Mikel Landa's first Tour de France with his new Bahrain McLaren team ended with a time trial on stage 20 at La Planche des Belle Fils. Benefiting from an unlucky run by Astana's Miguel Angel Lopez, Landa finished the day in 14th place, jumping up to fourth overall, one day before the finale in Paris.

The 30-year-old has historically been poor in time trials, which has cost him dearly in Grand Tours. At last year's Giro d'Italia, he fell from third to fourth in the TT in Verona on the final day, dropped to seventh in Espelette at the 2018 Tour, and finished 4 minutes behind eventual winner Alberto Contador at the 2015 Giro, finishing 3:05 back in Milan.

This time, however, he finished 3:27 behind Pogachar and less than a minute behind Enric Mas (Movistar) and Rigoberto Urán (EF Pro Cycling), who came from behind, but decisively moved into fourth place, 2:50 ahead of López

"I'm very happy with the result.

"It was a good end to the Tour," said Lopez. We lost teammates and some riders had pain all over the place. 'We lost teammates and some riders started the race with pain all over the place.

As well as Landa's fourth place, Bahrain McLaren congratulated teammate Damiano Caruso for finishing 10th overall, ahead of Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), who finished seventh on stage 20.

"I finished 4th and 10th with Damiano," said Caruso. We were very strong as a team and I think we did a good project on the TT bike."

"It's been a really good three weeks. It was a good effort for the whole team, especially Mikel," Caruso added. It's a good result for us and it feels great to be in the top ten."

In his debut as sole GC leader, Landa exposed several weaknesses. In Lavaur, he was caught in a crosswind and lost 1:21. Meanwhile, at the Col de la Rose, he was unable to mount an attack, despite the fact that Bahrain dominated most of this stage.

On Sunday's stage to Paris, Landa will not be on the podium; he will finish 2:28 behind third-place finisher Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo), which is a positive result; his best Tour result, fourth at Paris in 2017 in Paris in 2017, which would tie his best result in the Tour.

"This experience is very good for us. We know what we are missing and we know our strong points. We'll keep working hard and we'll be back."