Here’s Jeremy Whittle’s report from Isola

Mark Cavendish makes another time limit.

Gary Naylor asks: “I know it’s a time trial, but should Tadej have a glass of champagne on the bike for the cameras as the yellow jersey usually does on the last stage?”

Or this perhaps?

King of the Mountains

• 1. Richard Carapaz (ECU) EF Education - EasyPost 101

• 2. Tadej Pogacar (SLO) UAE Team Emirates 87

• 3. Jonas Vingegaard (DEN) Team Visma - Lease a Bike 59

• 4. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Team Visma - Lease a Bike 53

• 5. Remco Evenepoel (BEL) Soudal - Quick-Step 44

• 6. Oier Lazkano (ESP) Movistar Team 41

• 7. Jonas Abrahamsen (NOR) Uno-X Mobility 36

• 8. Wilco Kelderman (NED) Team Visma - Lease a Bike “

• 9. David Gaudu (FRA) Groupama - FDJ 30

• 10. Simon Yates (GBR) Team Jayco - AlUla

Double points on the Bonette meant that Carapaz takes command of the polka. Expect to see him defending that on tomorow's stage, featuring yet more climbing.

Tadej Pogacar, winner of stage 19 and dominant race leader, speaks: “Queen stage, now I can confirm the Bonette is a scary climb. I had good legs together. I knew this climb super well. We did it exactly like we said, 100% perfect. We were setting a pace on Bonette. The main goal was to take the stage. I was a little bit empty when I catch Carapaz and Simon Yates, and when I went past Mateo I killed my legs. All the breakaway guys were super-strong. We’re looking better than ever. Tomorrow I can enjoy the stage, and maybe we let the breakaway go. Let’s go an enjoy tomorrow. Every year I average three stage wins and I hope I can continue.”

Adam Yates, UAE teammate of Pogacar speaks: “Tadej shows he has crazy power, crazy power. We go full gas and he attacks.” He speaks of his twin brother Simon, third today. “He was a little bit sick, I think I’ve got the same illness.”

Derek Gee – a fine ride from the Canadian – is one of those coming in. The countback begins for the grupetto, all over that final hill. Perhaps some of them need to start it first.

Jorgenson dips his head to come home a gallant, unlucky second. Simon Yates finishes third, another day where’ he’s missed out on the stage win. Carapaz comes in, a Grand Tour winner blown away, like so many others. Evenepoel and Vingegaard touch gloves as they come over together. Vingegaard is in tears as he meets his partner. That was desperately hard. And he knows the Tour is lost. It’s left to Jorgenson – and his wife - to console him.

2km to go: This is cruel on Jorgenson, and the stage victories are piling up. Mark Cavendish might be getting worried. There’s 65m between them as the American reaches the 2km marker. He looks behind him in submission.

3km to go: So, the race comes down to whether Pogacar can make it to Jorgenson, who is forging on. Yates is in sight. Jorgenson has lost three minutes in a matter of kilometres This has been a cannibalistic ride: Yates is chewed up and spat out, utterly incapable of staying on the wheel.

4km to go: The gap to Simon Yates is 22 seconds, and it’s under a minute to Jorgenson. Carapaz doesn’t have the legs and will be losing virtual polka. Back in the field, Evenepoel is attacking, and Vingegaard is his target.

6km to go: A minute already put into Vingegaard, and Pogacar is on the brink of regaining Le Tour and doubling it up with the Giro. The greats do that double: Pantani, Indurain, Roche, Hinault, Merckx, Anquetil, Coppi. Froome attempted it in 2008 and lost to Geraint Thomas.

7km to go: Evenepoel and Vingegaard just have to pace each other along. They have no answer to Pogacar, who is gobbling everything in sight.

9km to go: Jorgenson has a good chance here, the Paris-Nice winner, and Dwars door Vlaanderen in Belgium, too. Carapaz, a true mountain goat, gives chase, while Simon Yates hangs on with grim face with Carapaz escaping from him. The gap drops to 20 seconds.

11km to go: Carapaz is leading the chasers but dropping 26 seconds behind or so. Carlos Rodriguez – 6th on GC for Team Ineos/Big Sir Jim – looks to have cracked. Adam Yates is leading the UAE train but the gap is three minutes to the Carapaz group. The peloton is thinning down and down.

13km to go: The break is down to four – Jorgenson, Kelderman, Yates and Carapaz. Jorgenson decides to go for it, the American chasing the stage win. Perhaps the plan to be the satellite rider for Vingegaard has been abandoned. He’s gone well clear of three tired chasers.

14km to go: The breakaway bunch seem a little hesitant as the climb begins. Not so UAE. Sivakov, their previous engine, is gone, and now Adam Yates is pulling them along. Bernal is one burned off the back, after a radio discussion triggered an escape. Pogacar is reducing his load to naught, and on a course he knows well, the attack is to be launched

20km to go: Roland gets in touch: “You say that Vingegaard is waiting and waiting, but maybe he’s just hanging on? The Pog has seemed head and shoulders above everybody else so far this season and maybe the Danish rider has realized this and is trying to cement his second place, allowing his trusted lieutenants their day in the sun as the race closes in on its finish? After all, if he hasn’t attacked yet, there’s no way he’s going to take more than three minutes out of a Pog on top form and looking invincible, neither today nor tomorrow, nor the time trial combined.”

