A second consecutive sprint stage.
Merlier, earlier: Baptiste Veistroffer attacked at KM0 again and this time was joined by Jakub Otropa. It might be a forlorn move but both teams are visible again and when the rest day comes and we look at the prize money standings so far as a proxy for which teams are the most visible, they certainly won’t be last.
Alpecin-PremierTech lead the chase for much of the day, notable again as it’s yet to pay off. Meanwhile Uno-X had a quick team attack, a real move or a dress-rehearsal for days to tome?
Tim Merlier won the sprint, simply the fastest in the finish but there in part because he bumped shoulders with Mathieu van der Poel and came off the better, then with help from Jasper Stuyven. Van der Poel delivered a luxury lead-out to Jasper Philipsen but the Belgian couldn’t build on it, fading. Fernando Gaviria came up on the right and looked like it could be 2018 again but it was evanescent and with 150m to go Merlier had the opening and kicked clear.
Two stages in and one for Kooij, now Merlier but no obvious hierarchy, either from sprint trains and lead-outs; or among the sprinters even if this stage was more regular, linear. It’s a lot to ask for but it would be fascinating to see every sprinter’s position in the final 10km overlayed on a map to replay where they were, where they ended up and what happened.
The Route: 180km and 1,150m of vertical gain. The start and finish are not far away, Bergerac to Périgueux was a 54km time trial in 2014. It’s scenic countryside and not much to write home about, the marked climbs are easy. The approach from Lalinde onwards has its street furniture and more coming into the finish.
The Finish: a ride into Bergerac – but not the town centre – and then out. This avoids some urban traps and tight corners traps but the roads are not big boulevards.
The Contenders: informed by two sprints now Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) is a contender but Tim Merlier (Soudal-Quickstep) is looking better. Biniam Girmay (NSN) was third on Stage 6 and starting to close in on Pedersen but narrowing the gap for now, a result here will help his quest. Olav Kooij (Decathlon-CMA CGM) is still among the contenders and again it’ll be hard for the rest of the field to get ahead of these four.
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Merlier |
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Philipsen, Girmay, Kooij |
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Kanter |
Weather: hot and sunny, 38°C. A 5-10km/h breeze from the south.
TV: KM0 is at 1.25pm and the finish is forecast for 5.30pm CEST. The scenery is pleasant today especially when viewed from a helicopter but not stunning. If you want to ration screen time, save plenty for tomorrow’s stage.
Would you not say that Van der Poel delviered a luxury lead out, but 200 metres too early? Still, Merlier would probably have had the better of him.
A better Philipsen would have managed with this, but yes, dropped off too early. Didn’t put in the preview but thinking if Philipsen wants to win then ideally he leaves it as late as possible to come off the wheels, he seemed to slow visibly when having put himself in the wind. Easily said than done.
I don’t have the encyclopedic knowledge of the regulars here, but I don’t recall Tour sprints being won this way very often. Both of the first two winners were well clear of the rest. Is it me, or that different from the norm?
Often with Merlier, yes. Kooij was perhaps more with the circumstances where a lot of riders were out of contention, and more had to come from further back.
As I was writing the other day, the couple of sprint stages we’ve had smells like bad Giro days (or old TDF stuff). Dunno. Think I prefer the lack of suspense and some more sporting value as in the UAE stages, although ideally we should get both.
I’m probably among the first paladins of having bunch sprint days in order to balance GC energies and action but as it was noted when the course was presented, and again now by some reader commenting the previous post, it looks like that this edition somehow failed to achieve the correct mix. After three tricky stages which had the GC men forced to commit (albeit nothing brutal for sure), they got two granted rest days, then the Tourmalet showdown, and now *four* granted rest days again. Or nearly so, but to turn Ussel into a GC day requires a pinch of madness and a big spoon of optimism (a Remco-Visma alliance?… against Lipowitz, of course!).
I think the 5km sprint zone has done a lot to increase rider safety, but has also removed the competitive aspect of positioning in the final sprint. It was very sparse at the front yesterday, with riders quite easily being able to slot into good positions from quite early on. Moving the zone from 3 to 5km has really changed the dynamic of the sprint.
GC riders just strolling through at 5km….. Pederson being able to follow the sprinters to the end without having to fight for position….
Is that final right turn at All. Fernand Cousteille typical and not a big risk for these riders?
Answer later today, and we’ll see what it looks like after works and being transformed by barriers. It’s a tactical point as the further back a rider is, the harder it’ll be, but too early to launch from.
Maybe JP and MVdP need to switch roles for a stage…?
Oooh, that hurt more than road rash!
Is there a reason why on a big Saturday towards the end of the first week of the Tour when I imagine everyone will be wanting a big TV audience we get… an uninspiring sprint day in which many might only tune in for the last 15-20kms?
Sacrebleu!
This happened in the giro as well this year! Some bad scheduling.
In the case of Giro it’s a (now-not-so-)new long-term strategy of sort, fostering the «real life event in a big city (or cycling hotbed)» vs. TV audience.
Dunno if TDF is copying that page or more the rest of reaonsable motives other commenters wrote here.
Geography, there’s not too much in range here to liven up the racing although it could be spiced but there’s a balance to give something to the sprinters. Tomorrow’s stage will offer a lot more sport and don’t forget next week’s Tuesday stage is a national holiday so some action saved for this.
Maybe there is something to be said for starting in the north with a week of sprint stages interspersed with a TT and a couple of ‘classics’ stages before a first weekend showdown in the Pyrenees, second weekend/last week in the Alps, one more TT and then Paris. It used to feel fairly predictable and scripted, as a route if not necessarily a race, but maybe there was method in it!
I imagined someone might say that but this is merely a geographical step towards the Massif Central and I see no reason why we couldn’t have just gone straight there for a hybrid hilly/sprint stage.
The fact is its nailed on sprints which bore me.
The French don’t care, it’s holiday season in France so they don’t pay attention to a particular day of the week and there is Bastille day coming so a lot of people have vacations anyway.
1 GC day, 2 easy days, 2 GC days, a rest day, and so on. ASO have learned from Las Vegas, save the best to last and “leave them wanting more!”
Also the good people of Bergerac have probably paid a tidy sum to get the finish in their town on a Saturday.
The fee is apparently standard tariff, €140k + VAT. This suits everyone as nobody haggles, towns can plan etc.
Yeah, was it so, it would be fine, but that’s next week, this was more like 2 st. to easy off, a GC one, 3 off again, and a rest day!
No love for Søren Wærenskjold?
Solid chance of placing but the chainrings are for the win and just can’t see him getting ahead.
The breakaway riders name is Jakub Otruba. 😉