Froome secures third Tour crown, Izaguirre wins sodden stage 20

Updated 23/07/2016 at 17:41 GMT

Britain's Chris Froome crossed the finish line in Morzine with a huge grin on his face after all but sealing his third Tour de France title on a day Spaniard Ion Izaguirre won a rain-soaked penultimate stage in the Alps, writes Felix Lowe.

Chris Froome (Team Sky) after stage 20 of the Tour de France

Image credit: Eurosport

Defending champion Froome (Team Sky) made light work of the 146-kilometre stage from Megeve to finish alongside all his rivals and all but win his third Tour in four years.

Froome finished just over four minutes behind stage winner Izaguirre of Movistar, who dropped fellow escapees Jarlinson Pantano (IAM Cycling) and Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) on the decisive descent of the Col du Joux Plane to win the first Tour stage of his career.

Izaguirre finished 19 seconds ahead of Colombian Pantano and 42 seconds clear of Italy's Nibali, the 2014 Tour champion who led approaching the summit of the last major climb of the race but struggled on the treacherous 12-kilometre descent to the finish.

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Brave Izaguirre charges home in torrential rain to take stage 20

Romain Bardet (Ag2R-La Mondiale) finished alongside Nairo Quintana (Movistar) as the two riders secured their places on the final podium in Paris.

Frenchman Bardet trails Froome by 4:05 going into the final processional stage to Paris, with Colombian Quintana - twice a runner-up to Froome - in third place at 4:21.

"I'm pretty sore but my legs were better today than yesterday after the crash," said Froome referring to the fall which left him battered and bruised ahead of the final climb on Friday. "I had that four-minute gap to play with. It gave me a breathing space. I just had to stay in front. It's a huge relief to cross that finish line.

Champ-to-be Froome describes 'huge relief' after stress of recent days

"The last 24 hours have been pretty chaotic but my team-mates helped me so much to keep the yellow jersey on my shoulders. It's an amazing feeling. It could be like the first [Tour victory] again."

Baring disaster on the cobbles of the Champs-Elysees, Britain's Adam Yates (Orica-GreenEdge) will finish his second Tour in fourth place having dropped out of the podium positions on Friday's stage 19, won by Bardet in bullish fashion. Yates did, however, secure the white jersey as the best young rider. "I'm super happy with that," he said. "The podium would have been nice but this is the Tour de France. It's only my second attempt."

Froome crosses finish line with a smile to all but confirm third Tour title

Australian Richie Porte (BMC) completes the top five 5:17 down on his former team-mate Froome - his best ever finish in a Grand Tour and a career first top five on the world's biggest bike race.

Stage 20: results, standings, commentary

Rafal Majka secured the polka dot jersey as best climber while the Pole's Tinkoff team-mate Peter Sagan, the world champion, secured the fifth green jersey of his career.

The Slovakian, who was involved in Saturday's breakaway alongside Czech team-mate Roman Kreuziger, was also named the most combative rider of the entire Tour following his string of attacking performances, which included three stage wins and a record haul of green jersey points.

Kreuziger and Spanish veteran Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) moved into the top 10 on a final competitive day of the 103rd edition of the race at the expense of Dutchman Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) and Italian Fabio Aru (Astana).

Aru, the winner of last year's Vuelta, cracked spectacularly on the decisive climb of the Joux Plane en route to finishing 17 minutes in arrears and drop from sixth to 13th.

Aru cracks on stage 20, but rival Barguil gives him helping hand

How the stage was won

Break: On a potentially decisive final day in the Alps, a flurry of attacks came from the outset as Pierre Rolland (Cannondale-Drapac) put his cruel crash from stage 19 behind him with an early dig.

A group of around 30 riders formed ahead of the first of four categorised climbs, the Col des Aravis, with previous stage winners Pantano, Sagan, Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal), Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha) and Michael Matthews (Orica-BikeExchange) all involved alongside a cluster of big names in Nibali, Izaguirre, Kreuziger, Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida), Wilco Kelderman (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Rolland.

Belgian De Gendt – winner at Chalet Reynard on Mont Ventoux in the second week of the race – attacked over the summit to take maximum points in a competition he could no longer win owing to Majka’s uncatchable tally of polka dot points.

Sagan settled for third place in the intermediate sprint behind Matthews, who had caught De Gendt after the heavens opened on the descent. With 15 extra points, Sagan moved onto 440 points in the green jersey competition – almost 200 more than his nearest rival and eight more than his own record tally from last year.

De Gendt crossed the summit of the Col de la Colombiere in pole position with the leaders holding an advantage of four minutes over the Sky-led pack around 100 kilometres from the finish.

Starting the day in 12th position, Kreuziger was the danger man in the peloton – and the Czech was riding into virtual second place on GC after the gap ballooned to six minutes thanks to some strong pace-setting by Tinkoff team-mate Sagan.

Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) leads the break during stage 20 of the Tour de France

Image credit: AFP

Turning point: Eight riders from the break rode clear on the Col de la Ramaz with Sagan and Kreuziger driving a group that also included Nibali, Costa, Izaguirre, Pantano and Frenchmen Julian Alaphilippe (Etixx-QuickStep) and Alexis Gougeard (Ag2R-La Mondiale).

Behind, Astana led the chase in the peloton as they did on Friday’s equally wet and wild stage 19 – despite the presence of Nibali, the reigning Giro d’Italia champion, in the leading group.

And it was that man Nibali who attacked from the break after Sagan had called it a day and dropped back to the chasing group, from which Zakarin and Rolland had themselves attacked.

Things came back together among the leaders before De Gendt attacked to crest the summit 30 seconds ahead of Costa and Rolland, who held a slender gap over their fellow escapees. The pack – still together with Astana and Sky controlling the tempo – crossed five minutes in arrears ahead of yet another rain-soaked descent.

Pantano and Alaphilippe showcased their daredevil descending by passing De Gendt on the wet downhill to open up a gap of half a minute on the false flat ahead of the final HC climb of the race – a gap which opened up to more than a minute as they hit the start of the Col de Joux Plane.

Chris Froome and his Team Sky team-mates put under pressure by Astana during stage 20 of the Tour de France

Image credit: Eurosport

Finale: Nibali, Costa, De Gendt, Kreuziger, Keldeman, Izaguirre and Sergio Henao (Team Sky) were making few inroads on the duo’s advantage when Nibali decided to take matters into his own hands and ride clear.

The Sicilian’s acceleration happened just as his Sardinian team-mate Aru completely hit the wall back in the main peloton at the start of the climb, the reigning Vuelta champion appearing to bonk spectacularly while surrounded by Astana team-mates.

Seeking a silver lining to Astana’s cloudy day, Nibali managed to catch Alaphilippe and Pantano who, rather than work together on the brutal 11-kilometre climb, had instead traded blows and worn each other down.

Meanwhile, Izaguirre rode clear from the other escapees in pursuit of the three men out ahead. Despite opening up a decent gap, Nibali was caught by both Pantano and Izaguirre before the summit, with Alaphilippe further behind.

Back with the main GC favourites, Mollema’s early attack was neutralised after Rodriguez broke clear and joined forces with Katusha team-mate Zakarin. Other than this final throw of the dice from the soon-to-be-retiring Rodriguez, none of the other riders in the top 10 seemed willing – or capable – of attacking Froome, who was surrounded by four Sky team-mates including the returning Henao.

Froome crosses finish line with a smile to all but confirm third Tour title

Izaguirre took advantage of a mistake by Pantano, who overcooked an early bend on the final descent, to ride clear, while Nibali – perhaps still haunted by his fall behind Froome on Friday – did not show his usual killer instincts on the slippery and twisting drop down to Morzine.

In the end Izaguirre held on for a maiden win on the Tour ahead of Pantano, Nibali and Alaphilippe. Of the initial escapees only Costa, Kreuziger and Kelderman stayed out ahead before Rodriguez crossed the line 3:24 down in eighth place to secure – like Kreuziger – his place in the final top 10.

Dan Martin (Etixx-QuickStep), Bardet and Quintana all took six seconds back from Froome by sprinting to the line to confirm their places on the podium (in the case of Messrs Bardet and Quintana) or, for the Irishman, ninth place on GC.

Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Louis Meintjes (Lampre-Merida) and Yates all finished four seconds quicker than Froome to secure their own places in the top 10 (sixth, eighth and fourth respectively).

Froome himself broke out into a broad grin as he came home alongside team-mates Wout Poels, Geraint Thomas, Mikel Nieve and Henao – each and every one of them so influential in the Briton’s triumph. Somewhat symbolically, Australian Porte – Froome’s former lieutenant at Sky – also finished alongside his old colleagues to confirm his own fifth place on GC, the best yet of his career.

Great Britain's Christopher Froome, wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey, rides in the rain

Image credit: AFP

Coming up: Stage 21 – Chantilly to Paris, 113km

After 3,519 kilometres in the saddle, the race climaxes with the traditional finale but with a tiny twist: the final stage starts north of Paris for the first time since 1984.

Renowned for its sweet whipped cream and historic château, Chantilly is the last port of call before eight laps of the Champs-Élysées, where a successful breakaway is as unlikely as a Frenchman entering Paris in yellow.

Rest assured, the race's 42nd finale on the semi-cobbled Champs will almost certainly produce a bunch sprint with an Arc de Triomphe backdrop. Fans will also be pleased to hear that the women's race, La Course, returns for a third year with 13 laps of the city centre circuit.

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