Groves completes Grand Tour set with solo victory on rain-soaked stage 20

Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) completed the grand tour set as he soloed to victory in stage 20 of the Tour de France in a rain-soaked Pontarlier, taking Alpecin-Deceuninck’s third stage win of the 2025 edition. 

The Australian sprinter was part of a 13-man breakaway group on an attritional stage, and made the front split of six riders when a crash with 20km remaining involving Iván Romeo and Romain Gregoire left the front group with only three riders. With 16.5km to go, Groves rode clear from Jake Stewart (Israel-Premier Tech) and Frank van den Broek (Picnic PostNL), who hesitated, and it was clear from that point that he wouldn’t be caught. 

On paper, Groves was the fastest sprinter in the breakaway, but he didn’t need to rely on his fast finish, as he took his tenth grand tour stage win, and arguably his most impressive due to the unique nature compared to the others. 

The Australian finished 54 seconds ahead of Van den Broek in 2nd, and 59 seconds over Eenkhoorn in 3rd.

It was a relatively straightforward day for the general classification contenders once the breakaway formed, and the gaps between the main players remained the same, the perfect scenario for the yellow jersey. 

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) leads the Tour de France into the final stage by 4:24 over Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) and 11:09 over Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) in third. Barring disaster, this will be the final podium in Paris with Pogačar set to be crowned a Tour de France champion for the fourth time in his already illustrious career. 

Stage 20 of the Tour de France kicked off in rain-drenched Nantua, setting the stage for a gruelling battle as the peloton tackled the challenging Col de la Croix de la Serra. The opening climb sparked an intense fight for the breakaway, with riders aggressively vying for position.

Over the summit, Tadej Pogačar secured the mountains classification for the third time in his career, pending a safe finish in Paris on Stage 21. Meanwhile, Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL) and Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) briefly found themselves 30 seconds behind the front group and the yellow jersey peloton as attacks flew up the road. For the sprinters that were distanced, including the green jersey Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek), it was all about making it to the finish safely within the time cut.

After a flurry of attacks, a 13-rider group found themselves clear. The group consisted of Harry Sweeny (EF Education-EasyPost), Matteo Jorgenson (Visma | Lease a Bike), Pascal Eenkhoorn (Soudal-QuickStep), Matteo Trentin (Tudor), Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ), Jake Stewart (Israel-Premier Tech), Jordan Jegat (TotalEnergies), Ewen Costiou (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Frank van den Broek (Picnic PostNL), Iván Romeo (Movistar), Simone Velasco (XDS Astana), Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck).

There were separate incidents for both Clément Champoussin (XDS Astana) and Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla), who suffered crashes. However, despite their visible wounds, both were able to continue the race.

With 65km remaining on the Côte de Thésy, Axel Laurance (Ineos Grenadiers) and Mattis Le Berre (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) jumped from the peloton, and this proved to be a catalyst for further attacks. A plethora of riders pushed on from the peloton to join Laurance, spearheaded by Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike).

In the breakaway, Jordan Jegat, the highest-placed GC rider in the group, attacked with 2km to the summit, only for Sweeny to effortlessly bridge across. The duo crested the climb with a 20-second lead over chasers Laurance and Michael Storer (Tudor), while Van Aert’s group trailed at 2:20, and the peloton, nearly 4 minutes back, conceded the stage to the breakaway. Shortly after, Laurance and Storer were absorbed by Van Aert’s group.

With 54km to go, Sweeny distanced Jegat, and committed to the solo attack, aiming to replicate the long-range heroics of his teammate Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) with his gap to the group behind still 20 seconds whilst the Van Aert group faded to 3 minutes and were joined by a group containing Lenny Martinez (Bahrain-Victorious).

The preceding kilometres saw Sweeny’s gap begin to grow beyond 30 seconds as the torrential rain unleashed its fury once more, and with 40km to go, Sweeny’s chances were only increasing with the gap just shy of one minute.

The chase behind Sweeny started to fracture at 36km to go, with attacks beginning to occur and the group split. Five riders formed a strong chase, featuring Eenkhoorn, Grégoire, Stewart, Van den Broek, and Groves, whilst Jorgenson and Wellens were caught out behind. The group cooperated well and ate significantly into the advantage of Sweeny.

Eventually, Sweeny was caught and distanced, leaving a front group of Grégoire, Groves, Romeo, Velasco, Van den Broek, and Stewart. However, with 21.5km to go, Romeo slipped out on a wet downhill corner, smashing into a curb, Grégoire hitting the deck also, and Velasco being caught up by the incident to leave three riders out front, Groves, Stewart and Van den Broek.

Soon after, Groves rode clear with 16.5km to go as Stewart and Van den Broek looked at one another. It seemed that the fastest rider in the original breakaway was going to win solo.

Stewart and Van den Broek were joined by Jegat, Velasco and Eenkhoorn, but the gap was only going in the wrong direction for the second group on the road as Groves extended his lead to 45 seconds with 12km to go.

Way back in the peloton, Schmid, who had already crashed, was working on the front for his team leader Ben O’Connor (Jayco AlUla), whose 10th place in GC was at threat courtesy of Jegat’s presence nearly five minutes up the road.

The chase was disjointed with the riders behind Groves launching panicked attacks, but it was all too late.

Two Dutch riders, Van den Broek and Eenkhoorn, each rode solo to the other positions on the stage podium, with a larger group sprinting for fourth. In the peloton, there was a crash inside the final kilometres, but all those involved were able to cross the line.