I won't lie, I missed most of today's stage. HOWEVER, I had good reason. You know the independent quarterly I've hollered about a few times in this newsletter? WE'RE FUNDED YOU GUYS. If you donated, I can't thank you enough. You're going to get a killer zine. If you haven't pre-ordered, you can click here and name your own price above $1 to pre-order our first issue.

Thank you thank you THANK YOU.

Anyway, I think this is the gist of the first 120 kilometers: Remi Cavagna went on a breakaway and the peloton was happy to let him have his fun.

I started paying proper attention at the intermediate sprint with fewer than 50 kilometers to go, which was apparently perfect timing. Soren Kragh Andersen would ultimately win the stage, solidifying Sunweb as the darlings of this year's Tour, but before that moment there was about an hour and a half of tactical positioning and attacks that felt more like the proceedings of a Classics race, not a late-Tour stage just ahead of a time trial.

Just after the intermediate sprint, which Sam Bennett took ahead of Peter Sagan and teammate Michael Morkov, a proper breakaway formed and gradually swelled. First, Pierre Rolland, Luke Rowe and Benoit Cosnefroy joined Cavagna with a 27-second advantage over the peloton being driven by a sleepy Jumbo-Visma. Then riders began to bridge, until a group of four riders became 14 with 36.4 kilometers to go: Tim Declercq, Valentin Madouas, Jasper Stuyven, Greg Van Avermaet, Pierre-Luc Perichon, Omar Fraile, Nils Politt, Mathieu Burgaudeau, Casper Pedersen and Kragh Andersen, in addition to Cosnefroy, Rowe, Rolland and Cavagna.

Mitchelton-Scott and Bora-Hansgrohe, unhappy with the firepower in that group, took the reins from Jumbo-Visma and chased the peloton back on with 35k to go, then put their own riders in a new breakaway.

The group that would produce the stage winner began with seven riders: Sagan (Bora) and Bennett (Deceuninck-Quick Step) most notably, accompanied by Rowe (Ineos), Van Avermaet (CCC), Kragh Andersen (Sunweb), Jack Bauer (Mitchelton-Scott) and Oliver Naesen (AG2R La Mondiale). With under 25k to go, and the peloton perfectly at ease, five more riders joined -- Dries Devenyns (Deceuninck), Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo), Matteo Trentin (CCC), Luka Mezgec (Mitchelton) and Nikias Arndt (Sunweb) -- and the group's lead was pushed to 1:21.

That's a fun group! One you would expect to see scrapping across cobblestones in Flanders, not necessarily duking out what could have been a slow sprint stage. Edvald Boasson Hagen, Bryan Coquard and Hugo Hofstetter tried to chase onto the group, too, but by that point in the stage riders were pedal-down racing and the trio had no chance of bridging.

Sagan tried to push the tempo in the breakaway, knowing that Bennett isn't the best rouleur. But Bennett had good legs, and even stayed on Sagan's wheel when Trentin attacked with 16.7k to go.

After the stage, Trentin expressed frustration that Sagan hauled him in, essentially accusing Sagan of doing Bennett's dirty work (nevermind that Trentin is threatening Sagan's place in the points classification). Bennett admitted that he "probably raced in a very frustrating way for the others" by sitting on their wheels to preserve the green jersey. It was a job well done: If the green jersey competition wasn't over before Friday, it sure is now, with Bennett holding a 55-point lead in the standings.

More importantly, Trentin's attack set the table for Kragh Andersen's winning move. With his rivals' legs still stinging from the acceleration, Kragh Andersen leaned into a right hand bend on a subtle descent and took off with 15.5k to go. Van Avermaet tried to chase with Bauer on his wheel, but couldn't gap.

Then the breakaway largely watched as Kragh Andersen expanded his lead. Either nobody had the legs to chase, or everybody was watching each other hoping someone else would make the first move. Either way, they hesitated far too long. Stuyven, who was without a teammate, tried to go after Kragh Andersen with 12k to go, but quickly fell back without any help. With 6k to go, Kragh Andersen had nearly a full minute lead.

Back down the road, Jumbo-Visma sat up and smiled, their hard work as a team over for the Tour. Bauer pushed late, but the move was futile. It was clear to everyone that Kragh Andersen had the stage bagged ... except no one told Kragh Andersen.

As the final kilometers ticked away, Kragh Andersen began shouting "TIME TIME" to the motorbike ushering him to the line. He went solo with no earpiece, and nothing indicating what chasers may have been breathing down his neck.

