Tour de France 2023: Belfort - Le Markenstein - Fellering

Route Description: The 20th stage was from Belfort to Le Markenstein Fellering over 133.5 km. This stage was a short but mighty climbing stage with 6 rated climbs. The start in the beautiful citadel of Belfort was followed by some lead in kilometers that were going slightly uphill to the first climb of the day, the Category 2 Ballon d'Alsace. In the history of the Tour de France the Ballon d'Alsace was the first climb put on the route back in 1905. It precedes the Pyrennes and Alps by several years. The climb is 11.5km  at an average gradient of 5.2%. The descent of the Ballon d'Alsace was followed by approximately 20km of valley roads leading to the Category 2 Col de la Croix des Moinats. This climb was 5.2 km at 7%, and it was followed by a brief descent to the foot of the next climb. The Category 2 Col de Grosse Pierre was 3.2 km at an average gradient of 8%. The brief descent of the climb was followed by several kilometers of rolling terrain and the next climb. The col de la Schlucht was listed as a Category 3 climb with a 5.4% average gradient over 4.3 km. This was followed by an over 18 km descent to Munster and the foot of the Petit Ballon. Tbe first of two Category 1 climbs in the finale of the stage was the Petit Ballon. This climb was 9.3 km in length at 8.1%. The descent of the Petit Ballon led to the final climb of the day the Col du Platerwasel which has an 8.4% average gradient and is 7.1 km in length. The final eight kilometers after the climb were a false flat followed by a descent to Le Markenstein-Fellering.

Race Summary and Analysis:This stage started with a rollout from Belfort thru the historic Citadel. Once the race began, it was again raced at a breakneck pace. Victor Campanaerts and  Jasper De Buyst both Lotto-Dstny were the first attack to gain some distance on the peloton. De Buyst would not keep pace with Campanaerts who was able to start the Ballon d'Alsace before being caught and passed by a breakaway group that had formed. The initial six rider breakaway consisted of Giulio Ciccone and Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), Krists Neilands (Israel-Premier Tech), Warren Barguil (Arkea-Samsic), Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) and Maxime Van Gils (Lotto-Dstny). A counter-attack involved Thibaut Pinot, Valentin Madouas, Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), Rigoberto Uran (EF Education-EasyPost), Chris Harper (Jayco-AlUla), Ion Izagirre (Cofidis) and Kevin Vermaerke (DSM-Firmenich). This breakaway would contest the first two climbs of the day which Ciccone would take the first position on each climb. In the peloton Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos-Grenadiers) and Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) would both crash in a turn on the descent of the Ballon d'Alsace. Video replay showed that Rodriguez slid out in the turn and Kuss had no where to go and somersaulted over Rodriguez's bike. Both riders would have cuts on their eyelids and would need to be bandaged up by the medical support convertibles. Otherwise the riders were unscathed. Unfortunately the crash would affect Kuss as he could not keep pace with the peloton and lost 20 minutes on the stage to the yellow jersey and fell out of the top 10 in the GC standings. He has not had any luck seeing as last weekend he was caught up in the crash with the selfie-ing fan. Rodriguez would be paced back to the peloton by his team car, but would not be able to make any sizeable gain in the GC, yellow jersey standings.

 On the col de Grosse Pierre Thibaut Pinot who was in a countermove would bridge up to the leading six riders. Ciccone would be the first to crest the climb, and the remaining members of the counter-attack would catch on forming a large breakaway. The breakaway would never get more than a minute and a half lead on the peloton. At the top of the Col de la Schlucht, Ciccone took the maximum points and celebrated winning the polka dot jersey. Thibaut Pinot attacked the breakaway that was disintegrating on the Petit Ballon and rode into an extremely vocal crowd of his supporters at the top of the climb. He crested with a 30 second lead over the first chase group which contained Tom Pidcock and Warren Barguil. Pinot started the Col du Platerwasel all alone, but he would be caught mid way up the climb by the first chasing group. They would be caught by a group that surged from the peloton of Tadej Pogacar (UAE-Team Emirates) , Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), and Felix Gall (Ag2r-Citroen).  The trio would crest the col together, but be joined by Simon and Adam Yates during the descent. Tadej Pogacar would win the sprint for the stage win contested by the lead group of five. Pinot managed to be in the second group on the descent, but would not make the junction with the lead group before the finish line. He would finish seventh on the stage in his swansong Tour de France.