[5] On 14 April 2020 the International Cycling Union (UCI) announced the start of the 2020 Tour would be postponed until 29 August 2020, with the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España to follow in October.

Bernal's teammates, Geraint Thomas, who won in 2018, as well as four-time Tour winner Chris Froome, both did not participate after sub-par showings in the Critérium du Dauphiné.

Other riders considered as top contenders included: Miguel Ángel López (Astana), Romain Bardet, Emanuel Buchmann (Bora–Hansgrohe), who finished fourth in the previous year's Tour, Mikel Landa (Bahrain–McLaren), Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), Daniel Martínez (winner of the Critérium du Dauphiné), Nairo Quintana (Arkéa–Samsic), Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), who finished third in the 2019 Vuelta a España, Richie Porte and Bauke Mollema (Trek–Segafredo).

[9][10] One of many outside contenders was Julian Alaphilippe, who wore the yellow jersey for 14 days the previous year and managed to finish fifth, but the Frenchman confirmed that his focus would be on winning stages and not targeting the general classification.

Bernal's teammate Pavel Sivakov, as well as Colombian duo Sergio Higuita and Daniel Martínez (EF Pro Cycling), and David Gaudu (Groupama–FDJ) were also expected to do well in this classification.

[20] Despite the peloton calling a truce in the interest of safety, Miguel Ángel López, John Degenkolb, Philippe Gilbert, Caleb Ewan, Rafael Valls, Julian Alaphilippe, George Bennett and many other riders were involved in crashes, causing several of them to abandon.

Alexander Kristoff was involved in this crash, but because the sprinters' teams and leadout trains were not operating at top speed, as they would under normal conditions, he was able to make his way back to the front and beat the defending World Champion Mads Pedersen, as well as Bol, Bennett, Sagan and Viviani to win the stage and take the yellow jersey.

[22] Attacks began early with Cosnefroy, Asgreen, Skujiņš, Gogl, Trentin, Sagan, Postlberger and Perez forming the escape bunch, but were unable to gain more than three minutes from the peloton.

By the time the main field reached the summit, the gap had closed to two minutes, as many riders were dropped from the peloton including the yellow jersey of Kristoff and Mads Pedersen.

Led by the Jumbo squad of Primož Roglič and Tom Dumoulin, the peloton chased, but the trio managed to stay away on the descent and build a small gap.

The yellow jersey also switched riders as race leader Julian Alaphilippe accepted food inside 20 km to go, which is a penalty for safety reasons, and was docked twenty seconds.

The stage saw a large group of riders form an escape bunch including Van Avermaet, Roche, Cavagna, Powless, Herrada, Lutsenko, Oss and Edvald Boasson Hagen.

[31] The plan worked out for both teams as not only were the sprinters and contenders for the stage win in Bennett, Nizzolo, Kristoff, Bol and Ewan left behind, but so were many of Bernal's competitors in the GC who lost over a minute by the end of the day.

Riders who had their hopes at victory or a podium finish take a serious hit included Mollema, Pogačar, Landa, Porte and Carapaz while Bernal, Roglič, Dumoulin, Lopez, Yates, Urán, Pinot, Bardet, Quintana and Guillaume Martin survived in the lead group securing their position.

The most significant breakaway attempt of the day came from veteran Belgian rider Thomas De Gendt, who rode solo for about 60 kilometers, but he was caught by the lead group long before the finish.

The intermediate sprint was won by Cousin with Cosnefroy defending the polka dot jersey taking maximum points on the first climb of the day which was the infamous Col de Menté.

Cosnefroy jumped out front in the first 10 km in defense of the polka dot jersey and Swiss rider Marc Hirschi made a serious attack to escape but it never materialized.

About eight other riders tried bridging the gap up to him and formed an escape group including Thibaut Pinot attempting to set something up for his Groupama–FDJ teammates to go for a stage win, Sébastien Reichenbach among them.

Also taking their shot was Warren Barguil, Omar Fraile, Lennard Kämna and Dani Martínez, but they were not able to catch Hirschi, who had a gap extending beyond +2:00 and was the only rider up the road.

It would as the escapees never extended their lead much beyond +2:00 and were back within the bunch about 70 kilometers into the race at which point team Ineos Grenadiers and EF Pro Cycling took control of the pace.

Coquard, Greipel, Pedersen and Elia Viviani were all there in the end but the podium was filled by Sagan, Ewan and Sam Bennett, who claimed his first stage win in the Tour de France.

In the final kilometers the leadout trains formed for Sagan and Bennett, who were fighting for the green jersey, as well as those going for the stage win in Coquard, Hoffstetter, Pedersen, Ewan, Van Aert, Mezgec and Clément Venturini of AG2R La Mondiale who was being led out by Oliver Naesen.

Sagan was able to claim more points than Bennett in the sprints but Team Sunweb was working hard to control the bunch as they had several surviving riders including Benoot, Andersen, Hirschi and even their sprinter Cees Bol, virtually any one of whom would be capable of winning the stage.

[40] Inside 12 km to go numerous attacks came one after another from some of the strongest riders in the sport including Van Avermaet, Alaphilippe, Sagan, De Gendt, Benoot and Hirschi but all of these attempts were contained.

Andersen crossed the line alone claiming his first Tour stage win and +0:15 later Simone Consonni and Luka Mezgec rounded out the podium ahead of Peter Sagan who finished 4th.

"[42] Overall Roglič was still in command of the maillot jaune by +0:40 over Pogačar and +1:34 over Rigoberto Urán, with López, Yates, Porte and Landa within about two minutes going into the final rest day.

Martin eventually got dropped as the gap to the breakaway continued to steadily wither due to Damiano Caruso and Pello Bilbao of Team Bahrain–McLaren driving a hard pace at the front of the yellow jersey group for the benefit of Mikel Landa.

Carapaz was eventually caught and as the stage approached the finish the pace set by Roglič dropped all of the surviving contenders except for Porte, Pogačar, 'Superman' Lopez and his own teammate Sepp Kuss.

With the high mountains finished Roglič seemed to be in a secure position as far as winning the Tour, but after the stage he was not about to declare the race over yet as he commented, "After the time trial there will be a decision known of the rankings but also tomorrow is another day to be really focused.

[60] There was also a special award with a prize of €5000: the Souvenir Henri Desgrange, given to the first rider to pass the summit of the highest climb in the Tour, the Col de la Loze on stage 17.