Maybe. Let’s see. It’s raining at the summit. Not that a Dane and a Slovenian will be any strangers to rain.

25km to go: There’s under 10km to that final climb. This stage seems to have gone in the blink of an eye, and yet the plot is yet to reveal itself.

28km to go: Peter Craig gets in touch: “To respond to Shaun, I’m not aware that riders use different tyres if there’s a long descent but they’re all on wider tyres nowadays - up from Marco Pantani’s 21mm to 28, or even more for the cobbled classics - all run at much lower pressures. Campanaerts used super fast TT tyres for his breakaway exploits yesterday and found the descents a bit sketchy. Hope they all stay safe today.”

The descent reaches into a valley. A flat spot will soon come, and those in the break will have to work together. Egan Bernal receives a bike change, and will try to get back on in the peloton.

30km to go: Nils Politt is back with the peloton and leading Pogacar’s safe progress. Vingegaard is waiting and waiting but has benefit of nobody around him, where Team UAE have a blanket of security around their main man.

35km to go: The speed of this race is relentless, and so far, even if Guillame Martin has had a few difficulties, we’re yet to have a crash. There’s no rest for the nerves. The effort of staying in touch is sheer anxiety. The gap remains around four minutes.

45km to go: William Preston gets in touch: “There’s something beautiful about a summer’s day in the mountains. It’s made even better that it’s the antepenultimate stage, and as a strong gaggle of cyclists ascend the roads, they gradually shell out the slower ones, until there’s only one.

“I think Pogacar is going to go for it. He’s surely going to really put a stomp on his authority over this cohort of cyclists, despite their their thrillingly heroic efforts to break him. It’s a mesmerizing watch, he’s a machine and a half. What can be done, or should we all just enjoy it? Is Thomas on his swansong? Do all the polka dot jerseys come from the Caravan of Tat that precedes the race? I know there’s some hats and so on, but is it a supermarket purchase? Have a great day and thanks for all the coverage so far.”

So does Stephanie Wilson: “Do the riders who are in the green jersey group today get a longer time to finish given the climbs/altitude they have to do. Given that the bulk of them aren’t climbers!!” They’re being given 3% leeway, we are told. If the grupetto comes in as one, then there may not be a time cutoff.

Shaun O’Hara asks another question: “What bike settings are optimum for downhill? What tyre options are there depending on the road surface?”

47km to go: The speed of the descent is terrifying, and Carapaz continues to drive the break on. Pogacar is surrounded by teammates as they continue on this lengthy, 35km descent. Vingegaard is there, watchful, and so is Evenepoel. The clicks dropping quicker and quicker. The big showdown will have to happen on the final climb.

60km to go: Hindley, Simon Yates, Carapaz, Jorgenson, Kelderman and Cristian Rodriguez are the remainders of the breakaway with 3km left to climb. The peloton is so small as to resemble a breakaway group itself. The altitude is high, the air thin. No jokes about carbon monoxide now. The two Visma riders lead the break. They continue to stretch the elastic. This doesn’t lool like it has the drama of 1993 yet. The winner that day was Tony Rominger.

62km to go: It feels like La Bonette may not be where the attack happens but with darkening weather, and the possibility of rain, there are tangible factors afoot. Carapaz, the gap dropping to 3’40”, is determined to claim those polka points.

65km to go: Politt steps aside, having reduced the pack to under 20 riders. Pogacar offers his thanks, though it seems that the UAE team want Politt to stay in the pack to accompany his leader down the hill. A squad of white jerseys surround the yellow. Vingegaard is rather more lonely.

68km to go: The speed with which they are attacking this legendary hill is something else. Geraint Thomas has been spat from the back. UAE are eating up the road, the gap coming down. When do the wildcat attacks start? Possibly not until later. The two groups snake their way up the hill.

72km to go: Nils Politt is giving the peloton a pull for Team UAE. Up ahead, the Visma pair of Jorgensen and Kelderman are driving the breakaway, the aim being to crack the main group. Still 15km to climb.

80km to go: After that excitement over that first climb and the descent, Pogacar and the main contenders take on refreshment. Pogacar throws his bottle into the Team Intermarche car. He has mountain points to defend – should Carapaz take double points on top of the Bonette, the Ecuadorian will be in virtual polka. The UAE riders are told to follow “the Gorka nutrition plan”.

85km to go: Richard Carapaz is eating a banana as he’s flying through the valleys. Nils Politt leads the peloton as it fans behind him. The Bonette beckons.

95km to go: The speeds of the descent are up to 100km/h, and terrifying. The gap to the peloton is 3’40”. That’s getting larger but it’s bridgeable. A lot of energy has been consumed by the breakaway. All eyes on Vingegaard after his crash in the Tour of the Baque country, even if he’s proved his mettle already. Mere mortals would have lost their nerve.

