The Tour heads into the Alps for a ski station summit finish. Tadej Pogačar got beaten the last time the race came here and he remembers it but this should be for the breakaways given the bigger Alpine stages to come.
Classique du Dauphiné: the Tour de France is many things and among them a game of musical chairs. Come the third week and the music plays louder as riders and teams get desperate for a seat and this is not limited to small teams and unheralded riders. If anything they’re the ones already beaten down and struggling to find an opening. So a humdrum transition stage comes alive with plenty of big names making moves. The top-10 to come was worthy of a classic but the race was even better as everyone had to make their moves from the start and keep going.
With the Col des Près and the Alpine part of the stage done the moves kept going against a backdrop of scenic lakes and mountains on the roads of the ancient Dauphiné region.
We got an early split in the field with Pogačar, Evenepoel and Seixas in a front group with Del Toro and others on the wrong side but it came to nothing, UAE behind were willing chasers only they did not have to as more waves of riders tried to get clear.
With groups of riders spread like confetti over the course a group of five went clear with Jasper Stuyven, Ben Healy, Mads Pedersen, Felix Engelgardt and Edward Planckaert. Pedersen won the intermediate sprint and but with Planckaert playing policeman for Mathieu van der Poel and Jasper Philipsen, Stuyven attacked with 25km to go and he was looking good for the stage win but behind a larger group swept up the quartet he’d distance which in turn was caught by more and so a 50 rider group was bearing down on Stuyven and crucially with several helpers working for their sprinters.
The moves kept going, the group was hard to control and the last one saw Josh Tarling try a flyer in the streets of Voiron. He was closed down and we got a sprint with Mathieu van der Poel able to lead-out Jasper Philipsen and he pulled his team mate clear of the rest to leave Philipsen well clear of Mauro Schmid and Olav Kooij.
For Adam Yates the stage in the Isère rhymed with misère, thanks to illness. He was dropped and at times seemed to struggle to turn the pedals but made the time cut. The big question is whether he can recover.
Someone more happy was Jordan Jegat, 9th in the morning at over 22 minutes with several riders not far behind on time. He infiltrated the breakaway and thanks the time gain of almost nine minutes finished the day still 9th overall but now 14 minutes while other top-10 contenders were behind.
The points competition comes alive with Pedersen in green but now only seven points ahead of Jasper Philipsen who narrowed the gap with 50 points for the stage win; Lidl-Trek will be ruing how things turned out as Pedersen at one point looked like he was a contender to win the stage and Philipsen was out of the picture; although he was never distanced and Pedersen was sapped. There’s a contest and Pedersen is forced to go raiding for fear of losing out in Paris where the finish is a 50-pointer and the intermediate sprint on the Champs-Elysées could be crucial too.
The Route: 185km and 3,900m of climbing. There’s 20km on the flat until the race first goes up the road up to Lans via Engins, it’s not the most scenic road into the Vercors and 11.4km at 5.4% sounds gentle for a first category climb, it is especially as it’s an even climb up, but it’s a big prize for the mountains competition, a carrot to move early.
Once out of the Vercors and past the town of Vif there’s barely a flat road as the race heads for the Champsaur area of the Alps and then onto Orcières.
The Finish: a ski station summit finish that was long heralded thanks to the Tour stage in 1971 where Luis Ocaña got the better of Eddy Merckx for once, and by eight minutes. However the race came back in 2020 and a headwind saw the lead contenders huddle between the hairpins and it turned out that the history books and magazine articles supplied more thrill than the day’s sport. It’s still a summit finish but a gradual and even one, all on a wide road.
The Contenders: Tadej Pogačar (UAE) came here in 2020 and was beaten in the finish by his senior Primož Roglič, something he evoked on TV after Stage 17 so he may wish to correct the record but at the same time in his interview he said the focus is on Alpe d’Huez. Still he gets a chainring because if the breakaway can’t get clear, then why not gobble up another stage?
Otherwise the breakaway has a great chance, the GC contenders and their teams will want to save energy ahead of the two stages to Alpe d’Huez. The summit finish means the stage is almost reserved for a climber, or someone capable of a 20 minute effort uphill.
Richard Carapaz (EF) will get tipped for the next three stages and even if he wins here he’ll be a pick again and he’s after the mountains competition too. Ditto Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal-Quickstep). Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X) and Einer Rubio (Movistar) were on the move in the Vosges and should feature again but don’t have the same finishing kick to deliver a win.
Two new names for the breakaway are Sep Kuss and Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-LAB) now they don’t have a leader to work for. Thymen Arensman (Netcompany-Ineos) is better suited to the bigger mountains to come but has been trying already, if he can make the winning move his challenge is find a way to win from it.
Finally Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5) keeps making the breakaway and if this poses a problem for both the GC contenders and the breakaway he’s likely to keep trying.
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Carapaz |
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VP-P, Kuss, Arensman, Pidcock |
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Pogačar, Jorgenson, THJ, Tejada, Healy, Rubio |
Weather: 27°C and sunny. A light 10km/h NW breeze means a tailwind for much of the stage.
TV: KM0 is at 12.50 and the finish is forecast for 5.15pm CEST.
What a stage!
At some point we had a breakaway with some 20 riders that was “cleared” to go. Among them Simmons and MvdP. Mads chose to make the herculean effort to close that down, bridge across and put on a mad show for hours. At some point it looked like that decision would net him the intermediate points, the finish points and even the stage who knows. But in hindsight it was probably a poor decision. If that 20-man breakaway had gone the net points would have been favorable for Mads, since Alpecin for sure would not have closed it (MvdP ahead as a favorite for stage win). Also not closing would do Lidl some favours in keeping Quinn Simmons happier, being given the chance to ride for himself for once. And Mads would have had an easier stage. Of course, hindsight is 20/20 but it’s finding and reading these moments that often tips the scales. Decision making can be as important as legs in some stages.
Excellent summary. Could have been a perfect example of losing the battle to win the war, but perhaps ego got in the way of clear decision making. One thing is certain, today was perfect for adding spice to the green jersey competition.
Guys fighting at the front for Green Jersey points and Yates struggling at the back to keep going and in between riders chasing, then not chasing, then chasing again. Chaos!
It’s getting near the time for the fat lady to sing. How will Remco do, and Seixas is just 20 seconds of the podium. Ayuso seems to be struggling whilst his teammate Skjelmose seems to be getting better.