Tour de France 2020: stage 16 – live!

156km to go: On the first of the day’s downhills, a group of about 25 riders seem to have put a bit of distance between themselves and the peloton, which is being led by Bora-Hansgrohe. The gap is 36 seconds.

159km to go: Still waiting for the stage to settle as the aforementioned group is absorbed back into the peloton. At the back of the peloton, Groupama-FDJ rider David Gaudu already looks to be struggling.

161km to go: Quentin Pacher is reeled in as the riders tackle a punchy early climb. At the front of the bunch, a group of about 25 riders have opened a small gap, which Peter Sagan is trying to close.

And they’re off: Back from his spell in self-isolation and having passed all his Covid-19 tests, Christian Prudhomme emerges from his Skoda’s sun-roof and semaphores the signal to start to racing. It’s a fairly narrow country road and B&B Hotels rider Quentin Pacher is immediately off the front of a bunch that splits quickly.

The roll-out continues: The riders continue to barrel along at a leisurely pace, while ITV have shown an interview conducted by Ned Boulting with Chris Froome on the day Egan Bernal lost over seven minutes in stage 15. Froome, like Geraint Thomas, was not selected for the Tour by Team Ineos and will be riding in the Spanish Vuelta instead.

“Today was a massive blow,” he said of Bernal’s poor showing. “Egan looks like he’s out of the GC race. I didn’t see that coming because he seemed to be there or thereabouts and I thought he’d keep within hitting distance all the way to Paris. Once you win that first Tour de France your life is never the same again. When you’ve got that No1 on your back, you’re marked in every race.”

Asked about comments he made suggesting he should be at the Tour, he claims to have been quoted slightly out of context. “I was more than willing to go to France,” he says. “I wasn’t pushing to say I should be there. In the build-up to the Tour I knew I wouldn’t be going to try to win it, but I was prepared to give everything to help Egan win it.”

And on the domination of team Jumbo-Visma in this year’s Tour. “The way they rode today on that final climb was amazing,” he says. “They were completely in control of the race. They set a tempo that meant nobody felt they could attack.”

The roll-out begins: With just six stages of this year’s Tour remaining, the riders set off from La Tour du Pin, led by the main jersey-wearers Primoz Roglic (yellow), Benoit Cosnefroy (polka-dot), Sam Bennett (green) and Tadej Pogacar (white). They’ll have six kilometres or so of a procession before being given the signal to start racing.

Meanwhile in Italy …

A man who is never slow in blowing long solos on his own trumpet when things are going well for his team, Ineos Grenadiers boss David Brailsford declined requests to speak to the media during yesterday’s rest day.

Meanwhile in San Benedetto del Tronto, Geraint Thomas finished a highly creditable second in Italy’s prestigious Tirreno-Adriatico stage race after being dropped from this year’s Tour de France team by Brailsford.

Race director Christian Prudhomme on today’s stage: “La Chartreuse area could inspire the many breakaway experts if they feel ready enough to battle it out on the climb up the Col de Porte,” he said. “The mountains of Vercors also offer all the ingredients of a tricky stage. A similar cocktail to the one offered in Villard de Lans in 1987 that had left a bad taste in the mouth of Jean-François Bernard.”

Primoz Roglic on stage 15

“We had a plan to let the breakaway go,” said the race leader. “It’s not up to us to do the race but we saw that we could control it. The guys did it really well. Unfortunately, I was a bit too short at the end. I didn’t make any gift to Tadej [Pogacar]. We are good friends but we both want to win. He was just stronger and I was a bit disappointed to lose the stage. Chapeau to him. I don’t think the suspense on GC is over. I would like it was! We are in a really good position but it’s far from over yet.”

Stage 15 recap

Tadej Pogacar was first to the top of Grand Colombier to win his second stage of this year’s Tour, while Ineos rider and reigning champion Egan Bernal plummeted down the overall standings after losing more than seven minutes amid rumblings of discontent from within and without the camp. Jeremy Whittle was there for the Guardian …

It’s a Slovenian one-two at the moment as Primoz Roglic leads his compatriot Tadej Pogacar by 40 seconds. Colombian veteran Rigoberto Uran is a further 54 seconds back in third.

From William Fotheringham’s stage-by-stage guide: Never flat, and with an 11km climb into the Vercors Massif, this stage favours an early break, and the winner will probably escape on the ascent 20km from the finish. It’s the sort of stage that suits a climber who isn’t afraid to go solo

, such as the Dutchman Bauke Mollema if he isn’t in the overall mix
. [Narrator’s voice: “Bauke Mollema abandoned after crashing during stage 13”]