Another hectic hilly finish where we could see Tadej Pogačar and Mathieu van der Poel in action.
Halfzoet, halfzuur: a headwind and the certainty of a sprint finish meant nobody wanted to attack, a long moment of apathy even for teams that struggle to get noticed. With the race finishing almost on the Belgian border the stage would be dominated by the Belgians for good and bad.
Hours later at the intermediate sprint there was a tangle as Bryan Coquard bumped Laurenz Rex and in the shock both of them came unclipped from the pedals with Coquard upright but sat on the top tube, his bike veering left and felling Jasper Philipsen who crashed hard on his right shoulder. All this happened in a fraction of the time it took you to read the previous sentence. It ended Philipsen’s Tour.
Almost as if to give some cheer to despondent Sporza viewers Tim Wellens attacked before Mont Cassel but it was to get the mountains jersey, to relieve his team leader Tadej Pogačar from it and the daily duties. It was the only real move of the day but because it was made for negative reasons nobody won the combativity prize for the day, only the second time this has happened.
In the streets of Dunkerque Tim Merlier freelanced his way to the front, no train nor even a lead-out as he hitched a ride on the back of the Lidl-Trek train and avoided two crashes that took out rivals. Jonathan Milan was pumping to the line but then, with just a few lightning pedal strokes, Merlier got level. The two were alongside for the final 50 metres and needed a photofinish.
Merlier was the more photogenic. Married to Cameron, daughter of the late Frank Vandenbroucke, he’s no stranger to cameras whether photofinish or long lenses of sections of the probing Flemish media but cuts a shy figure, an anti-sprinter who seems the fastest in the sport right now but at the age of 32 this was just his second Tour win.
The Route: 174km and 2,050m of vertical gain. The crunchy part of the stage takes part in the Vexin normand, hilly terrain around the Seine valley with steep cliffs.
The Anquetil climb is the first and goes past the Château des Elfes where Jacques Anquetil lived, a chance to pay tribute to Normandy’s best rider and start the climbing. Listed as 3.5km at 3.6% it reads like riders barely have to change gears but there’s a 15% section included and it’s an irregular road up.
The Belbeuf climb is La Poterie to locals and a narrow road up the flank of a cliff, much harder than the nearby main road. It’s 1.2km at 10% and with 15% midway through some tight bends.
The Finish: an urban finish with three climbs in close succession before the drag to the line. Bonsecours is a main road in town. Grand’Mare feels harder, longer and it twists up with some hairpins even.
The Rampe Sainte-Hilaire seems wrongly named, that’s a different street. Nevermind, for the race it’s uphill and then a sudden left turn followed by a right 50 metres later into very small road, the Rue Francis Yard. This entry is crucial as the road suddenly veers up and being ten bike lengths back is a penalty. It’s as steep as it looks on the profile above. It eases but stays on small roads over a kilometre with a short rise as a surprise too.
The descent is then on a bigger boulevard but steep and not easy to chase here. Once finished there’s a 500m rise and then the finish line is after a bend to the right with 250m to go.
The Contenders: the finish is similar to Sunday’s stage with a succession of climbs in the finish before an uphill sprint. Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) is the obvious pick on form and the course suits.
Where we find van der Poel we find Tadej Pogačar (UAE) but he’d like a longer climb to sprint to the win and above all he’s riding to save energy, giving up the polka dot jersey yesterday and now he’ll have tomorrow’s time trial in mind.
Others from the finish on Sunday have a chance. Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) is now in his home region but it’s not easy to pick his moment. Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) is good but his problem is there’s just one or two exceptional riders ahead of him. Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor) is close but that’s the problem, if he’s not yet winning it’s hard to get past here too. But all three might have a chance with a flyer and the descent.
One rider who sat out Sunday’s finale was Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek), he was given a day-off after crashing so we’ll see if he’s able to race for the win today (11:00am update: no says newspaper HLN as the team are all in to protect Skjelmose).
A breakaway has a chance today, UAE and Alpecin-Deceuninck are the lead teams for today’s win but the former won’t want to spend a drop of energy chasing. Half of Alpecin-Deceuninck are built to chase the break but on the flat days, they’re less suited for today’s terrain. So a move with some outsiders has a chance here, especially as over 100 riders are over six minutes down and so Alpecin-Deceuninck don’t have to stress about every move. Semi-random picks are Mauro Schmid (Jayco), Ewen Costiou (Arkéa-B&B), Ivan Romeo (Movistar), Bastian Tronchon (Decathlon-Ag2r) or Dylan Teuns (Cofidis).
