Having finished in the top 15 in last year's Giro d'Italia, Yury Trofimov got his chance to ride for GC in tis year's Tour de France as Katusha leader. The Russian will end the race in 14th and is pleased to have gained valuable experience for future grand tours.

Every day in the Tour de France is a battle and today’s individual time trial provided a final proving ground for the riders looking to finish on the podium. In Saturday’s Stage 20, it was host country France looking to update history with French riders on the podium in Paris and for others it was about maintaining position for the general classification.

Katusha Team’s Gatis Smukulis put up the best result for the team riders, taking 24th on the 54 km hilly route from Bergerac to Périgueux.

"I am pretty satisfied with my result today. After three hard stages in the mountains I did not feel the freshness in the legs of course, but I still managed to get a good time on the course.  Tomorrow we will have the last sprint stage and I will try to do my best for Alex," explained Gatis Smukulis, referring to team sprinter Alexander Kristoff, who has won two stages in this year’s Tour.

Current time trial world champion Tony Martin had no problem earning the win, taking the best time of 1:06.21. His closest challenger was Tom Dumoulin at 1.38 off the pace with Jan Barta (NetApp) rounding out the stage podium at 1.47 behind Martin’s winning time. Race leader Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) took fourth. For Katusha’s Iurii Trofimov it was about maintaining his 14th position on the overall classification, a goal he met with today’s ride.

"It was a really hard race, especially in the hot weather. I gave my all today to save my position in GC. Normally this is not a bad result, but maybe I would have been better without the crash before the first mountain stages. Overall it was a tough but good Tour de France for me and I’ve gained valuable experience as a GC contender," said Iurii Trofimov. 

Only 137.5km remain to race in the 101st Tour de France. Sunday brings the ceremonial race from Évry into Paris where the last sprint will be contested on the world famous Champs-Élysées to bring the race to a conclusion.