Egan Bernal secured the overall victory in the Route d’Occitanie on Tuesday, underlining his good form ahead of 2020 Tour de France.
Bernal placed fourth on the final stage, a 195km ride raced mainly through the popular hiking destination the Causses de Quercy national park, two seconds behind stage winner Benoit Cosnefroy.
“This was the stage that suited me best. I had the team to set me up and they did a crazy amount of work to do so,” said Cosnefroy. “Pierre [Latour] set a fierce pace on the front of the bunch, then Mikael [Chérel] and Romain [Bardet] got me in the right position at the foot of the climb. When Romain moved over, I just had to give everything I had, to make the kind of effort I’m best at.
The 23-year-old looks a nailed-on favourite to win this season’s Tour, which was postponed to August 29 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Chris Froome meanwhile finished way back in 37th place, nearly 10 minutes behind Bernal.
Route d’Occitanie 2020 – stage 4 results (Lectoure – Rocamadour):
| 1 | Benoit Cosnefroy (AG2R la Mondiale) | 4:23:28 |
| 2 | Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) | +02” |
| 3 | Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) | ,, |
| 4 | Egan Bernal (Team Ineos) | ,, |
| 5 | Alexandr Vlasov (Astana) | ,, |
| 6 | Alexis Vuillermoz (AG2R la Mondiale) | +07” |
| 7 | Pavel Sivakov (Team Ineos) | ,, |
| 8 | Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo) | ,, |
| 9 | Rafael Valls (Bahrain McLaren) | +10” |
| 10 | Warren Barguil (Arkea-Samsic) | +12” |
Route d’Occitanie 2020 – final general classification:
| 1 | Egan Bernal (Team Ineos) | 17:57:27 |
| 2 | Pavel Sivakov (Team Ineos) | +19” |
| 3 | Alexandr Vlasov (Astana) | +23” |
| 4 | Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) | +37” |
| 5 | Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) | +01’09” |
| 6 | Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo) | +01’26” |
| 7 | Warren Barguil (Arkea-Samsic) | +01’29” |
| 8 | Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) | +01’52” |
| 9 | Rafael Valls (Bahrain McLaren) | +01’57” |
| 10 | Sebastien Reichenbach (Groupama-FDJ) | +02’06” |