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Van der Poel |
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Pogačar, Nys, Grégoire |
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Vauquelin, Onley, Powless, Schmid |
Weather: sunshine, 20°C and a light breeze, 15km/h from the NW.
TV: KM0 is at 1.35pm the finish is forecast for 5.15pm CEST. Tune in for the Anquetil climb around 4.20pm.
Postcard from Rouen
The Tour de France is a palimpsest, each stage is written on top of past ones. There’s a plaque in Rouen to mark the point where Jean Robic attacked to win the 1947 Tour de France, the first post-war edition and on the last stage and so Robic won without wearing the yellow jersey.
When Tour de France came to Rouen in 1957 several vehicles got into the race column causing trouble for the riders. As Jacques Augendre wrote up, French team rider Henry Anglade told TV’s Robert Chapatte “I wondered if we were in the Tour de France or the Monte Carlo rally“. Annoyed by this, the race organisers scratched Anglade’s name from the results, entering an “X” in the results sheet where his name should have been.
Anglade approached the organisers, “I’ve found a rider in the results that I did not see on the startlist” he asked mischievously. “That would be astonishing, which rider is this?” asked co-organiser Félix Lévitan, to which Anglade replied “A certain Monsieur X“. “Ah, that’s not an error but a sanction” retorted Lévitan.
While Lévitan was expecting an apology and a retraction Anglade protested saying his words were truthful, adding “and if I’m interviewed by Chappatte again I will mention our conversation“. The other co-organiser Jacques Goddet intervened and Anglade got his identity back.
There’s a moral to the story. Organisers can run the race but today the rules are set and enforced by the UCI. There are still clauses about “bringing the sport into disrepute” but this applies, in theory at least, as much to the race president as the last rider in the race and legitimate criticism is fine. The Tour organiser can no longer delete riders from results on a whim. If they could that would be worse than the road to Rouen.
“I wondered if we were in the Tour de France or the Monte Carlo rally“
This is why I love this blog 🙂
On Wellens tactically taking the polka dots – I recall reading somewhere, way back, that if you have the rainbow bands, you can decline wearing a race jersey (and it goes to next in the standings). Or am I imagining this?
Either way, having Pog in if for a day mist be an added bonus for sponsor E.Leclerc!
I think they’ve done it so that Pogacar can wear the team skinsuit for the TT and not the generic polka dot/yellow jersey one but could be wrong.
If Pogacar attacks at the end of stage today, he could get back the KOM jersey so maybe UAE hoping for a breakaway win.
That’s only true if you are “borrowing” the jersey. But since Pogacar was actually leading the standings, he was the rightful owner of the jersey, and therefore he couldn’t opt out of it.
That’s it. If you lead then you have to wear it. If you are borrowing it then the world, continental or national jersey takes over.
Isn’t it optional for the rider whether they want to wear the classification or the national jersey? Or am I wrong?
But Pog would have still had to do all the jersey presentations even then and that was the bit he probably wsnted to get out of.
I suspect the thinking too was an award to a loyal domestique.
You can’t help thinking that Cofidis missed a trick by not trying the same with Benjamin Thomas – a trip to the podium for them in their home region would surely have been of more value than it is to UAE, plus a day in a jersey comes with a few UCI points for the promotion battle.
25 UCI points are given for a day in the GC jersey, no points for the other jerseys.
Benjamin Thomas and Pogi would both have had 3 points in the KOM classification if Thomas had won the climb. But Pogi would have been ahead on countback.
You can decline using a borrowed jersey, not if you are the actual leader
That was a good day not to be a commentator.
Hilariously but sadly, the organiser’s choice to avoid the Hell of the North cobbles to dodge crashes and polemics (in spite of greatly reducing the sportive value) resulted in a carnage and a mountain of controversy (and with the sportive value). So much for trying to make the Tour de France something “smooth”.
Anyway, why are there so many “sprinters” these days? Is creatine too readily available? People are hating what they mean to the sport.
I didn’t see so much controversy yesterday, just accidents although Van Poppel and Ballerini’s moves got yellow cards.
As you know most bike races traditionally end in sprint finishes, but more and more races from the Flemish classics to the Tour go out of their way to prevent this. ASO even has a dogma of no more than two consecutive sprint finishes.
I’m looking at the route and apart from the TT all I see is consecutive sprint finishes from 5th-13th July. And the plan to set back to back sprint finishes for the Sat and Sun is truly stupid.
