The 2020 Tour de France was the 107th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. The Tour began in Nice with a hilly stage on 29 August, and Stage 11 occurred on 9 September with a flat stage to Poitiers. The race finished on the Champs-Élysées in Paris on 20 September.
Classification standings
Legend Denotes the leader of the general classification Denotes the leader of the mountains classification Denotes the leader of the points classification Denotes the leader of the young rider classification Denotes the leader of the team classification Denotes the winner of the combativity award
Stage 1
29 August 2020 – Nice to Nice,
The main break of the day was made by Cyril Gautier (), Michael Schär (), and Fabien Grellier (), who split the six mountain points on offer evenly between themselves; Grellier was awarded the King of the Mountains jersey by virtue of having scored his two points first. The break was caught with 100 kilometers still to go, after which it started to rain. This made the downhill portions of the stage very slippery and caused several crashes, with Pavel Sivakov and Miguel Ángel López among those to fall. Eventually, the riders, led by Tony Martin, agreed a truce in the peloton. On the riders returned to the flat roads in the run-in to the finish, a late breakaway attempt by Benoît Cosnefroy with around 20 kilometers left was short-lived. A large pileup occurred with 3 kilometers to go, but the riders involved were all credited with the same time as the stage winner as per race regulations. In the final sprint, Alexander Kristoff won, narrowly holding off the fast-approaching defending World Road Race Champion Mads Pedersen, to take the first yellow jersey of the race. As a result of the crashes, 's Rafael Valls and duo John Degenkolb and Philippe Gilbert withdrew from the race, while several other riders, notably Sivakov, were left severely injured.
Stage 2
30 August 2020 – Nice to Nice,
Stage 2 was a noticeably sunnier affair compared to the wet and dreary conditions on stage 1. The early break consisted of seven riders: Benoît Cosnefroy (), Lukas Pöstlberger and Peter Sagan (), Matteo Trentin (), Anthony Perez (), Kasper Asgreen (), and Toms Skujiņš (). Sagan began his points classification title defense as he tried to go for a record eighth green jersey, but he was pipped at the intermediate sprint by Trentin. Cosnefroy and Perez scored 18 points across each of the two category 1 climbs, and Cosnefroy was awarded the polka dot jersey on tiebreakers. With around 40 kilometers left, the rest of the breakaway were caught by the peloton. On the final climb, the Col des Quatre Chemins, Julian Alaphilippe, Marc Hirschi and Adam Yates made a late break and maintained a narrow lead over the peloton to the finish, where Alaphilippe took the sprint and claimed the yellow jersey. Alexander Kristoff was dropped early on in the stage and finished over 28 minutes behind Alaphilippe, but the Norwegian was able to keep the green jersey.
Stage 3 31 August 2020 – Nice to Sisteron,
As the race headed out of Nice, a trio of French riders formed the main breakaway of the day: Benoît Cosnefroy (), Anthony Perez (), and Jérôme Cousin (). Cosnefroy and Perez were tied on points in the mountains classification, though the former wore the polka-dot jersey on tiebreakers, and they wrestled for points across the early pair of category 3 climbs. Perez managed to outsprint Cosnefroy on both of those climbs, putting the former into the virtual mountains classification lead. Shortly thereafter, they both rejoined the peloton while Cousin soldiered on alone. On the next climb, the category 3 Col des Leques, Cousin crossed over first and two points, while in the peloton behind, Cosnefroy managed to outsprint Perez to take the solitary point left over. It was reported that Perez crashed on the descent of the Col des Leques with around 70 kilometers to go and had to abandon the race, meaning that Cosnefroy kept hold of the polka-dot jersey. At the sole intermediate sprint of the day at Digne-les-Bains, Cousin crossed over first, while the sprinters behind raced for the remaining points, with Peter Sagan being the best of the rest. Cousin was finally caught with 16 kilometers to go; for his efforts, he was given the stage's most combative rider award. In the final kilometer, took to the front to try and lead out Cees Bol. Sagan and then Sam Bennett led the sprint, but Caleb Ewan, coming from some distance back, weaved through the throng of sprinters and overhauled the Irishman on the finish line. With his fifth place result, Sagan took the green jersey.
Stage 4 1 September 2020 – Sisteron to Orcières-Merlette,
The Tour de France made an early foray into the high mountains with a summit finish at the Orcières-Merlette ski resort. Right from the start, Alexis Vuillermoz (), Quentin Pacher (), Krists Neilands and Nils Politt (), Tiesj Benoot (), and Mathieu Burgaudeau () formed the day's breakaway. Politt was first at the intermediate sprint, while Sam Bennett won the sprint from the peloton as the sprinters scrambled for the remaining points. Pacher won most of the mountain points across the first few climbs, accumulating six. With around 35 kilometers remaining, on the descent of the Côte de l'Aullagnier, Benoot went wide around a bend and crashed over a barrier, though he was relatively unscathed and was able to continue. Near the top of the penultimate climb, Côte de Saint-Léger-les-Mélèzes, Neilands accelerated away from his fellow breakaway companions, with Pacher and Vuillermoz giving chase. The Latvian was finally caught by the peloton with seven kilometers left and was awarded the stage's combativity award for his efforts. Pierre Rolland tried to attack from the peloton, but his time out in front lasted only a kilometer before he was reeled back in. In the final two kilometers, Sepp Kuss set a fierce tempo for his team leader Primož Roglič. Guillaume Martin initiated the sprint but Roglič chased him down and won the stage. Race leader Julian Alaphilippe finished fifth to maintain his lead in the general classification.
