TDF 2025: Stage 20: Kaden Groves Pulls a Rabbit Out of His Hat

Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) is much more than a sprinter, as he has proved time and again in his career – though never before at the Tour de France. You could see his tears after the stage, and feel strongly with him–what an accomplishment. He stayed ahead of a breakaway, and managed to avoid a serious crash on slick, wet road, to make it to the finish alone in Pontarlier.

Already a winner of seven stages at La Vuelta and two at the Giro d’Italia, the Australian rider came to the French Grand Tour for the first time this year as lead-out man for Jasper Philipsen, who crashed out of the race on day 3.

After Mathieu van der Poel also retired due to illness at the beginning of week 3, Groves made today’s breakaway, displaying his versatility in a stage marked by aggressive racing from Santa to Pontarlier, where he took his maiden Tour stage win.

Part of a 13-man breakaway, he covered the final 16 kilometers solo to claim victory ahead of Frank van den Broek (Picnic PostNL) and Pascal Eenkhoorn (Soudal Quick-Step). He is the 114th rider to win stages in all three Grand Tours. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) continues to lead the overall standings going into the final stage on Sunday in Paris.

What a Tour it has been: we are looking forward to tomorrow when riders attack a new road with climbs through Montmartre–the same road that competitors followed during last year’s Olympic road race held in Paris.

Attackers felt it was their time to win with a 184.2-km challenging course from Nantua to Pontarlier. Many riders have been targeting stage 20 of the Tour 2025 for a long time as they envisioned a great opportunity to claim victory on the eve of the Champs-Élysées. Yevgeniy Fedorov didn’t participate in this battle as his team XDS Astana reports he has to retire due to an intestinal infection. 

A huge battle for the breakaway

Right from the gun, Kasper Asgreen (EF Education-EasyPost) set off. The Danish rouleur has found success on these roads before, having pulled off a hard-fought breakaway victory in Bourg-en-Bresse (stage 18, 2023), some 30 kilometers west of Nantua. The Dane went hard under the rain but he didn’t succeed in breaking away due to the many attacks and counter-attacks shaking up the bunch.

His EF teammates, and notably Ben Healy, were very active. Harry Sweeny eventually made a 13-man breakaway formed at km 65, as the Australian rider joined Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Ewen Costiou (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) with nine more chasers: Pascal Eenkhoorn (Soudal-Quick Step), Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ), Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Matteo Trentin (Tudor), Ivan Romeo (Movistar), Simone Velasco (XDS-Astana), Jordan Jegat (Total Energies), Frank van den Broek (Picnic-PostNL) and Jake Stewart (Israel-Premier Tech).

Sweeny tried his luck

As Jegat threatened Ben O’Connor’s 10th place in the overall standings (4’08’’ of difference between them), Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla) was tasked with driving the scattered bunch. Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL) and Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) were momentarily dropped but the situation eventually settled. Despite a crash at km 71, the Swiss national champion controled the gap at 2’30’’ at the bottom of the main climb of the day, Côte de Thésy. Ivan Romeo crashed heavily on a corner during a chase, but managed to get up and go to the end.

Jegat accelerated on the climb. Sweeny joined him at the summit. And the Australian rider went solo with 54 kilometers to go to the finish. He opened a gap of 40’’ to his his breakaway rivals before the latter changed the script. Ten riders got back together as they hit the bottom of the Côte de Longeville (cat. 4, summit 24.1km away from the finish). Costiou, Wellens and Jorgenson were behind.

A dramatic finale
A group of six riders emerges over the top: Grégoire, Romeo, Velasco, Groves, Stewart and Van den Broek. Grégoire accelerates on the downhill but his rivals follow. Romeo counter-attacks but he slips in a turn with 22 km to go and hits the deck. Grégoire and Velasco are also affected. Groves, Stewart and Van den Broek keep going.

With 16.5 km to go, Stewart and Van den Broek looked at each other. Groves didn’t wait for them and took off towards victory! At the finish, Van den Broek (+54’’) and Eenkhoorn (+59’’) completed the top 3 while Grégoire had to settle for 5th on his home roads. The peloton crossed the line with a gap of over 7 minutes. Jegat took the 10th place in the overall standings from O’Connor.

The General Classification standings ahead of the final stage in Paris tomorrow: