Vuelta a Espana 2021 - Stage 20 as it happened: Clement Champoussin stuns Primoz Roglic and Adam Yates

Could I have been more wrong? Well, sometimes being wrong feels better than being right. Roglic, Mas, Yates and Haig were all ball-watching, marking each other out of contention for the stage victory, and in so doing opened a gap which Clement Champoussin was able to sneak through. The AG2R Citroen rider stole a march on them all for the biggest result of his career so far. Roglic rolls across the line in second, while Yates finishes the stage in third.

If I were a football commentator, I’d say it’s all going to come down to who wants it most, but I’m not and it isn’t. It will be one of the top four, however. Sorry Bizkarra and Champoussin.

With the four favourites watching each other, the rider from the Basque team goes over the top. This must be more airtime than the team in orange have had all Vuelta. Yates and Roglic push the pace again, finally catching Ryan Gibbons. It really is mano a mano, at this point.

Adam Yates waits a beat, then goes himself, overwhelming the Euskaltel rider in an instant. Who’s that behind Yates? Of course it’s Primoz... Looks like Gibbons could do with a rope. 20 seconds lead for him.

Over the red jersey group, which has caught the remains of the break of the day. That horrendous kicker comes in about 1km. “Life is about to get very very difficult,” says our commentator. There are a lot of riders in this group who are going to want the stage win, most notably Adam Yates who is looking very good.

Attacks coming thick and fast from the chasing group. They’re borne more out of desperation, it seems, than anything else, as none are prolonged, and all are extinguished almost before they ignite. It’s all playing into Gibbons’ hands, who just has to give it everything. He has team-mate Matteo Trentin behind him, should it come to it.

Who, Carlton Kirby asks, has got anything left?

King Kelly thinks not. There’s one not inconsiderable climb left, the Alto Castro de Herville. It contains sections with gradients in the high teens, and a good two kilometres of 10% plus. We’re sure to see something happen there from the second group on the road (if they haven’t been caught by then) or the red jersey gang. With his leader in the doldrums, Adam Yates has to have a stab at getting himself onto the podium, surely?

Good spot to watch a bit of bike racing. Ryan Gibbons wrestles with his bike, slows but continues to progress. The Roglic group is now only two minutes in arrears. Bardet has been reabsorbed by the chase group, which is a minute between both of them.

The light footed Frenchman decides the time is now. He rises out of the saddle to see if he can’t do something about that 90 second gap to Ryan Gibbons. There’s certainly enough rising road left for the catch to be made. 4k until Gibbons reaches the top of the Alto de Prado.

Mark Padun has been called back to assist Jack Haig, who now has two colleagues with him. Lopez’s goose looks cooked, as his group slows to an amble, with riders in it sitting up and stretching. Sean Kelly puts that down to poor race-reading on the Colombian’s part.

Still 1000km of climbing to go.

No, I’m not quite sure how that happened, but neither is Carlton Kirby or Dan Lloyd. Let’s just assume he descended very well into Baion, and swept past Padun, who is back in a group of eight chasers. Gibbons claims the intermediate sprint points, which won’t mean a whole lot to him, as he goes in search of the stage victory. The Alto de Prado, with accompanying bonification seconds, is coming up.

The roja group now has a lead of 2 minutes 30 over Bernal, Lopez et al and is about to catch the back of the breakaway. As it stands, Haig is onto the podium.

The Ukrainian has had enough of all the dithering and leaves the remnants of the break behind on a flat stretch of tarmac. Presumably he’s heard how well his team-mates are going behind him as well? Did that also factor in to his decision-making? Bahrain Victorious are in tasty positions all over the road.

No sooner do I press publish on the previous post, than the Colombian executes our prediction. Jack Haig follows, only for Adam Yates to take a swing himself. The red jersey follows that one, bringing the Movistar riders with him. This stage remains in the balance, and there are podium places up for grabs, even if the overall victory itself is all but settled. That has done for Lopez, and possibly Bernal himself, who are now members of the fourth group on the road. Roglic is riding with Gino Mader, Enric Mas, Adam Yates and Jack Haig.

Ineos have reduced the roja group to barely half a dozen riders on this climb, and there’s still about half of it left. Roglic has lost Sepp Kuss and now only has Steven Kruijswijk by his side. When will Bernal make his move?

Up the road, things are getting fracturious. Mark Padun turns to express his contempt for the effort his colleagues are putting in. Maybe they just don’t have the legs, Mark?

Lilian Calmejane, Bardet and Ryan Gibbons catch Trentin near the bottom of the Alto de Mougas, and are swiftly joined by Mark Padun of Bahrain Victorious. Having ditched the dead woon, the gap to the peloton appears to have settled somewhat. Tom Pidcock has done a lot of work on the front for Bernal and the Olympic mountain bike champion finally says "adios".

I suspect this is not the start of something serious and solo, but rather an attempt to bring a little impetus to proceedings. With the break’s advantage half what it was an hour ago and the category one climb coming up next, if they don’t stir their stumps their day could be numbered. Who will follow Trentin’s lead? Michael Storer took maximum points over the Alto de Mabia, by the way.

Now down below eight minutes. The lead has falled by more than 4.5 minutes in half an hour - that’s a significant trip over a rather short distance. Dan Lloyd still thinks the stage will be theirs but at this rate it'll be at five by the time we reach the biggest climbs of the day. 2.8km left of this one for the break. Will Team DSM knock it on the head once the jersey is secured? How will that alter the equation?