107km to go: The road winds up and up, on and on, and this climb looks to have been used by Visma to set up the Vingegaard charge. The hope is that UAE and Pogacar crack. It’s a high-risk strategy – but one that can deliver yellow back to the defending champion. The word from Adam Blythe on the Discovery motorbike is that Pogacar looks full of beans. Nils Politt continues to pull along a reduced peloton.

110km to go: The gap to the peloton is 1’ 30”, and the sprinters are approaching five minutes behind the yellow jersey group. Food and drink are being taken on. It’s been gruelling so far.

Here’s that lead group: Matteo Jorgenson, Wilco Kelderman (Visma-Lease a Bike), Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla), Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale), Ilan Van Wilder (Soudal-Quick Step), Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), Cristian Rodríguez (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Oscar Onley (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL.)

115km to go: Neilson Powless paces Carapaz to the front, and that means Romain Bardet is dropped back. No heroics from the people’s champion today. Simon Yates makes it across, too, and Visma, having planted the early detonation, find that Vingegaard is rather lonesome in the GC group. Still 13 clicks to the top of this climb. Brutal scenes.

118km to go: Here we go on that opening climb, 18km or so, an often steep gradient. Simon Yates, denied the other day by Carapaz, is joining the vanguard. In the peloton, Marc Soler is setting a pace for UAE that has meant Wout van Aert has been shelled. A few years back, Van Aert was capable of competing in the highest mountains. The word is out: Pogacar wants this one. Louis Meintjes, breakaway king, has a dig.

120km to go: Three chasers – Carapaz, Romain Bardet and…Egan Bernal. The former champion has had a chastening Tour. That crash continues to take it out of him. The opening break is beginning to shell riders, including Laporte – bad news for Team Visma.

In other news: Jasper Philipsen is way out the back already. That would close the door on Girmay winning green. There’s been an extra allowance for stragglers today.

123km to go: Bryan Coquard takes the intermediate sprint but he’s nowhere near touching distance of Girmay. The gap reduces to 45 seconds after a bit of chicanery. Back in the field, the other sprinters are coagulating into the grupetto. Now, is the peloton catching them up? Some good work by Matt Healy and Sean Quinn of EF Education, working for Carapaz, who goes after the break. The Olympic champion is going for it once more.

125km to go: This course is full of small bits of descent followed by sharp climbs and hairpins. Treacherous stuff. There’s an intermediate sprint coming but the likes of Girmay and Philipsen will be nowhere near it. The gap is a minute now to the GC group. Those in the breakaway’s task, should they be up for it, is to act as bridges for Vingegaard. That relies on tactics and legs. The best-laid plans? Visma are going for it.

130km to go: One absentee from the breakaway is Richard Carapaz, who is chasing polka-dot points. Does that mean his EF-Education team will push hard to get their man up the road, lending help to UAE? It does. Ineos Grenadiers need something from Carlos Rodriguez too.

Reminder of the standings there.

• 1. Tadej Pogacar (SLO) UAE Team Emirates 77

• 2. Jonas Vingegaard (DEN) Team Visma - Lease a Bike 58

• 3. Remco Evenepoel (BEL) Soudal - Quick-Step 42

• 4. Oier Lazkano (ESP) Movistar Team 41

• 5. Richard Carapaz (ECU) EF Education - EasyPost 37

• 6. Jonas Abrahamsen (NOR) Uno-X Mobility 36

• 7. David Gaudu (FRA) Groupama - FDJ 30

• 8. Carlos Rodríguez (ESP) INEOS Grenadiers 24

• 9. Ben Healy (IRL) EF Education - EasyPost 21

• 10. Tobias Johannessen (NOR) Uno-X Mobility 19

135km to go: It’s a sizeable group, with plenty of quality within it to cause problems. It’s full of one-day, puncheur and climbers. The gap is out to 35 seconds as UAE deliberate, with super domestiques Soler and Politt seemingly caught at cross purposes. Early anxiety. There’s a third Visma rider – Wilco Kelderman – that break of 22 riders. Or is it 25?

140km to go: Breakaways! Christophe Laporte – of Team Visma – is among it. As is Matteo Jorgensen, from the same team. What will UAE – Pogacar’s team – do? The gap is 10 seconds or thereabouts. A lot more work required to go away and stay away.

The Bonette looks like the hill upon which to die for the contenders.

Pippa York, as shown below, knows all about these climbs. Here’s her expert view. And, yes, someone put her back on the telly. Few speak with such expertise.

Could be another day when we see Cav expertly dart for the line, and make the time limit. Though with so many tired riders and the sprints all but done, the grupetto is bound to be large.

Thursday’s race saw a very popular winner but another disappointment for the Big Sir Jim team.

William Fotheringham’s verdict on stage 19

An early green jersey sprint is the last time we will see the sprinters in action, and after that it’s a climber’s day. The Col de Vars is a brute, but the Bonette is in a class of its own, the highest ascent the Tour tackles. Some will recall Robert Millar’s gutsy escape over that monster in 1993; as on that day, the chances of a break getting to the finish are minimal as the overall battle will take centre stage.