The chance for the sprinters. The way many stages have been ridden there’s a chance of breakaway.
Pas un peintre, Paret-Peintre: the stage refused to submit to the siesta, early breakaway attempts didn’t work until Marco Haller towed team mate Marc Hirschi away with Xandro Meurisse. The trio looked doomed.
But despite UAE trying to close down the race others resisted. In fact because UAE tried, several riders revolted. Among them Ivan Romeo and mid-stage a new 35 rider breakaway barged clear. Behind the peloton eased up and while Nils Politt still chasing he was alone in the role.
The 35 rider group had little cohesion. Julian Alaphilippe attacked, taking team mate Matteo Trentin with him along with Pascal Eenkhoorn, Enrico Mas, Simone Velasco, Fred Wright, Thymen Arensman and Jonas Abrahamsen. Behind everyone missed the move but seemed unable to resolve this.
Reaching Bédoin Mont Ventoux was visible and seemingly so was a second win for Arensman. Only he started to wilt on the early slopes. Mas attacked early and gradually took time, with over 40 seconds at the Chalet Reynard, his piercing gaze and focus as visible as his taut muscles.
But by this time the gap behind Mas wasn’t so much with Arensman and Alaphilippe but a gaggle of climbers in Ben Healy, Valentin Paret-Peintre, Santiago Buitrago and Michael Woods were closing in.
Normally Paret-Peintre would have been pacing Remco Evenepoel but without the team leader he was racing for himself. He tried to exploit the steepest slopes to shake the rest but it did not work. With hindsight no bad thing as Ben Healy was out to take time for a top-10 bid. The two rode past Enric Mas.
All this time the gap behind was closing. Jonas Vingegaard would attack four times, aided by collecting riders from the breakaway who could take brief pulls, more than symbolic given the speed they were travelling.
All this came to a frenzy with Paret-Peintre and Healy trading attacks. Both with elbows bent as if one arm longer than other, backs bunch hunched like in some Quasimodo , two geeks duking it out.
Behind Vingegaard and Pogačar made their moves and not in isolation as the yellow jersey was bearing down on the lead two.
Suddenly Ilan Van Wilder appeared from nowhere and towed the lead group, nobody on TV saw it coming and Paret-Peintre did not know either. Ben Healy went early and coming around the final bend he seemed to stay out of the saddle and not change gear. Paret-Peintre was able to sit down and select a lower gear which allowed him to dart up the final ramp for the win.
France gets its first stage win of the Tour avoiding the dreaded 1926 and 1999 scenarios, in part because one dull December day a postal driver opened their van door without looking and took out an Olympic champion. But sport, like life, is full of these random chains.
Paret-Peintre now has a Giro and Tour stage to his name and you’d not bet against him winning in the Vuelta on a double-digit goat path ascent. He’s so light – his team jersey is size XXS – that he’s suited to these gradients and it’s why he was trying to attack on the steep parts and could make the different on the last ramp up to the finish.
In the end Pogačar took two seconds on Vingegaard. But we’re not in Rouen any more and he looked pale and less talkative. Vingegaard was beaten again but paradoxically the defeat was so mild there’s a sense of reversal in the air. Answers tomorrow at the Col de la Loze.
The Route: 160km and 1,650m of vertical gain. It’s gradually uphill out of Bollène and the early climb of the Col de l’Aspre is gentle. This sets the scene for the day, the climbs are on wide roads with no traps. There are hillier roads in the area but this sticks to flatter ones, sticking to valley floors where possible. The Pertuis climb is steady.
The final 40km are flat and the roads get bigger and bigger, if teams are still chasing the breakaway they’ll find roads to suit on the way to Chabeuil and out to Valence.
The Finish: flat and big wide roads. The Tour has been to Valence in recent years and traversed the city but this time it stays on the periphery to stick to wide roads, presumably for the sake of safety. There’s one gentle bend to the left with 700m to go.
The Contenders: a big day for Lidl-Trek, they’ve got a stage win already and the next goal is the green jersey. Jonathan Milan is on 251 points with Tadej Pogačar on 240 so the intermediate sprint (20 points) and the finish (50 points) are a chance to get ahead. Advantage Pogačar in the Alps, of course but the intermediate sprints tomorrow and the day after come very early to help Milan. So it’s not today or bust. The real issue is form, he’s launched moves that he couldn’t see through in recent days.
