The final stage and almost a summit finish. In the past this has been the most frantic stage of the week. Pogačar looks invincible but it’s wide open to win the stage.
Encore: the early breakaway of 15 riders was kept close, it never had more than two minutes. Romain Bardet lasted the longest, in large part to say adieu to his road racing career on a course where his wife and children were roadside and his father, from whom he got the passion for cycling, was waiting at the finish.
A third stage win for Tadej Pogačar. This time he had to stand on the pedals to attack, a good twenty pedal strokes to open up a gap on Jonas Vingegaard and Florian Lipowitz, with the German soon unable to follow the Dane. From here the race resembled a mountain time trial with the lead three on GC all riding solo. Pogačar eased up before the line allowing Vingegaard to halve his 30 second deficit at the flamme rouge, but all the more difficult for Vingegaard. He could see good power numbers, we could see a rare grimace and efforts but – while well ahead of all the rest – he just can’t get on terms with Pogačar.
After the finish Pogačar hinted it was unsporting of rivals to try an attack downhill after Visma-LAB accelerated over the top of the Croix-de-Fer. This seemed to have stung him into revenge; but his rivals must complain that it’s the uphill attacks that are unsporting.
We should note some of the other spots, Lipowitz the best of the rest, THJ in fourth place, ahead of Remco Evenepoel, for the Norwegian to bound up to fifth overall. Carlos Rodriguez doing his Dauphiné remontada which bodes well for the Tour, on his relative terms. Paul Seixas finished 11th.
The Route: a stage that rides up the Maurienne valley, a rare place that doesn’t get its name from its river (the Arc in case you need to know). The race treats the valley like a boarder in a halfpipe, swinging up the sides to avoid the main valley roads, notably with the climb of the “Col de Beaune”, which is actually the Col de Beau Plan, and featured in 2019 when Julian Alaphilippe won the stage finishing just below.
The Finish: Mont Cenis was turned into a main road by Napoleon and retains an engineered feel, it’s a steady climb, almost 10km at 6.5%. The route flattens for five kilometres out to finish by the lake on the Italian border.
The Contenders: a good day for the breakaway, today’s course is short but there’s room for a move to stick. Ben Healy (EF) has tried several times but seemed to shut things down if it wasn’t working, no point saving things today.
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Pogačar, Van Gils, Buitrago, Healy |
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Barré, Traaen, Dunbar, Latour |
Weather: sunshine and good chance of thunderstorms, 28°C in the valley early on.
TV: KM0 is at 13.25 and the finish is forecast for 17.15 CEST. The final two hours will be broadcast live.
Thunderstorms? Hope not!
I’m guessing a breakaway win – unless UAE want to make a point to Visma.
Pogacar has stormed away when it mattered, with only the TT as the thing to work on. Otherwise, plenty to work on for the rest – what happened to Lenny Martinez? New team teething problems, or maybe he needs more carbs per hour.
Visma team looked good until it really mattered, then … Lipowitz should get the third podium spot, which Remco has struggled to hold onto (he seems to never be on a par with climbing elite), and young Seixas has proved his promise.
Armchair analyst here, so I don’t know what Remco’s climbing ceiling is, but in some ways he reminds me of Pog pre-’24 — does not like heat, and is uncharacteristically aerodynamically sloppy. For a guy who is so clean and disciplined in the TTs, he’s a mess uphills: skinsuit unzipped, sunglasses in the helmet, body position open instead of compact. That could easily cost a minute or more on the long climbs. That might be due to heat in part, maybe heat training is in order. I don’t know if he’ll ever be one of the great climbers, but he’s already a very good one and ISTM still has a fair bit of room for improvement.
Unsporting to attack on a downhill? Really? What am I missing here? They can attack whenever they want, not up to him to decide.
from what i read Pogacar said it was “a little dangerous” what visma did…
It also left Pogačar with few team mates, just Sivakov which he probably wasn’t happy about either. This was probably the crucial point of the stage but few got to see it.
I enjoyed watching Pogacar collecting a bidon for his mountain domestique Sivakov. That is leadership.
There is normally an “informal agreement” among the GC riders that if the GC group gets to the top of a climb together and there is another climb to come, they will ride the descent gently since that is safer. It is one of those informal agreements in cycling, like not attacking through the feed-zone, or letting people in an early crash get back-on. Or the GC leader signalling the end of break-formation by taking a nature break.
Have to say that was pretty dull.
I found Pog’s interview after he won a little uncharacteristically un-joyful, and a little whiny, for someone who is head and shoulders above his competition, and wins with such ease.
I remember Pog attacking Jonas downhill a few times in the Tour, and so I assume he has done it to others in other races.
A few commentators have mentioned that Pog “eased “ up in the last km, and I know he mentioned it himself. Or maybe he actually got tired – it has happened in the past.
To me, comments like this are a little unfair to Jonas, and diminish his efforts.
He finished 14 seconds behind Pog, let him have that, please
Agree.
It probably happens to major sporting (and other) stars. The stress of years of pressure, not only in sporting sense, but also the need to control yourself in such a media-rich environment… he is less and less young and carefree and it tells. Life at the top is hard, you are alone there.
I really like what I see of Vingegaard off-race, though. He seems humble and joyous and gracious to his rivals.
There is normally an “informal agreement” among the GC riders that if the GC group gets to the top of a climb together and there is another climb to come, they will ride fairly carefully down the descent. It does not apply of they are “racing” (similar to slowing after a crash etc to allow the in the incident to get back on).
