This Tour de France Stage 18-20 recap covers the final two mountain stages of this year’s tour. They were the final opportunity for GC contenders to try to gain time on their competitors. Alongside these stages I made a tarte aux mytrilles, which translates to “bilberry tart” but I made it with blueberries, the American cousin to the European bilberry.
Stage Recaps
Stage 18: Col de la Loze
This was the queen stage of this year’s tour, which is the term for the hardest stage in a grand tour. It was a 172 km course with over 5,000 meters of climbing across three “beyond category” climbs.
A breakaway formed on the first climb and it notably included Matteo Jorgensen, Primož Roglič, and Tim Wellens. On the second climb, Visma Lease-a-Bike start setting a hard pace. Jonas Vingegaard attacks but Pogačar follows him. Jonas is able to join up Jorgensen who leads a GC group down the valley on the descent.
Ben O’Connor attacks in the valley giving him a lead heading up the final climb, Col de la Loze. Eventually the teammates of Vingegaard and Pogačar rejoin the GC group to begin pace setting again. Jonas attacks again but Pogi follows, and then Pogi attacks and distances Jonas who ends up losing eight seconds. However, these attacks came too late to close the gap on Ben O’Connor who wins the stage, marking the first stage win for Jayco Alula in this year’s tour. This was also Jonas’ final opportunity to gain time and he wasn’t able to do it, effectively ending any hopes he had of winning this year’s Tour.
Stage 19: Final Moo-ntain Stage
The final mountain stage was shortened due to a disease outbreak in some of the cow herds on the top of the first climb. The course ended up being 93 km long with three categorized climbs. The stage ended on La Plagne, a 19 km long “beyond category” climb.
This stage was chaotic from the beginning because it was shortened. For example, Roglic got into the break, but gets caught on the descent before the final climb.
In the final climb, Pogačar attacks and Jonas Vingegaard and Thymen Arensman follow. Arensman takes the lead, and Pogačar and Vingegaard don’t follow. The top two GC leaders then seem to be waiting for each other. Jonas refuses to pull through, so Arensman gains time. By the time Vingegaard attacks well within the final kilometer it’s too late and Arensman wins the stage.
Stage 20: Hilly Breakaway Stage
Stage 20 is a transition stage on the way to the final stage in Paris. It was a 184 km stage with 2814 meters of climbing and 4 small categorized climbs.
Especially this late in the tour, the stage seemed designed for a breakaway. The attacks begin from the start line. Eventually the break of the day forms including: Tim Wellens, Matteo Jorgensen, Matteo Trentin, Ivan Romeo, Harry Sweeny and Kaden Groves.
Harry Sweeny makes a solo attack and gains a lead, but gets caught back by the peloton, perhaps due to the heavy rain and wind the riders were enduing. At 16 km to go, Kaden Groves, Alpecin Deceuninck’s backup sprinter, makes a solo attack and against all odds wins the stage. It was a well-earned first victory for Groves, and the third win for Alpecin.
The Dish
My dish for the queen stage sent me down several different rabbit holes. I researched different pie crusts, blueberry tart recipes, and the difference between blueberries and bilberries. Tarte aux Mytrilles is a regional dish of the French Alps region, but it is actually bilberry pie not blueberry pie. However, perhaps due to a translation error, the recipe said blueberries when I first looked it up and so I bought fresh blueberries at my farmers market. I don’t think I could have found bilberries even if I wanted to but who knows.
Anyways, another fruit pie! This was great, tasted like blueberry tart should. It was a little underset but otherwise great.
Reflections
All that’s left of this Tour de France is one more stage in Paris. It feels like this tour flew by and at the same time like it’s been ages. The GC, it turns out, was decided way back in the Pyrenees.
It’s bittersweet to end the Tour, but I’m also so excited to follow along the Tour de France Femmes for this next week! Today was the first stage and it was already an exciting start. The stages are shorter than the men’s Tour and there are several top GC contenders so it should be a really great tour to follow!
A bientôt!