Coming into the 2020 Tour de France it seemed like Sunweb had hamstrung itself by not selecting Michael Matthews. The Aussie sprinter was on great form and seemed to be a real chance of a stage win. We’ll never know how Matthews would have gone, of course, but it’s fair to say Sunweb has made do without him pretty well.
The German squad has now won three stages, all of them from daring solo breakaways. The most recent of those, Friday’s stage 19, was Soren Kragh Andersen’s second win of the race, and another great demonstration of timing and strength.
Here’s how stage 19 of the Tour de France unfolded, through the lenses of our great photographers at the race.
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- Caption this.
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- Stage 19 would be Sagan’s last real opportunity to claw back points in the green jersey competition.
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- Name that photographer.
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- Remi Cavagna was the lone rider in the early breakaway.
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- He was never given that much rope to play with.
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- There were plenty of attacks in the final 50 km with several groups forming and dissolving.
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- A group of 12 got clear with around 30 km to go. Among them Sagan, Sam Bennett, Kragh Andersen, Matteo Trentin and more.
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- Kragh Andersen wasn’t about to wait for a sprint. The Dane attacked with just under 17 km left to race. The group he was in looked at one another …
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- … giving Kragh Andersen enough time to build an unassailable lead.
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- Stage win number two for the 26-year-old after a similar (but later) solo move on stage 14.
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- Interestingly, the chase group behind was led in by Luka Mezgec, just as it was on stage 14 when Kragh Andersen won his first stage.
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- Mezgec, and Mitchelton-Scott, will be ruing another near-miss.
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- A little behind, Bennett again beat Sagan on the line …
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- … to further extend his lead in the points classification. Barring a crash, he will now wear green on the podium in Paris.
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- Jasper Stuyven tried to bridge to Kragh Andersen with 12 km to go …
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- … but he was caught by the group behind and had to back himself in the sprint instead. He took third place on the stage.
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- The peloton took it very easy in the final kilometres once the Sagan/Bennett/Kragh Andersen group departed. A lot of riders were saving themselves for Saturday’s stage 20 individual time trial.
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- A moment of quiet reflection for Tadej Pogacar. Can he pull back a minute on Primoz Roglic in the uphill time trial …
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- Roglic spent 11 days in yellow at the Tour de France.
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