Tim Merlier (Soudal-Quickstep) is the quickest, each time he’s gone up against Milan in a sprint contest he’s won. Today’s course has climbs he just won’t like but enough recover time.
Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) gets the keys to the team but without Mathieu van der Poel.
With fatigue there’s plenty of room for a surprise so hallo Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain). Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) is on the tricky second album after his string of hits last summer. Arnaud De Lie (Lotto) won’t like the dragstrip finish. Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco) is a harder pick as he’s not shone on the expected days. Stian Fredheim (Uno-X) and Paul Penhoët (Groupama-FDJ) hard picks still.
One exception is Arnaud Démare (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) who is suited to the flat finish and after doing team work for Vauquelin this is the swansong.
The breakaway does have a chance here. Today is the last chance for the sprinters so several teams have a shared interest a sprint finish. But far from all and teams with lesser-rated sprinters don’t have be pall bearers to their own finish line funeral, they ought to spare a rider or two for moves which in turn relieves them from having to chase. If Kasper Agsreen (EF) is wearing an aero helmet then be warned.
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Merlier, Milan |
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Bauhaus, Asgreen, Groves, Démare |
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Girmay, Van Aert, Meuus, Lund, Garcia Cortina |
Weather: 28°C and the chance of rain or a thunderstorm later.
TV: KM0 is at 1.50pm. Tune in early to see if there’s a scrap to go clear. Then again around the intermediate sprint at 2.50pm to see if things spice up once this is done or if not… the finish is forecast for 5.20pm CEST
Postcard from Marsanne
Today’s stage tackles the Col de Tartaiguille, a modest climb but scenic if you’re in area. It’s one of several places where this year’s route overlaps with the 1984 route. It featured on Stage 15 then and yesterday and today with the same route out of Marsanne. If you think Pogačar and his team are having a dominant time at the Tour, read on about the 1984 vintage…
Laurent Fignon won the race overall. His Renault-Elf team took the team prize. They took ten of the 23 stages: Fignon won three time trials, two mountain stages and they won the team time trial together. There were also stage wins for Renault riders Marc Madiot, Pacsal Jules, Pascal Poisson and P-H Menthéour. There could have been more as Fignon was second three times. Fignon had the yellow jersey for seven stages but only after his team mate Vincent Barteau wore it for 12 stages. Renault had another rider on the podium in Paris with debutant Greg LeMond taking the white jersey too. Fignon’s winning margin was ten minutes and there’s not been a wider margin since.
This looked utterly dominant at the time but 1984 was the high point for Fignon, he struggled to repeat and like several of Cyrille Guimard’s protégés he got tendonitis and chronic knee injuries.
The absolute record in a grand tour is the 1977 Vuelta where Freddy Maertens won 13 stages and the overall, and his team mate Michel Pollentier obliged with another.
What a stage. Thank you Ben Healy for being the most courageous and combative rider today – it is a pleasure to watch an athlete leaving it all on the mountain. Thanks to Enric Mas as well for the long-awaited brave attack at the base of the climb.
On the other end of the race but also deserving of most combative was Thomas Gachignard, sick and dropped from the start, he still finished the stage in the time limit!
At one point I noted he was about 10 minutes down on the Pogačar group (about 16 down on the break at that point, but I always feel the time behind the group who will climb fastest is more realistic when assessing chances) with 30 or 40km of flat being ridden at 50km/h by the leaders plus the climb to come – at that point I thought he was doomed. So he did a fantastic ride to end up last on stage, but more or less with the autos. Chapeau!
Politt’s behaviour was arrogant, unwise and unpleasant, and gave an insight into the mafia culture of some procycling. He and his team are strong now though some day they’ll need friends. After yesterday friends might be harder to find.
