Penultimate-stage time trial could decide mountain-heavy 2020 Tour de France

The final 36km time trial on Stage 20 may come to define the race after several weeks of heavy mountain stages

Without a return to Alpe d’Huez or Mont Ventoux next summer and only two stages in the the Pyrenees,  the Massif Central and the Alps will be key before the final phase in the Jura and Vosges mountain ranges..

Chris Froome was quick to note the lack of time trialling and a route which may well be more suited to his Ineos team-mate and the defending champion Egan Bernal.

“It’s the hardest route I’ve seen in the last few years,” Froome said after the announcement recently.

Four-times Tour de France champion Chris Froome, who missed this year’s Tour after suffering huge injuries in a high-speed crash at the Criterium du Dauphine in June, is still recovering from his injuries.

The uphill time trial to La Planche des Belles Filles could be one of the most anticipated stages in recent years.

Stage six of this year’s Tour finished on the mountain with Dylan Teuns taking the stage victory as Julian Alaphilippe lost the yellow jersey, albeit temporarily, to Giulio Ciccone while Geraint Thomas put in an impressive late attack.

But that time trial will feel a long way off for riders as they tackle one of the toughest opening weeks of the Tour in several years.

The 2020 edition will begin on June 27 with two stages starting and finishing in Nice, including a tough second day which includes almost 3,700 metres of climbing.

Summit finishes on the Orcieres-Merlette and Mont Aigoual follow on stages five and six before two days in the Pyrenees.

After a rest day in La Rochelle there are some flatter stages but it is a brief intermission before the race heads towards the Alps via the Massif Central once more.

Stage 15 takes the riders out of Lyon and over the Selle de Fromental and Col de la Biche to the summit of the Grand Colombier.

The Queen stage after the second rest day is 168 kilometres between Grenoble and the newly-built cycling route to the summit of the Col de la Loze, via the Col de la Madeleine.

Following the adverse weather which severely affected the final days of this year’s Tour, when Bernal took yellow as stage 19 was curtailed by landslides, the Tour will not head to Paris direct from the high mountains but instead travel north via the Jura and Vosges regions.

Those are home roads for French hopeful Thibaut Pinot, who said: “It’s a wonderful course, I’m already looking forward to it. We’re going to pass my village, that will be special.”