Clement Champoussin has won Stage 20 at the 2021 La Vuelta a Espana surprising the main general classification riders in the final two kilometres.
Clement Champoussin took the top four general classification riders by surprise, coming up behind them and dashing ahead in front too fast for them to catch in the final two kilometers to win Stage 20 at the 2021 La Vuelta a Espana.
It is the Frenchman’s first stage win after playing a supportive role for his AG2R-Citroen teammates.
He was also passed over several times for inclusion in the team before finally being added on April 1 this year.
Clement Champoussin stages surprise attack after being in the breakaway
Champoussin was one of many in the breakaway that occurred at 50 kilometers to go and bided his time.
The breakaway splintered into several groups on and off as different riders attacked and took the lead all while trying to chase down Ryan Gibbons who was out in front from 60 kilometers to go.
While many general classification riders got caught with the breakaway split such as Egan Bernal and Miguel Angel Lopez, others got into the breakaway with support riders and those aiming for a stage win.
Champoussin was in group three on the road for most of the time with Primoz Roglic in the red jersey and Adam Yates, Jack Haig and Enric Mas and despite being dropped a few times, fought his way back on several times.
The group caught the second group of chasers in front of them as they hit the base of the final climb and then splintered as Haig, Mas, Roglic and Yates played cat and mouse with each other.
The four eventually caught up to Gibbons and then passed him as others in the group caught up to them.
But while they battled each other in the climb up to the finish, Champoussin snuck up behind them and sped up and rode past them, catching them by surprise as no one had kept tabs on where he was in the race.
He managed to ride past them fast enough that they could not make up the difference quick enough and he got to the finish line with Roglic coming in second behind him.
2021 La Vuelta a Espana overall race standings after Stage 20
Roglic maintains his overall race lead and with one stage left to go, that is a team trial stage, is set to win La Vuelta a Espana for the third time.
Mas is in second place overall with Haig in third place and Yates close behind in fourth.
The rest of the standings got a shakeup as Lopez who won Stage 18 fell behind in the general classification standings after the breakaway and then was believed to have abandoned the race at around 30 to 40 kilometers to go though this has yet to be officially confirmed at the time of writing.
Gino Mader is now in fifth place, Bernal hung on to sixth place with Sepp Kuss in seventh.
Guilliame Martin is in eighth place with de la Cruz in ninth and Fredric Grossschartner in tenth place.
Odd Christian Eiking remains just outside the top ten in eleventh place.
Tomorrow’s stage is the final stage but many of the winners have been determined.
Roglic will take the red jersey and the overall race win, while Bernal has now lost the young rider’s white jersey to Mader.
Fabio Jakobsen holds the green sprints points jersey while Michael Storer is now the mountain points winner with teammate Romain Bardet in the second spot.
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