Politt was under pressure. UAE and Visma have forced every other team to find the breakaway on the hard days, the non-sprint days. The size and power of the breaks in this Tour are unprecedented in my memory, which spans some twenty years of cycling. Incredible riders are seeking to break up the race early so they can set the finish to their liking. The suicidal breakaways, even the controllable breakaways, are over. The break and the peloton are now evenly matched, I can understand why the German lost composure in his lone battle against the field. Not saying he was justified or right. But he was in a situation to seemingly designed to crack him.
Politt is rapidly earning a reputation for all the wrong reasons.
It was. It is also by no means unprecedented neither in this sport nor others when a general dominance presents the opportunity. That occurs with otherwise nice people as well as those we might more naturally characterise as not so nice. Humanity.
Politt being the originator of the story about the existence of UAE’s or Pogi’s blacklist may make it that much less likely that some others will take less kindly to having him try to dictate to them. He failed conspicuously and publicly yesterday.
Was that failure punishment enough? Perhaps, though I have some sympathy with McCrossan’s view on commentary that it might be deserving of a yellow card. See also some of Milan’s antics earlier in this race. If one of the things the UCI is concerned about with its card system is protecting the image of the sport then this could qualify.
It happens with teams filtering but Politt bit off more than he can chew, trying to ride down moves alone… but tiring himself out and exposing that nobody else on the team could take over just let a big move go clear. It’s been interesting as a side issue to see several big teams just unable to control things at times, their plans backfiring.
Marsanne also lends its name to my favourite white wine grape. FWIW.
A great stage to watch! All the attacks being traded on both fronts, the two giants closing in on the poker-playing duo in front and hte “deus ex machina” Van Wilder showing up, great drama.
Visma played everything right tactically but there’s no point in having relay riders if you can’t get a gap first. Pogacar not able to drop Jonas in the counter-attack gives some hope for the competition, but it’s a very different thing from losing 4 minutes. He said in post-race interviews he didn’t want to go full out into the red, but preferred to save and defend. Given his avarice and an iconic win opportuinity ahead, that seems unlikely, but perhaps his earlier defeats to JV have made him cautious.
The charitable view is that a rider can learn from his past overenthusiasms and their consequences. Glory hunters chase everything and live or die by that method. The maturing, professional rider learns when to go all out and when to hold what you’ve got.
‘Taught muscles’ 😉
TP has quite a bad cold, I think.
Taught a lesson in spelling, thanks.
I have seen two or three people suggesting “Pog is starting to struggle now”. They are seeing things I am not seeing if so. Jonas tried again and again to drop him, with coordinated team help, but so far in this Tour he simply hasn’t seemed to have what it takes to do so. Its not the same the other way around, of course, because Pog doesn’t have to drop him anymore (and does every finish line anyway). He only has to stay with him or nullify his efforts. Jonas is now very comfortable in second so nothing to lose there so I guess it will be more of the same tomorrow and Friday. But I expect this maturing Pog who is learning to sometimes ride more defensively/conservatively to hold station once more and do the professional job.
TP doesn’t tire anymore. Not since ‘23 Worlds when he complained the race was one lap too long. Gianetti discover z2 training and now Pogs is a machine, like the Death Star, devouring the field and any rebel alliance with someone on the Black List within.
My wife has to be one of the greatest adversaries of z2 training. With this method so prevalent I’m now off to a 4h z2 ride every Sunday morning, while with HIIT training I would have been home 3 hours earlier :).
I thought there were some tells from Pogacar, but they were subtle – a grimace on his face, gasping for air at times, a slightly tenser posture on the bike. He looked like he wasn’t enjoying it as much as normal…but then he never moved more than about 6 inches from Vingegaard’s back wheel, so not exactly signs of cracking! It’s hard to see how Vingegaard takes 4 seconds back from Pogacar, let alone 4 minutes.
I’m not being sarcastic but I chuckled at the thought that someone might be “gasping for air” whilst setting the fastest ever recorded ascent of Mont Ventoux and this being seen as a slight sign of weakness rather than a sign of unimaginable effort 🙂
Fair point, but it’s the first time in the race that we’ve seen Pogacar gasping for air whilst sat in the wheel of Vingegaard – he’s normally breathing through his nose when Vingegaard is on the front. Perhaps Vingegaard was on a super day and so was a match for Pogacar, or perhaps it’s a small sign of Pogacar’s form starting to slip…we’ll find out over the next few days
It really looks ridiculous that Pogacar is able to follow Vingegaard attacks while staying seated. That’s probably down to some miracle z5+6 intervals to break down the z2 template.