The British team has injected some real urgency into proceedings, and there are quite a few riders who won’t be too happy with that. Several have been shelled from the peloton already, as the break accelerates towards the second climb of the day, the Category 2, Alto de Mabia. This one looks a bit more challenging than the previous one, and I don't like the look of that road surface, either.

Michael Storer leads the breakaway under the KOM banner, to add three points to his advantage. Romain Bardet, true to his word, is buried in the belly of the group. Bizkarra takes the two points, and Champoussin the remainder. I think we’re pretty much done here.

Puccio and Pidcock bring Egan Bernal up to the head of affairs. Is the white jersey-wearer planning something? He’s currently in fifth place in the overall, with Jack Haig a handful of seconds ahead, and Miguel Angel Lopez with only another minute and a half’s advantage. Stranger things have happened...

Well, the breakaway is. I am nestled very much into my seat. The Alto de Vilachan is 6.5km long and averages 5.4%, so more of a warm-up than a true test. The riders aren’t putting too much into it on these lower slopes but we can expect Storer and Bardet at least to push things a bit as we approach the top.

As the Galician landscape bursts onto our screens, we find ourselves wondering if there will be any GC excitement at all today? With 150 seconds of deficit, and a time trial tomorrow - definitely not their turf - Movistar might decide they’re better off consolidating Mas’ and Lopez’s podium places. Jack Haig is a better tester than either of them, so one in the hand?

Are we already at the point where the stage is settled? As they head the peloton, Jumbo Visma seem satisfied to let it go, which means we can start looking a little more closely at our breakaway contenders. Besides Bardet and Storer, Mark Padun, who won two stages of this year’s Dauphine, Lilian Calemjane (Vuelta stage winner in 2016) and Matteo Trentin, who has stages of all three Grand Tours to his name, are the most likely to emerge, you’d say. If you'd like a good outside bet, try Stan Dewulf of AG2R Citroen. The 23 year-old Belgian has shown a lot of promise in this, his second Grand Tour, finishing 5th on stage 13.

As has been mentioned a few times, no Spanish rider has won a stage of this year’s Vuelta - or any Grand Tour this year - and with the time trial tomorrow, this is probably their last chance. Can Danny Navarro, Mikel Biskarra or Herrada break their duck? It looks like a tall order...

Having just said we’re expecting an intra-team tussle for the jersey, Romain Bardet has apparently said he’s happy for Storer to keep it, and is far more interested in adding a second stage to his record. “I’m not gonna race against Michael,” he said this morning. I'm not sure I'm thrilled about that, but it would be an impressive display if they can sew things up that simply. There are a few riders - 13 of them in the same breakaway - who might have something to say, however.

No surprise that the break contains the top two riders in the mountains competition, Michael Storer and Romain Bardet. The Australian Storer holds a slim lead of five points over his team-mate, Monsieur Bardet and it looks like they’ll be allowed to fight it out among themselves. The most important thing from Team DSM’s point of view is closing the window to Roglic as early as possible. The Slovenian is only six points behind Bardet in third.

We're about 40km from the foot of the first categorised climb, the Alto de Vilachan.

And it certainly is strong, and going some, averaging 40km/h nearly a quarter of the way through the stage. Our escapee-squadron is made up of the following riders:

Lilian Calmejane, Clément Champoussin, Stan Dewulf (AG2R-Citroën Team), Floris de Tier (Alpecin-Fenix), Mark Padun (Bahrain Victorious), Dani Navarro (Burgos-BH), Jesus Herrada (Cofidis), Mikel Bizkarra (Euskaltel Euskadi), Jan Hirt (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux), Sylvain Moniquet (Lotto Soudal), Nick Schultz (Team BikeExchange), Romain Bardet, Chris Hamilton, Michael Storer (Team DSM), Ryan Gibbons, Matteo Trentin (UAE Team Emirates).

They've got eight minutes over the red jersey group.

Bienvenido to the penultimate stage of La Vuelta 2021. We’ve got an enticing afternoon’s racing ahead of us, with five categorised climbs, all of which come in the second 100km, sure to show us who’s got what left in their legs.

For those wondering about the geography, we’re in the scenic Pontevedra province today, near Spain’s north-west coast. It’s 22 degrees and sunny - perfect weather for bike racing.

On a thrilling day in Galicia, during which the pendulum swung between the peloton and the breakaway with almost every pedal stroke, it was the break who ultimately prevailed in Monforte de Lemos as Danish powerhouse Magnus Cort completed a memorable hat-trick of Vuelta stage wins for EF Education-Nippo.

Supported by his American teammate Lawson Craddock in the breakaway, which had been reduced to just seven riders ahead of the finish, Cort out-kicked Portugal’s Rui Oliveira (UAE Team Emirates) and the American Quinn Simmons (Trek-Segafredo) in a pulsating finale.

Italy’s Andrea Bagioli (Deceuninck-QuickStep) and France’s Anthony Roux (Groupama-FDJ) competed the top five ahead of Denmark’s Andreas Kron (Lotto Soudal) before Craddock rolled over the line with both arms in his air as he celebrated his teammate’s third win of the race.

Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) finished safely in the bunch to tick off another day in red, with his third coronation in Spain now looking a formality.

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