Tour de France stage 20: Kaden Groves completes his Grand Tour set with solo victory after breathless breakaway battle

Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) claimed a stunning solo victory on stage 20 of the Tour de France, attacking away after a breathless fight from a 13-man breakaway 17km from the finish line in Pontarlier.

It looked like a six-man group was set to fight things out in the final 20km, but Iván Romeo (Movistar) and Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) crashed hard in a wet corner, and the Australian and two others got ahead, having just navigated their way through the treacherous conditions.

Groves was left alongside Jake Stewart (Israel-Premier Tech) and Frank van den Broek (Picnic PostNL) in the lead before he went solo just under 17km from the finish, with the Brit and Dutchman left bickering at the lack of cooperation, which is what prompted the Australian to jump.

His gap grew as he approached the finish, with the groups behind joining up, but barely making any impression on Groves' lead. With some encouragement from the team car by team co-owner Kristoff Roodhooft, Groves celebrated emotionally in disbelief.

Van den Broek finished second for Picnic PostNL, almost a minute down, with Pascal Eenkhoorn taking third after a brutal breakaway battle.

Completing the set of Grand Tour stage wins with a career 10th, Groves added to his two Giro d'Italia and seven Vuelta a España triumphs with a win on debut at the Tour de France, bringing Alpecin their third win of the 2025 race, 18 stages after their last.

It bookended a great Tour for the Belgian squad after what was a perfect opening weekend with stage wins by Jasper Philipsen and Mathieu van der Poel.

"There are so many emotions to win here, the team came here with so many different plans with Jasper and Mathieu, and in the end, I get my own opportunities," said a teary-eyed Groves post-stage.

"They haven't gone the right way, but today I had super legs and I just suffered to the line and it rewarded me with a Tour stage.

"The team gave me the free role in the last days, especially today we weren't sure whether to go for the stage or save for tomorrow. But when the rain starts to fall, I always have a super feeling normally in the cold weather, and it's like my first-ever time winning solo, and it's a Tour stage, so it's pretty incredible.

"It's not really a childhood dream because I only started cycling quite late, but there's so much pressure at the Tour, and having won at the Giro and the Vuelta, all I ever get asked is 'Am I good enough to win at the Tour?', and now I have shown them."

Race leader Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and most of the GC favourites arrived home safely in the peloton more than six minutes after Groves took victory, all but confirming his victory in the 2025 Tour – barring any disaster on the final stage in Paris.

Unlike in previous Tours, completing stage 20 doesn't confirm the result; however, with the modified stage in Paris honouring the Olympics by containing three laps up the climb to Montmartre on what was the traditional procession stage.

Pogačar will need to survive the chaos of Paris to confirm his fourth yellow jersey triumph, but it's yet to be seen how the peloton takes on stage 21, with lots of riders being unhappy at the additions.

How it unfolded

With the Alps in the rear-view mirror, the 160 remaining riders at the start of stage 20 on the Tour de France may have been praying for some respite, with one stage separating them from the finale in Paris. But that was never going to happen with the route on offer.

With 184.2km and a completely up-and-down route on offer on the road from Nantua to Pontarlier, it was – as the penultimate stage of the Tour often is – always going to be a day for the break.

As expected, a breathless fight to make it into the front group ensued in the opening hour, with Kasper Asgreen (EF Education-EasyPost) opening things up from the flag drop, only to be caught on the first categorised climb, the Col de la Croix de la Serra (12.2km at 4.1%).

Riders had already begun to struggle as the pace was kept rapid in the front, with practically every team interested in being represented in the second-to-last chance to win a stage. Even GC hopefuls in the top 10 tried their luck, notably Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost), but everyone was on high alert.

Stage 15 winner Tim Wellens began to show he had freedom for another day, lighting up the long climb with several attacks, but it was Louis Barré (Intermarché-Wanty) who led the race over its crest, before a tough descent in the rain split things further.