Pogi felt this informal rule applied in this case, and that Visma were taking unnecessary risks. Visma could legitimately claim they were riding hard to stop Sivakov (and others) getting back on. I think it is just a difference in interpretation of the race situation.
Hopefully Pogacar will grow bored of his own dominance soon and consider a career change, find something that actually challenges him.
Like tennis?
Motor gp?
Romain’s final flourish. How pleasing to see him at a good level to the last. A win would be celebrated here.
I have had my fingers crossed since the start of the Giro.
His daughter telling him to wear mitts at the start and Bardet complying even though he doesn’t usually in the mountains was touching.
“We should note some of the other spots, Lipowoitz the best of the best,…”
Freudian slip?
I mean I am a huge fan myself (as is the German media – in one piece it was not already seen as certain that he rides the TdF but also that he is not a domestique for Roglic but instead has a “joker” role) but I guess “best of the rest” was meant.
Thank a lot for the daily previews, looking forward to the daily tour previews.
He’ll be a super domestique at the Tour with a good chance of becoming the leader!
Sadly, it looks like Remco’s hopes of winning another grand tour are diminishing. He doesn’t quite have the legs to be up there with the very best climbers (despite all his work to change that) and there are a whole load of young riders coming through who are more than his equal in the mountains.
The other major factor for Remco has to be the loss of Landa after the Giro crash. We keep looking at groups with several Visma and UAT jerseys but just the single Quickstep one. Surely races like this have got to be bigger motivators to leave for Red Bull or Ineos than the paycheque?
I think so too. Everyone tries to improve their own chances but Evenepoel is obsessive about this. There’s misfortune but even at their strongest Quickstep don’t look able to dictate the racing in the way UAE and Visma can and that must grate.
I agree. Remco is an astonishing TT-er, and a great Classics rider but has never convinced at GTs – even the one he won. Maybe I’m wrong (obviously), but I wonder whether that third at last year’s Tour was his maximum
For next 3-4 years, seems plausible everyone will be racing for 3rd place, behind TP & JV.
Isaac del Toro seems to be the next, young, up & coming super star.
I still think Remco can win the Giro or Vuelta if neither Jonas nor Pogi are there. He would not necessarily be the favourite but he would have a good chance.
He might also win the Tour late in his career if Jonas and Pogi start declining at around 30, and Remco can keep going: he is younger than both. But I do agree that there are new riders coming through who look like they would be better climbers, so I do broadly agree with your comment.
Remco did win the 2022 Vuelta. Remco was leading Roglic when the latter crashed and abandoned.
Fixed, thanks. As you say he isn’t or wasn’t certain to do the Tour, we’ve read the same pieces, you’d think he now starts for positive and negative reasons, above all because he’s been so good this week, but also because the team need a good news story this summer and they’ve not had much this year.
For all the writing off of Evenepoel, let’s not forget he had a very serious accident in December and missed a large chunk of his winter training, where the foundations for the season are laid, as a result.
And he came down a few stages ago. Who knows how much he is feeling that now?
All true but his coach said he was lighter and fitter, this didn’t help. Evenepoel gets such scrutiny, there are almost daily pieces about the titles he gives to a Strava ride, what colour frame he is riding, there are jobs transcribing his Instagram videos into newspaper articles etc… so when the coach makes declarations like this it raised expectations massively.
I was proved wrong on Remco, surely. I was expecting him to do much better going up hill this year, but he is not. Sad, as I was anticipating a more varied set of options for the Tour outcome.
Jonas did good but was, again, overmatched. In Danish media he was quoted saying this was his best ride ever if going by the numbers. He expect to build slightly more towards the Tour hoping “slightly” to be enough to follow and beat TP. He has not surrendered.
How does TP retain that level for so long??? It is very very impressive, though if he can hold it for 3 weeks is difficult to say. He has proven it before, but his spring this year was more intensive. A dip of form must be incoming at one point.
Could be he’s just better, even if not in top form. Should be fresh for the Tour, he’s not had that much racing this year really. He probably wears out his competition more than himself.
Absolutely, TP is quite remarkable and his intermediate level is what every other racer strives for just once in their carreer. He certainly looked extremely relaxed yesterday in the final 9 kms.
The end of the Tour is a long way away. I guess there is always the chance the Pogi fades in the last week of the Tour (even if I believe he probably won’t). This has to be the thing that Visma hope for.
Yes, and JV himself thinks he is better in the last week of a GT, and he normally is, so his got that goin’ for him.
I think the background to Pogacar’s comments about the hard riding over the top of the Croix-de-Fer primarily relate to the importance of the race. All the GC teams want to get to the TDF in one piece. Compared to the TDF the Dauphiné is a small prize. A chance to tune up fitness in a race situation, and try out some team tactics. If you win, great, but it won’t be remembered for long. With this background, there is no need to push riders to their absolute limits. I take Pog’s comment as being directed to the team manager(s) and tactics not the riders on the road.
“try out some team tactics” and “push riders to their absolute limits” was maybe what Visma were trying to do. If Pogacar has a breaking point, then would n’t Visma want to know what it was?
Ah, no postcard? That’s been a daily highlight. Love the coverage as always.
Happy for Lenny M – a deserved win after a not very good Dauphiné. Beside that what a horror show…