You’re not looking closely enough. Sunday’s stage was almost a GC stage with Vingegaard attacking. Guaranteed no bunch finish today either.
Thursday and especially Friday (Mur De Bretagne) won’t be sprint finishes either.
The last four winners at Mur De Bretagne are MDVP, Dan Martin, Alexis Vuillermoz and Cadel Evans!
Yes, Thursday is lumpy all day, with >3500m of vertical gain and a long uphill finish.
As above, today will be more like Sunday’s stage, with a mix of the puncheurs and GC contenders contesting the win.
Same for Friday’s stage to Mûr-de-Bretagne, scene of Van der Poel’s emotional win in 2021 for his grandad, when he gapped Pogačar and Roglič by a few seconds.
Lots of controversy in the Dutch and English language press about there yet again being a high speed chicane in a bunch sprint finish. Thijs Zonneveld even predicted before the race that that corner and the narrowing of the road at 3km where Meeus fell would be dangerous.
You’re not in Twitter these days, right?
Account still there but finding Bluesky a more enjoyable experience.
The organisers were hoping for cross-winds. Unfortunately they got a headwind. If the peloton had set a harder pace all day, the riders would have been more tired at the end. This would have meant fewer fresh riders at the end to contest the finish, making it safer.
“Sportive value below zero” yesterday, I meant to write.
The Rampe Sainte-Hilaire may seem wrongly named, but brings a smile to my face. Am I too much of a cycling-romantic to think this may be a nod to retired DS Hilaire van der Schueren?
It’s more if you go to the foot of the climb at the finish there’s one road called the Rampe Saint Hilaire which the race takes on the descent and approach to the climb… but the race goes up the Rue Francis Yard.
Hilaire van der Schueren could write a long book full of stories from the team car. It could be a best seller in Flanders.
” KM0 is at pm “??
1.15pm is perhaps the answer to the puzzle. 🙂
That’s the neutral start, the KM0 is 1.35pm… but fixed, thanks.
‘The road to Rouen’ … that’s brightened up my morning!
Thanks as always.
Took me a while since I pronounce it in French in my head. But it’s another classic INRNG.
I first thought, it was a comment on how the road into Rouen on the postcard ruined the centre.
It left me thinking that perhaps INRNG is a Supergrass fan (I’ll now have the song in my head all day…)
The bridge in the postcard mainly connects the suburb of Saint Sever to the Rue Republique of the city: it’s a classic boulevard ‘improvement’ comme Haussmann which opened and cleaned up the cathedral quarter without impinging on it. It’s not much used by cross city traffic (unless you are a bus) , that goes round the outskirts . The ‘main road’ which bypasses the city is carried on another bridge slightly upstream.
Much of the ‘historic’ centre is pedestrianised or permit restricted for vehicles. It’s one of my favourite cities ( no surprise).
I don’t get the pun. What does this mean ? (not native English speaker)
One could say that the road to Rouen is paved with good intentions.
With all due respect to Mr Inrng though, the band Supergrass did get there first 🙂
ITV is playing Supergrass right now…
I’d never heard of the band.
Do they read this blog?
Road to Rouen/Ruin, bit like Jasper Philipsen yesterday , only he was on the road to Dunkirchen.
Too clever by half because that’s not how it’s pronounced in French.
Maybe a secret Supergrass fan? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOXSZS3WOB0
The Ramones?
I doubt it – purely because there aren’t many!
I see Brian Coquard got a “yellow card” , which seems wrong to me, yes he hit Jesper Philipsen but it was simply bad luck the sort of thing that happens in a sprint (sadly). I also heard that Danny van Poppel got one (his third of the year?) for causing the crash at the end but havent seen confirmation of this. These sort of things always seem to happen on a “quiet day at the Tour”.
Cant see ASO will be impressed with the wildcard teams, not having a break is bad news for the TV coverage. I can see it was a pretty pointless exercise but surely that’s what’s expected if a team gets a wildcard. If it was the Giro Bardiani etc would have been in the break. Maybe the Tour might want to introduce a “breakaway” prize too.
Whilst a repeat of Sunday seems on the cards for today, the TT tomorrow must have an impact, no point in getting an extra two bonus seconds today only to lose 30 seconds tomorrow. MvP or Kevin Vauquelin with maybe Oscar Onley or Sam Watson as outside chances?
Agree, I think Coquard’s yellow card was harsh. He didn’t;t deviate – it seemed to me he got squeezed by Milan drifting right very slightly and in the process hit Laurenz Rex. being a small guy, he bounced and there was then a chain reaction that took Phillipsen down. Tough for Phillipsen, but I can’t see there was any intent from Coquard.
