Tour de France Stage 19 profile - Route, weather, schedule: everything you need to know

Updated 18/09/2020 at 08:48 GMT

Friday's Stage 19 of the Tour de France offers a chance for the sprinters, but the rolling route through the Jura hills means that it is far from straightforward for the likes of Sam Bennett and the pure speedsters in the peloton. Peter Sagan will see this as his last big chance in the points classification, but he and Bora-Hansgrohe have a lot of work to do if he is to take back green.

Sprint / Arrival / Caleb Ewan of Australia and Team Lotto Soudal / Sam Bennett of Ireland and Team Deceuninck - Quick-Step Green Points Jersey / Peter Sagan of Slovakia and Team Bora - Hansgrohe / Wout Van Aert of Belgium and Team Jumbo - Visma /

Image credit: Getty Images

Stage 19

Point of departure: Bourg-en-Bresse
Point of arrival: Champagnole
Distance: 166.5 km
Departure time: 12:45
Arrival time: 16:37
Type: Flat

Finally a chance for the sprinters in Stage 19 of the Tour de France, and the last one before Paris on Sunday.

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This largely flat 160km stage is lumpy enough to have caused trouble in the opening week, but any sprinters who have made it over the Pyrenees and Alps should have no difficulty negotiating a day such as this. However, those lumps will give Bora-Hansgrohe and Peter Sagan some hope of disrupting the stage and closing the gap on Sam Bennett in the race for the green jersey.

Weather forecast

We feared the September weather on this Tour, but aside from a very difficult start, the peloton has largely avoided the rain. This will still be the case again on Friday with temperatures touching 30 degrees.

Stat: 12

After 18 stages, 12 countries have won at least one stage (Norway, France, Australia, Slovenia, Belgium, Kazakhstan, Ireland, Switzerland, Colombia, Denmark, Germany, Poland). This 2020 edition therefore equals the 2007 record. There are three days left to do better. Riders from Italy, Spain and Slovakia have notably not yet won on the Tour this year.

The rider to watch: Peter Sagan

Will Peter Sagan play his last card on this 19th stage? There is a good chance. On Sunday on the Champs-Elysées he will not be the favourite against the pure sprinters. So on Friday the Slovakian will hope to drop Bennett and the other speedsters during the roller coaster through the Jura. But even if he does he will still have to beat Wout Van Aert on the final straight. Nothing is guaranteed, but the Slovak has one last chance to save his Tour.

Stage 19 profile

Where can I watch it?

The opening stage of the Tour de France will be available to watch live and in full on Eurosport 1 and online as a live stream on the Eurosport Player streaming platform.

The coverage will feature Bradley Wiggins as an expert analyst throughout the Tour de France, and a new addition to Eurosport’s cycling coverage will be interviews and analysis from Bernie Eisel.

The Breakaway, a post-stage review show will be available to watch online after each Tour de France stage on the Eurosport Player streaming platform and the GCN App.

The Bradley Wiggins Show podcast will continue throughout the Tour, with 10 full episodes released across the three weeks.

Next: Everything you need to know about Stage 20