and the teammates are less than a minute behind the larger autobus. If he can make it back to that group, he’ll be under much less danger of missing the time cut.

Actually, that's not the peloton Schmid has rejoined, but a smaller group off the back of it.

Schmid is back to the back of the peloton after his earlier crash.

The gap from the leaders to the peloton has grown to over a minute, but another wave of attacks as started in the latter. This still hasn't settled down.

The riders went through the intermediate sprint a little earlier, with Velasco first over the line, but nobody involved in the green jersey classification is present in the front group.

The leaders are 47 seconds ahead of the peloton, and 27 seconds ahead of Van Moer and Watson.

110KM TO GO

Schmid was leading the peloton for Jayco-AlUla, who are defending O’Connor’s tenth place on GC from Jegat. Now he’s crashed, the impetus might go out of the chase.

Watson and Van Moer are chasing the leading group, but are still 27 seconds adrift, and only 20 seconds ahead of the peloton.

Crash in the peloton - Schmid went down, while riding at the very front of the peloton. It was a dramatic fall on a descent, but he’s back riding again and seems OK, and nobody else went down with him.

The front group is working well together, but Pascal Eenkhoorn is remonstrating with Jegat - presumably for the same reasons as PicniPostNL aren’t happy with him being there.

The chasers have caught the lead trio, so we have a big front brekaway group. But the peloton isn't letting up.

The presence of Jegat in this break could cause some tension in this group. It’s just been broadcast on PicnicPost-NL’s radio of the team instructing their man in the group, Frank van den Broek, to tell Jegat that he’s not welcome. They’re worried that his threat to the top ten on GC is causing the peloton not to let them go clear.

The Jegat chase group is bearing down on the three leaders and have them in sight.

Laurance is brought back, then Ballerini counters; then Ballerini is brought back.

There’s still a big reluctance in the peloton to let these groups go. Ineos have missed the move, and Laurance attacks in an attempt to bridge up to them.

This chase group is 10 seconds behind the leaders, and 15 seconds ahead of the peloton If they can catch the leaders and form a new, big lead group, it could be the break of the day.

A chase group of about 8 riders has formed between the three leaders and the peloton, including Jordan Jegat, the man 11th on GC.

13 seconds is the lead for Wellens, Jorgenson and Costiou ahead of the peloton.

130KM TO GO

Some relief now as the rain has ceased.

That splits been undone quickly, but even Pogačar and Vingegaard were caught out that time.

More attacks coming out of the peloton, and there’s another split in the peloton.

Wellens, Jorgenson and Costiou have a lead of about 15 seconds over the peloton.

Onley and Gall are safe again - the work from the latter's teammates has seen their group rejoin the peloton.

Some more riders joined up to the lead group, among them Ewen Costiou and Matteo Jorgenson, who has now gone clear of the rest along with Wellens.

Van den Broek, Delettre, Drizners and Aurélien Paret-Peintre are the riders with Wellens in the lead group.

Wellens drags that group over the top of the climb, 10 seconds ahead of the peloton.

Wellens attacks again, and takes 4 riders with him.

No attacks are up the road at the moment on the climb, while Gall’s teammate Armirail sets the pace in the group also containing Onley as they try to close the 25-second gap.

140KM TO GO

They're in a group that's still 30 seconds behind the peloton.

Not all the splits from the descent have been closed, and some big GC names have just been spotted in the group adrift - Onley and Gall, the riders 5th and 6th on GC.

Here's an idea for the kind of conditions this stage is being ridden in.

Mechanical for Victor Campanaerts, who, given his form, and the fact Visma have switched to stage hunting, is among one of the favourites for the stage win.

There was a split in the peloton on the descent, which has been closed on the climb. All 3 riders on the GC podium were in the front peloton, so no drama.

They've been caught by the peloton.

Ballerini, Schmid and Jorgenson begin the next climb, the category four Côte de Valfin, with a lead of only a few seconds.

COTE DE VALFIN

Schmid and Jorgenson have jumped out of the peloton on this descent, and caught up to Ballerini.

Ballerini isn't holding back on this wet descent, but still only has a lead of about 5 seconds.

150KM TO GO

With Jonas Vingegaard not taking any points on that final climb, Tadej Pogačar now has an unassailable lead in the King of the Mountains jersey, and will win the polka-dot jersey (provided he makes it to Paris). That brings to an end two years in which non-GC riders won the classification, and will be Pogačar’s third Mountains title at the Tour, putting him joint-fourth - yet another feat from in the Slovenian's seemingly endless palmares.

Davide Ballerini now leads the race, having opened a gap earlier on the descent.

Barré has been caught on the descent, which is looking worryingly wet.

Louis Barré attacks in the final few hundred metres of the climb, and takes the KOM points at the top.

KOM - COL DE LA CROIX DE LA SERRA

No new breakaway has formed yet, as they come to within a kilometre to the top of the climb.

160KM TO GO

They’ve all been caught, and the peloton is all stretched out as more riders try to go.

Tim Wellens has attacked, and joined up to the leading trio. The UAE rider has done superb work for leader Pogačar, and has been rewarded with a licence to attack today.

Powless, Sweeny and García Pierna still lead, with 13 seconds on the peloton.

It was much drier at the start, where Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard looked chilled at the start. They've been put under no real stress today yet, though this weather can't be comfortable for them.

It's absolutely chucking it down. It’ll take a tough rider to get into and win from the breakaway in these conditions.

A new lead group has formed, and has 2 EF riders in it - Powless and Sweeny, accomponied by Arkéa's Raúl García Pierna.

Further behind, De Lie has teammate Grignard helping him, but looks in a bad way, over two minutes behind the peloton, and over a minute even behind a group containing the green jersey and other sprinters.

EF are very keen today. They're leading the latest round of attacks with another rider.

It's raining, and heavily. That could change the completion of the stage - especially with plenty of descending to be done today.

Healy's work was not enough to see him break clear, but the pace has seen his teammate Asgreen be caught.

Healy is still pressing on, but can't quite get a gap.

Asgreen's lead has come down to under 20 seconds. He seems to be paying for his early efforts on this climb.

170KM TO GO

Healy and Jorgenson are among those trying, but no success so far.

The Van Aert move from earlier was shut down before the climb, and now more attacks are being made as the road goes uphill again.

De Lie is on a bad day. He's already been dropped, even before the start of the climb, and is almost a minute behind the peloton already.

The riders are on the first climb of the day. It's the longest, lasting 12.2km, but only averages 4.1%.

COL DE LA CROIX DE LA SERRA

Foss, Alaphilippe and - more surprisingly - Démare are the riders with Van Aert.

Van Aert has accelerated and gone clear of the peloton with a few other riders.

Kasper Asgreen, making his attack. He's grown his lead to almost 40 seconds now.

They've been caught, however, leaving Asgreen as the only breakaway rider, with a lead of 30 seconds.

Raúl García Pierna is also with Healy, Schmid and Abrahamsen.

Healy’s an interesting name for today. The parcours suits him wonderfully, but will he be allowed up the road given he’s high up on GC? It might depend on how much Primož Roglič wants to defend his eighth place overall - he’s only 2:32 ahead of Healy, but yesterday didn’t seem too fussed about retaining a high place.

Those riders in between are Abrahamsen, Healy and Schmid.

Asgreen has a lead of about 10 seconds over the peloton, and there are some riders in between trying to join him.

And they're off! And Kasper Asgreen attacks right from the gun.

OFFICIAL START

There are still 14 teams without a stage win, notably Movistar, Bahrain-Victorious, and Groupama-FDJ. They will be extra desperate to get a rider in the break today.

This deep into a Grand Tour, it’s clear which riders are in good form, so there are certain riders who have been aggressive throughout the race that you can almost guarantee will be involved - Van Aert, Armirail, Abrahamsen and Simmons are names that spring to mind.

That action will commence soon. They’ve just rolled out of the neutralised start and will be racing in about 4km’s time.

With a parcours that could feasibly suit so many different riders, and with so many riders and teams desperately scrambling to get something out of this Tour as it nears its end, this has the potential to be one of the most chaotic stages yet in terms of the hunt for the stage win.

So what of today’s stage? It has a hilly parcours that looks virtually certain to be won by the breakaway. There are four classified climbs in total, and a total of 2,900m elevation gain - not too hard, but some climbers can get in the mix along with the puncheurs and rouleurs.

Whereas Roglič was happy to sacrifice his GC place for a stage win, Felix Gall has adopted the opposite approach. As a result, he’s now climbed to fifth on GC, and you can expect him to be on defensive mode today as he ensures he holds that position.

'Only the GC counted' - Felix Gall closes in on fifth overall at Tour de France on final summit finish

It’ll be interesting to see how Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe approach this stage. While they have Florian Lipowitz where he wants to be, in third overall, yesterday Primož Roglič again went up the road in the breakaway, sacrificing his place on GC and not directly helping his teammate in search instead for a stage win. If Roglič is still hungry for that win, he’ll try again today.

'If you want to win big, you have to risk a little' – Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe gamble mostly pays off to hold Tour de France podium spot

While Tadej Pogačar looks safe in first place, Florian Lipowitz’s hold on third-place overall is more fragile. Despite gaining time on rival Oscar Onley yesterday, he still only leads the 22-year-old by 1:02 seconds. That could be a small enough advantage for Onley and his PicnicPostNL team to try something today - even if the team did say that they’d have taken fourth-place going into the race.

No disappointment as 22-year-old Oscar Onley loses time on podium but exceeds Tour de France expectations in fourth

A sense of resignation has come over Jonas Vingegaard and Visma-Lease a Bike, who did not attack the yellow jersey during yesterday’s mountain stage. It seems unlikely we’ll see him try anything today, and the squad’s other riders - like Wout van Aert and Victor Campanaerts - might instead be given licence to chase the stage win.

'Not the day to get back four and a half minutes' - Visma-Lease a Bike dodge last-ditch Tour de France GC battle with Jonas Vingegaard after route change

With no climb rated higher than category two, this stage isn’t expected to be too dangerous for the GC riders, meaning Tadej Pogačar’s 4:24 lead at the top of the classification appears unthreatened. The Slovenian has adopted a more conservative approach in the Alps, and has never looked under any real pressure.

'It's not been an easy Tour' - Tadej Pogačar eyes Tour de France overall victory after conservative ride on final summit finish

Hello and welcome back to Cyclingnews' live coverage of the 2025 Tour de France, for the penultimate stage of the race to Pontarlier!