Ýokary Liga

It was remarkable. He even gave us a bit of jeopardy at the end, when it almost seemed possible one of Carapaz or Martinez might steal it. But it was never gonna happen, was it?

This was obviously the last thing we wanted to happen, and while many will assign responsibility to the spectators - I've spent some time on Reddit since yesterday - I think the issue lies more with the cars. How many hundreds of thousands lined the race route, creating an atmosphere and spectacle unique to sport, while causing no problems whatsoever. It was an assault on the Alpe for the ages.

Okay, so the maillot jaune is all sewn up BUT at least two of the jerseys are well and truly up for grabs. If Mads Pedersen can make it over the Croix de Fer somewhere near the front, that will surely be enough for him to clinch the points competition, but the mountains and young rider jersey look like they'll go down to the wire. Will Richard Carapaz be allowed up the road?

You expect this kind of nonsense from La Vuelta, not the family owned Tour de France. Anyway, there's a maximum of 70 points available in the polka dot jersey, which makes Richard Carapaz's slender 1 point lead look positively wafer-thin.

Good morning and welcome to live text coverage of the 20th stage of the men’s Tour de France 2026. It’s the bigger one after the big one before. Never before have we had to wait until the penultimate stage of the Tour de France for the race’s most mountainous day. We’re starting early because we’ve got an unimaginable 5600m of climbing to complete before day’s end.

Col de la Croix de Fer, the Télégraphe and the Tour’s high point, the Galibier: each of these three could headline any individual stage, yet today will take in all of them. And that’s not all. The Col de Sarenne, the alternative route to Alpe d'Huez, has featured in Le Tour only once before, in 2013, and we may be about to find out why. Tadej Pogacar conquered the Alpe yesterday for the first time. As he heads towards the most dominant of his five Tours de France, will he bring the house down yet again?