Stage 14, Saturday 18

155 km, D+ 3900 m

This Alsatian mountain stage is a loop in the Vosges.

The race started under an heavy shower. The first 12 km were controlled by sprinters teams as the I.S. was that early. The rain was over by then.

A couple of miles later, the climbs started and so did the attacks to form a breakaway.

Long story short: for a long time, there were 2 groups of breakaways, with Visma riders in the second. At the front, a group of 6 formed: the Uno-X twins (Johanessen(s)🇳🇴), the EF twins (Healy🇮🇪 and Carapaz🇪🇨), as well as V. Paret-Peintre (🇫🇷 Soudal-QS) and Rubio (🇨🇴 Movistar); Arensman (🇳🇱 Ineos) should have joined when Rubio🇨🇴 did but he got the 2368^th puncture of the Tour at Ineos. Carapaz🇪🇨 and V. Paret-Peintre were fighting for Mountain points, but the Frenchman won all GPM sprints.

While the second group oscillated between 30 seconds and 1 minute ahead of the peloton, the front group got up to 3 minutes.

Healy🇮🇪 and Anders Johanessen🇳🇴 sacrificed for their brothers. Then Tobias J.🇳🇴 attacked and was only followed by Carapaz🇪🇨 who counter-attacked a bit farther. The Ecuadorian rider started the last climb about 1 minute only ahead of the peloton (or what was left of it).

In the peloton, in the last climb, the two guys who had made a big jump into GC yesterday thanks to their breakaway, Jegat (🇫🇷 Total) and Pidcock (🇬🇧 Q36.5), cracked early. The Englishman, who had been in the breakaway today again, managed to limit the damage; the Frenchman not so much.

Yates (🇬🇧 UAE) couldn’t work for his leaders, he was dropped before he could.

Voisard (🇫🇷 Tudor) stayed a long time with the top guys, but overheated and blew up rather severely.

The breakawaymen Carapaz🇪🇨 and Johanessen🇳🇴 managed to stick with leaders surprisingly long, considering the fact that they had given a lot more than the other guys and that it was going fast when they were caught up.

Back to the leaders: there was one attack by Lipowitz (🇩🇪 Bora), it didn’t last long.

Evenepoel (🇧🇪 Bora) cracked first. Like the other day, Vingegaard (🇳🇴 Visma) pulled alone, without getting any help from Seixas (🇫🇷 Decathlon) and others. As a result, Evenepoel🇧🇪 would have come back like the other day, if Pogatchar (🇸🇮 UAE) hadn’t attacked, with only 1.5 km to the summit. Then every individual was chasing every other individual, full gas.

There was 6 km of plateau after the pass, before the line. Again, Seixas🇫🇷 didn’t collaborate well with Vingegaard🇳🇴, especially after Del Toro (🇲🇽 UAE) caught them – the Mexican would of course not relay, as his leader was 20-30 seconds ahead. So, this trio got slower; slower than the lone Pogatchar🇸🇮 ahead, and also slower than Evenpoel🇧🇪 who had regrouped with his teammate Lipowitz🇩🇪 and with Ayuso (🇪🇸 Lidl-Trek), and they almost got caught again. Of course, in the end, for 2^nd place, Del Toro🇲🇽 beat Seixas🇫🇷 and the worn out Vingegaard🇳🇴 who didn’t really take part in the sprint.

L. Martinez (🇫🇷 Bahrain) produced a good performance. I didn’t speak of him because I can’t remember when he was dropped.

Seixas🇫🇷 takes the White jersey off Ayuso🇪🇸’s shoulders thanks to the time bonus for 3^rdplace.

V. Paret-Peintre🇫🇷 doesn’t get the Polka Dots jersey, as Pogatchar🇸🇮 passed in first position on the last climb. And, weirdly, there was no point for the Hundruck pass.

Kanter (🇩🇪 Astana) still competes for the Green jersey, despite being a bit far behind and only ranking 5^th. I imagine that he hopes 1 or 2 of the guys before him will withdraw at some point, to make it into the first 3 places.

Fun facts:

• the 1^st FDJ rider is 2 hours behind Pogatchar in GC; that’s worse than Caja Rural;
• the 1^st Picnic rider is 1 hour behind the 1^st FDJ rider in GC!

We’re in Normandy

I see… returning to the scene of the crime, 1200 years later. Did you find something left to pillage or burn? 🤣

Yesterday we had some rain

Rain? I can’t remember what that is. 🙂 I even have to water 40 years old trees so that they don’t die. While there is available water. I has rained once in 5 weeks, and there is no forecast of rain for the next week or 2, so water usage will be restricted soon (I am surprised it is not yet). Before the drought, simply due to the heat, the leaves of many vegetables, shrubs and even creepers have ‘burned’, berries have cooked and rotten standing (well, except the redcurrant shrubs which bore nothing because it developed too early because of the hot winter…). Most apples have fallen, and the rest doesn’t reach 2 inches in diameter and the surface is burned on the side facing south.