Yesterday’s easy riding probably heightened the chance of accidents at the finish as nobody was tired. It brings to mind the De Panne race just a few kilometres away over the border and the massive crashes there because it had no climbs and had no split up in the crosswinds. So a lot of riders are fresh to contest the sprint.
If a rider had attacked yesterday and tried for 10 minutes to hold off the bunch they’d have got the combativity prize, a photo opportunity. With the big teams set to take the prizes it’s something almost for free available for smaller teams. But at the same time, pick your lesser squad and they still have a house sprinter, they have riders tasked with guiding them etc.
As for the finish riders can’t afford to miss a split so Pogačar and others still have to be in the mix if only for defensive reasons.
” it’s something almost for free available for smaller teams”
exactly! that’s what I tought..
this is why I do not understand why nobody took this opportunity, even knowing they never will make it to the finish..
It just seems irrational to me, that non of the wild card teams took this photo opportunity and sent some riders out
Any logical explantion for this?
Just as we don’t expect UAE or Visma to attack because it would be fruitless and they want to save energy for other days, the same for Uno-X or Total and others who still want to try the sprint and have riders in support of this goal, and are also resting others for today or later. That’s probably their plan… but yes they also want to get noticed and missed a small opportunity.
But also had someone attacked, then they might have been joined by another also after the day’s token prize, and another etc and so the prize wasn’t certain.
Mohoric was happy to give it a go at the beginning (he rode off the front of the peloton), but didn’t want ride in the break alone.
Who was it that crashed very hard right at the finish? The TV briefly focused on someone being treated down on the ground some minutes after the finish but cut away.
Everyone is listed as finishing (apart from Phillipsen) so they must have got up, but it looked quite nasty for one rider in that final crash.
Hard to blame riders directly but Ballerini and Van Poppel got yellow cards. Jeannière lost a tooth and we’ll see if he starts today.
If the reason there was no breakaway is because they knew they had no chance of winning, does this mean there will never be any breakaways ever again? They never stood much chance but nowadays at the Tour, and with ‘modern cycling’, they have none. I doubt yesterday was the first time they realised this though.
In the final sprint a Cofidis rider went somersaulting over his bars into the barriers at full speed, but there was absolutely no mention of him. All the focus was on Evenepoel grazing his backside and throwing a wobbler for the umpteenth time.
Yesterday was incredibly crash strewn whenever anyone accelerated. I’ve said it before but sprints are utter carnage these days.
Sprints have always been dangerous, not just these days.
There is always a slim chance of breakaway glory – hence why they happen (plus the invited teams are duty bound to be in them for TV at the least and a minor bit of glory.)
I didn’t see Evenepoel get mad – please explain.
And here´s me thinking it was about Evenepoel first trying to ride there and then there and ending up on the asphalt as a result…
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/throw-a-wobbly
I have absolutely idea what you mean with that comment.
* no idea
When a non-native speaker reads that a cyclist “threw a wobbler” and he isn´t familiar with the expression, he may associate it with a verb and a meaning he is familiar with:
“wobble”: to move or proceed with an irregular rocking or staggering motion or unsteadily and clumsily from side to side
And he may then proceed to picture Evenepoel engaged in just such wobbling.
But if he then – a little late perhaps – actually looks up the idiom in a dictionary, he is much wiser (and thankful for it).
I know what it means – I’m English. I don’t know what you mean. Or where the idea that Evenepoel got mad came from.
Funny. I thought you were Polish (and your father was a Liverpool supporter.
PS I had no idea Evenepoel got mad and I still don´t know when or why he threw a wobbler. If he did.
Some news in the press pack that Remco’s unhappy at Lotto Soudal and/or upset with the team’s performance (ie missing the break on day 1 etc)
Well he would be unhappy as he rides for soudal quickstep.
No
I’m strangely most interested in what Jonas does today!
Yeah, these days he likes an attack over the top of a steep hill and he definitely enjoys mixing it in a sprint finish!
That said, today he’ll probably (disappointingly) keep his powder dry for tomorrow’s TT,
What was the other time the combativity prize was not awarded?
Apparently it’s been awarded every day since 1952 except yesterday… and Stage 19 in 2019, the day the Tour stage was stopped at the top of the Iseran. Read this yesterday on the Equipe website, haven’t verified every single day.
They should have given it to Pog to mess with UAE’s plans.
So it seems UAE team efforts were in vain and Pog is bound to wear a polka dot suit tomorrow. Is it going to matter? If so, isn’t it a rather avoidable blunder?