Stage 5 2 September 2020 – Gap to Privas,
Despite the moderate pace of the peloton, there were no noticeable breakaway attempts on the mostly downhill stage, as the riders feared the threat of crosswinds and were happy to take it easy after four hard stages to start the Tour. At the intermediate sprint, Sam Bennett took maximum points while points classification leader Peter Sagan could only manage fourth behind Bennett's teammate Michael Mørkøv and Caleb Ewan. Polka-dot jersey wearer Benoît Cosnefroy took both of the singular mountain points available on the two category 4 climbs unchallenged to extend his lead in the mountains classification. With under ten kilometers left, took to the front and ramped up the pace, stringing out the peloton and causing splits. Like in stage 3, took to the front in the final two kilometers to try and set up Cees Bol for the slightly uphill sprint finish. However, Wout van Aert, who had been sitting on Bol's wheel, came out of the Dutch rider's slipstream and powered away for his first Grand Tour stage win. As a result of finishing ahead of Sagan in both the intermediate sprint and the final sprint, Bennett gained enough points to take over the green jersey. After the stage, race officials handed race leader Julian Alaphilippe a 20-second penalty for taking an illegal feed with less than 20 kilometers to go. As a result, he dropped out of the top ten and Adam Yates took the yellow jersey.
Stage 6 3 September 2020 – Le Teil to Mont Aigoual,
The peloton were content to let the breakaway decide the stage, which was mostly flat for the first 155 kilometers before offering up a series of climbs in quick succession culminating in a summit finish atop Mont Aigoual. Eight riders formed the day's breakaway: Alexey Lutsenko (), Daniel Oss (), Greg Van Avermaet (), Jesús Herrada (), Rémi Cavagna (), Neilson Powless (), Edvald Boasson Hagen (), and Nicolas Roche (). The octet reached a maximum advantage of over six minutes before the peloton began to slowly close the gap. Boasson Hagen won the intermediate sprint just ahead of Oss while the rest of the breakaway rolled through. Roger Kluge, one of Caleb Ewan's lead-out men, rolled off the front of the peloton and through the intermediate sprint, leaving only six on offer for the next rider, who was green jersey wearer Sam Bennett; Ewan himself did not seriously contest the intermediate sprint and came away with no points gained. Neither of the category 3 climbs were seriously challenged for by the breakaway, though Roche rode across first both times.
On the lower slopes of the Col de la Lusette, Cavagna accelerated, dropping Boasson Hagen and Oss. Shortly after, Powless put in an attack, with Cavagna the next to be dropped. Powless put in another surge, hoping to win on his 24th birthday, attacked again, with only Lutsenko being able to follow. Eventually, the efforts took a toll on Powless, as he was unable to keep up with Lutsenko. The Kazakh road champion managed to maintain and even extend his lead over the top of the Col de la Lusette and up Mont Aigoual for the stage win. Herrada managed to claw his way back into second place, nearly a minute behind Lutsenko, while Van Avermaet outsprinted Powless for third. The main favorites finished almost three minutes down on Lutsenko, with Julian Alaphilippe sprinting away towards the end to try and claw back the time he lost due to the penalty he incurred on the previous stage, but the Frenchman was closely followed and only managed to gain back one second.
Stage 7 4 September 2020 – Millau to Lavaur,
Benoît Cosnefroy jumped out of the peloton early on to claim the maximum points on offer in the mountains classification at the Côte de Luzençon less than ten kilometers into the stage. Behind him, took to the front and began to set a fast pace, inadvertently catching Cosnefroy shortly before the summit and forcing the mountains classification leader to put in a second acceleration to earn his points. At the same time, the fast pace caused many sprinters to be dropped, including Caleb Ewan, Elia Viviani, Cees Bol, Giacomo Nizzolo, Alexander Kristoff, and points classification leader Sam Bennett, much to the benefit of sprinter Peter Sagan, who sought to reclaim the green jersey. At the intermediate sprint, Matteo Trentin just managed to hold off Sagan on the line. After the Col de Peyronnenc, Thomas de Gendt made a solo breakaway effort, but he never managed to get an advantage of one minute over the peloton, who reeled him in with under 35 kilometers to go. At the same time, upped the pace and the remaining peloton further split into several groups. Among the general classification contenders who caught out were Tadej Pogačar, Mikel Landa, Richard Carapaz, and the duo of Bauke Mollema and Richie Porte. In the ensuing bunch sprint, Wout van Aert powered through along the barriers to take his second stage win in three days. Pogačar led home the second group, which finished nearly a minute and a half behind the front group, while the dropped sprinters would eventually roll across the line over 14 minutes in arrears. As a result of the intermediate sprint points and his 13th place finish, Sagan took back the green jersey from Bennett.
Stage 8 5 September 2020 – Cazères to Loudenvielle,