Kragh Andersen gunned it for the line in the purest sense and earned his second stage win of this year's Tour. There may have been no better way to cap the last true race day of the most fun-and-gun Tour I can remember.

All the better that it gave me an excuse to make terrible jokes on Twitter.

Today has been a very good day.

I'm going to miss the fun we had

With not much happening for the first two hours, Friday was a FIELD ART/TRACTOR EXTRAVAGANZA!

I love a good Marseillaise.

The standings

STAGE 19

1. Soren Kragh Andersen (Sunweb) -- 3hr 36min 33sec
2. Luke Mezgec (Mitchelton-Scott) -- +53sec
3. Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo) -- "
4. Greg Van Avermaet (CCC) -- "
5. Oliver Naesen (AG2R La Mondiale) -- "
6. Nikias Arndt (Sunweb) -- "
7. Luke Rowe (Ineos) -- +59sec
8. Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quick Step) -- +1min 02sec
9. Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) -- "
10. Matteo Trentin (CCC) -- "

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION

1. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) — 83hr 29min 41sec
2. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) -- +57sec
3. Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) – +1min 27sec
4. Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo) -- +3min 06sec
5. Mikel Landa (Bahrain-McLaren) -- +3min 28sec
6. Enric Mas (Movistar) -- +4min 19sec
7. Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) — +5min 55sec
8. Rigoberto Uran (Education First) -- +6min 05sec
9. Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma) -- +7min 24sec
10. Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) — +12min 12sec

GREEN JERSEY

1. Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) — 319 points
2. Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) — 264
3. Matteo Trentin (CCC) — 250
4. Bryan Coquard (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept) -- 173
5. Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) -- 158

POLKA DOT JERSEY

1. Richard Carapaz (Ineos) --74 points
2. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) -- 72
3. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) -- 67
4. Marc Hirschi (Sunweb) -- 62
5. Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) -- 51

Stage 20 preview -- 36.2km from Lure to La Planche des Belles Filles (individual time trial)

Stage 20 will begin at 1 p.m. local, 7 a.m. ET, with riders starting their runs at regular intervals until 11:14 a.m. ET. For those watching from the United States, coverage will begin at 7 a.m. on NBCSN. (Here’s NBC’s complete broadcast schedule).

Don’t get that channel? You’ll need to pay, sadly. I really like the NBC Sports Gold Cycling Pass, which gives you a commercial-free stream as well as some handy race-tracking whatzits. The much cheaper option, however, is Peacock Premium, which costs $4.99 per month and will reportedly get you access to live coverage of every stage, though presumably with ads and without the whatzits.

If you can’t watch live and want access to replays, it appears Gold is your only way to go.

I'm lukewarm on time trials as entertainment, but there's no question that this will be one to watch. Primoz Roglic is one of the best chronomen in the world and should sew up his yellow jersey campaign Saturday, but Tadej Pogacar has vowed to race it like he can still win the whole damn thing.

Making the stage more intriguing is a decidedly uphill finish.

La Planche des Belles Filles has become a Tour favorite in recent years. It's a punchy climb with variating gradients that has consistently produced exciting finishes. (Its name also has a horrifying etymology that will be much-too-gleefully shared on the broadcast.)

That final climb is STEEP at some points, and could mess with riders who would be favored on a more traditional course.

Roglic should be fine with it; he's been climbing at a yellow-jersey level for three straight weeks. But if you'd like to give yourself some hope of chaos, there's always a chance he cracks at the worst possible time. Anyone who gets bogged down on La Planches des Belles Filles will be plummeting down the general classification.

Even if the yellow jersey intrigue is low, however, there's still final placing to be decided. Miguel Angel Lopez sits just 30 seconds back of Pogacar in second; Mikel Landa is just 22 seconds back of Richie Porte in fourth; and Rigoberto Uran is just 10 seconds back of Adam Yates in seventh.

There's also a TIGHT polka dot jersey competition with 10 points on offer to whoever climbs La Planche des Belles Filles the fastest. Currently, Richard Carapaz is in the lead by just two points in front of Pogacar, and seven points in front of Roglic.

Do you like gratuitous shots of Thibaut Pinot? Well the stage passes through his home town of Mélisey. Clearly, the Tour had high hopes for Pinot when it made this course. Pinot is nowhere near the yellow jersey, but he fought valiantly through back pain to make it this far. If nothing else, you should watch just to celebrate the man who has become the patron saint of this newsletter

Gandeuillot is a rare and fatty delicacy of the region, and the perfect accompaniment to one last lazy morning of cycling.