I thought he might be back in it. The clothing sponsors do a good job of working to make the supplied suit fit better, tailoring the fit, it should not be much of a penalty.
And I believe that now perfectly balances the two occasions where two riders have been awarded for the same stage:
2011, Stage 9 – Juan Antonio Flecha and Johnny Hoogerland, after they were both hit by the France Télévisions car.
2016, Stage 16 – Tony Martin and Julian Alaphilippe for their epic two-up breakaway rider across western Switzerland.
Bernard Hinault who is fronting for the prize sponsor says he’d like to see two get it during this race at some point to make up for the missing one. And who wants to argue with him? 😉
This might have been covered already (i’m on catch up after a weekend away). ITV in the UK had an interesting stat on the cumulative time gap between Jonas and Pog. Pog is ahead on the official results but if you strip out time bonuses Jonas would be ahead by 3 seconds which was a great illustration of how close they are in performance, which surprised me as i think of Pog as clearly the strongest. Lets hope they can stay out of misfortune and race all the way
Pog really blew up on the Col De La Loze in 2023, think he lost about 7 minutes to Jonas that day and I suspect this is more than he had lost on all the other stages combined.
It’s not really a very good stat though. Pog gave up on the Loze a couple of years back. And the comparison over that period of time doesn’t have a bearing on the current gap in their abilities.
Anyone else a bit aghast at how the French Gendarme ran over to a clearly very dazed and injured Philipsen on the ground, with his team-mates around him and 2 medical staff from the race doctor car about to arrive, and Le Flic just grabs Jasper and _reefs_ him up on to his feet, to push him to the side?
Surely you don’t need to be a genius to know that someone who has just hit the ground at high speed in front of you, and who clearly has some bad injuried, should NOT be moved? There obviously was no imminent risk from fast vehicles, giving the grouping around Jasper, and the doctors jogging up from the direction of traffic and even if there were, shouldn’t the policeman have gone past Jasper towards any traffic to direct it away or to stop?
The way the Flic yanked Jasper up seemed… very very stupid.
Yes, for everyone else if someone has had a hard crash don’t rush to move them as you could make things worse. The instinct to help and with oncoming vehicles is one thing but the gendarme probably didn’t know medics would be there quickly and the convoy are used to braking and swerving.
The race doctor car was stopped just beyond and the medics were out of it and literally about 3 steps away. Jasper should have been protected and left until the medics had examined him and cleared him to be moved.
Very unthinking behaviour from the cop! Needs to go on more training!
He must have learned that move from the Italian MotoGP marshals – “quick, get him in the ambulance so he can be pronounced dead somewhere else.”
Palimpsest!
Cracking stuff
Hoping for a polished layer of veneer today.
Milan’s upright stance in the finale was almost comical – I don’t recall ever seeing such an upright position – surely it lost him the win
Milan is one of those riders where we used to say (slightly in jest where they were successful) “if only he learnt to ride a bike, he’d be good”. You watch him and think he’s delivering huge power, but as much is going in up and down motion as forward!
It’s odd, because often trackies look very smooth when they transfer to the road. But Milan seems to have missed that memo!
Sprinters have lots of different styles, there’s actually a huge range, for example Philipsen is hundreds of watts less than most of his rivals but crafty in timing his effort, Merlier has huge torque in a few pedal strokes.
A year or two ago watching Milan it was as if he would be the best ever lead-out rider, so strong and the ideal windbreak and able to do big turns when seated (see his Giro finish in Rome last year as he went through the bunch) but he’s clearly fast enough to get a stage too. Still think if you could link him with another sprinter it would be an amazing combination but obviously he can earn millions from winning for himself.
Two unsolicited observations…
1. Super domestique of the day, again, goes to the TV moto, never more than two seconds ahead, and often inside one second, in the last ten km. Campanaerts couldn’t have done his job without it, and UAE given a leg up too. I know we all want the best possible coverage, but the influence of race motos is increasing again, rather than diminishing over time.
2. Yellow cards for discarding bottles that end up on the course, as a strict liability offence irrespective of (lack of) intent, would probably do more the improve safety than any handlebar width or gear restriction limitations. Several again today and just luck a tired rider or riders weren’t brought down. Happens every season.
That was Dave Chappelle-level humour. Chapeaux. You had me on a line and caught me hook and sinker. I laughed out, throwing my head back in delight. Seriously. Your mind is a gift to the world. Thank you for doing so much for all of us delighted readers.