The absolute anarchy continued on the second climb, Côte de Valfin, which is where a lead trio established itself, with Wellens being joined off the front by Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Ewen Costiou (Arkéa-B&B Hotels).

With 135km to go, the three leaders had just 15 seconds on the still raging peloton, with Spanish champion Iván Romeo leading a chase group on the attack. Soon, the 10 riders joined those in front to form a leading break of 13, finally.

After a breathless 65km of racing, making it in were Wellens, Costiou, Jorgenson, Romeo, Pascal Eenkhoorn (Soudal-QuickStep), Harry Sweeny (EF Education-EasyPost), Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ), Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Matteo Trentin (Tudor), Simone Velasco (XDS-Astana), Jordan Jegat (Total Energies), Frank van den Broek (Picnic-PostNL) and Jake Stewart (Israel-Premier Tech).

Others tried to bridge across, but made no progress, and a break was finally set. The UAE and Visma riders came to the front, signalling the end, for now, of all the vicious attacking, allowing a near two-minute lead to establish itself.

Jegat's presence, however, meant that Jayco AlUla soon took over to pace, to protect Ben O'Connor's 10th place on GC, with Swiss champion Mauro Schmid – even despite crashing hard on a descent – leading things on the front.

Riders in the front group were annoyed at Jegat's presence, but they got their wish on the third categorised climb of he race, albeit in the wrong direction, as he went off on his own with an attack up the Côte de Thésy.

He was alone briefly, but he was countered and left behind by a rampant Harry Sweeny (EF Education-EasyPost), who attacked solo with 55km remaining on the day. His gap reduced briefly, but the Australian pushed on and 15 kilometres later, he had a lead of 50 seconds over the 12 chasers from the original move.

The peloton slowed as a counter move of 16 was led out by Wout van Aert on the climb in an attempt to bridge across to the front, but with 40km to go, they were still four minutes behind, with the peloton 5:24 away from the lone Sweeny.

Rain began to fall again as they approached the final phase of another brutal stage, but O'Connor had to start helping Schmid pace for himself, to protect what was a 4:08 lead on Jegat at the start of the stage.

New attacks came from the chasing remnants of the break, with Jorgenson and Wellens being left behind by a group of Grégoire, Eenkhoorn, Groves, Van den Broek and Stewart, and a second chase group of Trentin, Romeo, Velasco and Jegat in the gap between them.

This did for Sweeny's lead, and he was swept up by the now joined-up chase groups on the lower slopes of the final categorised climb – Côte de Longeville – where Groves made the first attack after a big slip of his back wheel.

Romeo tried to attack away, but local lad Grégoire soon had him back before the crest, and now there were six leading the race in the final 24km: Groves, Van den Broek, Velasco, Grégoire, Stewart, and the Spanish champion.

Disaster struck not long after, as Romeo crashed while leading through a wet corner 21km from the finish, with Grégoire hitting the deck but bouncing back quickly, and Velasco and Groves almost missing the corner completely.

The Australian sprinter just made it around just to form a new lead trio with Stewart and Van den Broek, with Eenkhoorn chasing on and Jorgenson and Wellens trying to find their way back to the front just 27 seconds down the road.

With Van den Broek not working in the front, Groves had enough and set off on his own in the final 17 kilometres, leaving Stewart and the young Dutchman to bicker behind him, with the chasing groups behind reforming slowly after the crash.

The Australian powered on in the wet conditions as those in the chase faltered behind him, confirming that he would complete the Grand Tour stage win set with a solo triumph on stage 20 of the Tour. Van den Broek and Eenkhoorn led the chase home for the minor places.

Pogačar and the peloton arrived safely, avoiding a bizarre late crash in the peloton for the likes of Damien Touzé (Cofidis), with the only loser on GC on the penultimate day being O'Connor, who ran out of steam in the chase and lost his 10th spot overall to Jegat in the break by two minutes.

Results

General classification