The Jonas fan in me wonders if he was testing Tadej today sizing up opportunities to attack tomorrow.
The Tadej fan in me thinks he countered just enough to know what to do tomorrow if put under pressure.
Although I suspect 4 minutes is enough to ensure victory on Sunday, tomorrow and Friday will be needed to confirm.
The 1984 Tour also the first women’s edition with Marianne Martin.
Fignon was my first idol in the sport, met him once during the Worlds in Marid back in 2005. Polite and very friendly towards an old fan (or perhaps my UCI commissaire’s uniform 😉)
As a Dane, happy to see Mr. INRNG include Lund in the 1 chainring bracket. He is improving but would probably prefer a slightly rising finish. I don’t see him match Merlier or Milan on ure speed yet.
And I’m happy to see Picnic-Post NL inching their way to WT survival. A sprint placing today for Lund and a top five GC for Onley will confirm that trend.
Yesterday was the first stage when Oscar Onley lost time with those around him, not much about 30 seconds ish. It was the day after a rest day when riders often struggle, hopefully not a portent for the stages to come.
Onley lost time to Lipowitz and Roglic but gained time on Vauquelin and Gall. Maybe he should abandon dreams of a podium which should be Lipowitz’s and defend against Roglic to maintain his current fourth. In any event anywhere in the GC top five would be a fine result.
They should be ok for World Tour but if Onley remains 4th in Paris that’s a massive 720 points, 5th is 620.
More help comes if Lotto and Intermarché merge, this could save Cofidis but Uno-X are having a good Tour.
‘…like several of Cyrille Guimard’s protégés he got tendonitis and chronic knee injuries.’
What was the cause of this? Poor training methods? Over-training?
Assuming the strain from riding those heavy gears of the time.
Should have added achilles heel issues as well for Fignon. I left this a bit open as several factors at play but in his autobiography Fignon writes about cortisone abuse, a factor on the list too.
I have just re-read Fignon’s autobiography and it very much denies cortisone abuse was involved. He writes about it as unacceptable press speculation. He does admit to racing with cocaine, amphetamines and wine(!) in his system.
I don’t have the book to hand but here’s a quote via Le Monde:
So an admission, but on his terms.
I have just re-read Fignon’s autobiography and it very much denies cortisone abuse was involved. He writes about it as unacceptable press speculation. He does admit to racing with cocaine, amphetamines and wine(!) in his system though.
Cortisone abuse is known to eat away at bone and tendons.
Lots of new record times up Ventoux so it was fast and furious and all to no avail for Visma. (unless the fatigue gets to Pogacar)
VPP a surprise winner for QS but good for them after Remco’s early departure.
I guess not a big breakaway today (if at all) as the sprint teams want one last chance.
The way these transition stages have been ridden I’ve been wondering if today will be a breakaway day. But many teams have sprinters to back and the course is relatively easy to control things on. Ideally though teams without the obvious name sprinters fire riders forward in moves so they don’t have to chase but even that’s not obvious when you look around for riders to do this, eg would Bahrain send Wright in the move or is he tired from yesterday and they want to help Bauhaus, would GFDJ want Madouas up the road or is he useful to Penhoët etc
Lidl-Trek has a lot riding on this stage for the green jersey, so it should be a sprint. The team hasn’t look well organized lately and Milan seemed tired, but here they just have to go all in, especially when Paris might not be a sprint this year.
I feel like Pogacar might get more competition from Martinez and Arensman for the polka dots than for green if he really wants to make an attempt at getting all three jerseys.
This Tour’s GC race is starting to feel a bit like 2015… there’s one absolutely dominant rider for the first 2 weeks, who in the final week starts to show signs of fatigue and illness, and by the final stage in the Alps is hanging on by his fingernails(?)
Fatigue, illness, and a new record time on Mont Ventoux?
Tadej does not have to do anything but ride to Paris. Unless in this Entertainment Business he decides to add some entertainment!!