Tour de France 2023 Stage 20 recap: Pinot denied as Pogacar wins and Vingegaard secures second triumph

Now the polka dot subplot has been sorted, the focus shifts to the stage win and the small matter of that final spot on the podium. With such a slender gap - still 1'15" for now - it would be a surprise to see one of these escapees go the distance. Especially if UAE and Jumbo Visma start to go for it behind on the next climb, the Petit Ballon.

That said, there is certainly enough class in this break - with Skjelmose, Pinot, Ciccone, Harper, Uran, Barguil and Pidcock all strong enough to contest for the win, ditto Van Gils, Vermaerke and Madouas, to be fair. It's just they may not get enough rope from the peloton.

The Italian celebrates that summit as if he's won the stage - and that's because he has all but become the first Italian since Claudio Chiappucci in 1992 to win the king of the mountains classification in the Tour. He just needs to stay on his bike all the way to Paris now. Can he perhaps add the icing on the cake with a stage win today for him or his Lidl-Trek team-mate Skjelmose?

The climbs are coming thick and fast today in the Vosges. We're now onto the Cat.3 Col de la Schlucht (4.3km at 5.4%). If Ciccone takes the points here then he will secure the polka dot jersey - even if Gall or Vingegaard take maximum points over the next two Cat.1 climbs. The gap is up to 1'10" for the 10 leaders but UAE and Jumbo are both riding with intent on the front of the pack.

The two groups have joined forces but their gap is only 55 seconds on the peloton, which is being led by both UAE and Jumbo who clearly fancy a win for themselves today. No gifts! Sepp Kuss is not there, mind - the American crashed early on and is a minute or so back. He could lose his place in the top 10 today. The gruppetto is almost six seconds back.

The 10 leaders are: Pidcock, Madouas, Pinot, Uran, Ciccone, Skjelmose, Vermaerke, Harper, Barguil and Val Gils.

The Italian has one hand on the KOM trophy after picking up another 5pts over the summit of the third of six climbs - stretching his lead over Felix Gall to 21pts. A reminder that the leaders are Ciccone, Skjelmose, Pidcock, Harper, Barguil, Van Gils... and THIBAUT PINOT!

The local rider is a man on a mission after ditching the chase group and riding over to the leaders ahead of the summit of the third climb. What a magical story this would be...

The Cat.2 Col de Grosse Pierre is 3.2km long at a spiky average gradient of 8%. Things are coming to a boil nicely with Pinot trying to bridge over to the break and UAE's Mikkel Bjerg now piling on the pressure on the front of the pack ahead of the Jumbo-Visma train.

Kung is quickly dropped from the second group - not too much of a surprise given his size - and the Groupama baton has been passed on to Pinot and the French champion Madouas.

A flurry of attacks just ahead of the summit saw five riders join forces with Kung and Izagirre to form a seven-man chase group. The new additions are Valentin Madouas and Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), Rigo Uran (EF), Kevin Vermaeke (DSM) and Chris Harper (Jayco-AlUla).

The six leaders have 30 seconds on the seven pursuers and one minute on the pack, with the green jersey gruppetto three minutes back.

The Italian is led out by Skjelmose once again as he zips clear and crests the summit of the second climb in pole position. That's another 5pts for Ciccone - and with the rest of the break mopping up the remaining points, his lead over Felix Gall grows to 16pts in the king of the mountains standings. A trip to the podium in Paris is almost secured.

Sean Kelly always said that he felt the wheels would come off Tadej Pogacar's challenge in the third week and so he has a good track record when it comes to his predictions with Pogacar.

Pidock, Ciccone, Skjelmose, Neilands, Barguil and Van Gils are the six remaining escapees on the front of the race, with a 30-second lead over a reformed pack that has Bora on its nose. Kung and Izagirre are somewhere stuck in between, while the other escapees have been caught.

Carlos Rodriguez is back with the pack after his crash but Sepp Kuss is around 30 seconds behind - the American went down even harder than the Spaniard in separate but very similar incidents.

The riders are now on the Cat.2 Col de la Croix des Moinats (5.2lm at 7%) and it has really blown apart. Not least in the breakaway, which is being driven by Van Gils, Ciccone, Neilands and Barguil, who have opened up a little gap over a pursing Skjelmose and Pidcock. Landa, Alaphilippe and Burgeaudau may well be caught by a quartet of Bora riders who went clear at the start of the climb in an apparent bid to pull Hindley over to the break. The likes of Van der Poel, Powless, Izagirre and Kung have also been dropped by the break.

It's the Bora team of Jai Hindley who have five riders on the front of the pack and ahead of the UAE train as they lead the chase ahead of the second climb. The gap is around 30 seconds and it looks like the break has dropped Mikel Landa and Mathieu Burgeaudau, who appear to be riding somewhere in between.

The yellow jersey has dropped back into the peloton with his team-mate Dylan Van Baarle and Michal Kwiatkowski of Ineos Grenadiers. No surprise given the crashes to their respective team-mates Kuss and Rodriguez. That will work in favour of the breakaway - although there's still a big battle from the pack behind with many riders trying to join the fun.

Amid those crashes and the split, we missed the intermediate sprint at Fresse-sur-Moselle, which Mads Pedersen won to consolidate his second place in the green jersey standings.

The riders in this move are: Jonas Vingegaard and Dylan Baarle (Jumbo-Visma), Michal Kwiatkowski and Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers), Stefan Kung (Groupama-FDJ), Nielson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost), Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep), Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious), Giulio Ciccone, Mattias Skjelmose and Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin--Deceuninck), Ion Izagirre and Axel Zingle (Cofidis), Krists Neilands (Israel-PremierTech), Warren Barguil (Arkea-Samsic), Maxim van Gils (Lotto Dstny) and Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies).

The gap is just 15 seconds and this might not stick - especially with Barguil having a word with the yellow jersey, whose presence is causing a big chase from UAE behind.

Replays show Rodriguez losing his front wheel on the corner and going down hard. He was riding just behind Vingegaard - and indeed the yellow jersey found himself just on the right side of a split as a result. The Dane is in a 18-man move now with around 20 seconds on the peloton, which is being driven by Tadej Pogacar's UAE team-mates. Rodriguez is a further minute back.

It also looks like Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) has gone down as well. He also has a nasty cut on his forehead, elbow and knees. The American is currently receiving medical attention.

The Spaniard is off the back with an Ineos Grenadier team-mate - Omar Fraile - after losing control on one of these tight hairpin bends. The Spaniard has a cut to his left elbow and arm, and also above his left eyebrow and a graze on the chin - with blood pouring down his face. Rodriguez won Stage 14 to Morzine and was knocking on the door to the podium today - but that looks unlikely now.

Neilson Powless put in an attack after the summit and his move was countered by a handful of riders, including Julian Alaphilippe. It's the Frenchman who is now on the nose of a strung-out peloton - sniffing out any move that might come. Mathieu van der Poel is also in the mix and one of the Israel-PremierTech riders - perhaps Krists Neilands. Clinging onto the back of the peloton, meanwhile, is Pierre Latour, who had openly admitted to having a pathological fear of descending.