Looking at the weather forecast for the place where you are, I see a consistant 10 °C lower than here every day. 😭

I am happy we’re not further south, though.

Yeah, but those last weeks have been equality hot all over the territory (except coast lines). Though it doesn’t help, in general, that I live more south than 99% of metropolitan France (contrarily to popular belief, including the belief of the people who live there, the french Riviera is not the Southernmost part of France).

And when I say coast lines… The Atlantic coast below Brittany doesn’t seem protected much any more, which came as a surprise. The Gulf of Gascony / Bay of Bascony seem not to play its buffering role any more, or even reversed it to heat up the Western coast of France and the Northern coast of Spain.

I don’t deal with the heat well, being from the lower part of the High North.

You will unfortunately have to get accustomed to it for the next decades, because it is coming up north fast. The other guy got his book all wrong: the fearsome sentence should have been “Summer is coming”, not “Winter is coming” 🤣

I am in France with my family and we’re busy doing vacation things like…

Like trying to survive the heat? That’s what I am doing, with less and less success, I have been very tired in the last 3 days. I can’t get the house temperature down any more as it gets somewhat cloudy at night, so the house starts at 24°C in the morning (and then obviously it only goes up). And I am lucky I can open several windows at night because there is a 500-acre forest fire just on the other side of the pass but the winds (or lack thereof…) don’t blow the smoke towards us. But when it is still 28°C or more at 1 AM, er…

Stage 13, Friday 17

After 2 days of sprint, we are progressively getting back in business with this pilgrimage into the land of Pinot. Because the following two days will be finish-on-top stages, this one is likely to be granted to a breakaway. As always these days, it means that a ton of riders will try to join it.

There was indeed a fight for a the breakaway. Several fights actually.

First there was a small group of 5. Of course too many teams were unhappy with this, so they never got more than a 10 seconds gap in what, 10 km? 15 km?

Then a huge group of more than 30 riders broke away., including some big names (not GC guys except Pidcock (🇬🇧 Q36.5) but many good contenders for the stage as well as top sprinters like Philipsen (🇧🇪 Alpecin)). This was a complete failure for Uno-X and Lidl-Trek who had nobody at the front! So Lidl-Trek started a hard pursuit, it was going super fast at the front as well as in the peloton. Pedersen🇩🇰 himself was pulling. This chase lasted 20 km, and then Lidl-Trek gave up. Strangely, riders from teams who hadn’t helped them or very little, like Uno-X, started attacking as the gap had grown to 45 seconds and the breakaway was still going fast.

Then, I don’t know how because I missed it, but Pedersen🇩🇰 whom I believed cooked by the chase, was in a counter-attack group! And that was the start of a new crazy pursuit which lasted close to 50 km! Pedersen🇩🇰 joined the first breakaway, which thus grew to more than 50 riders, perhaps 20 km from the Intermediate Sprint. He managed to pass the I.S. in 2^nd position between Philipsen🇧🇪 and Girmay (🇪🇷 NSN)! He had managed to overturn a situation wrecked by his team.

In the first climb, there was only a tiny attack by Healy (🇮🇪 EF) followed by Vauquelin (🇫🇷 Ineos).

In the main climb (Ballon d’Alsace), Grégoire (🇫🇷 FDJ) blew up in less than 2 km… (he had also been taken in a split on the flat during the crazy chase, with other riders who didn’t participate much in the breakaway).

The group splits in many sub-groups. Matthews (🇦🇺 Jayco) managed to stay in the front group with 3 other teammates until relatively close to the summit, and passed with a bit more than 30 seconds only behind a group of 10. I thought the 2 Jayco at the front would wait for him, as he would be the fastest on a sprint among the 20 first riders and they had personnel to bring him back and control the resulting group.

But instead Jayco played with Plapp🇦🇺 and Schmid🇨🇭. And the later won, after breaking away a few miles from the line with Tejada (🇨🇴 Astana). There were 3 Frenchmen in the group of 10 that played the victory before those 2 left; not one in the top-5 in the end…

After dropping from the breakaway as the Ballon d’Alsace started, Pedersen🇩🇰 took a quick nap and then pulled the peloton… Jesus… 🤣

Pidcock🇬🇧 didn’t win the stage, but he is back in GC, just missing the GC podium for a handful of seconds. Of course, he may pay today’s efforts as soon as tomorrow, when there probably will be some sort of battle for GC.

Jegat (🇫🇷 Total) also repositioned in GC (11^th), and may now envision the same performance as last year (10^th), with a bit of luck and a lot of efforts.

It is not often that we have so many (let’s say 4 at the moment) riders truly fighting for the Green jersey: that’s nice. I would have been great if Merlier and Kooij didn’t scorn it; why do they refuse to take part in all Intermediate Sprints?

Stage 12, Thursday 16

This one is a bit more hilly than the previous one, but those hills look far from enough to prevent another sprinters stage.

There was quite some action compared to other sprinters stages. My memory and therefore my account will be pretty fuzzy because I slept through several parts and was away at a few others :-)

Breakaway took some time to form. Finally, only Veistroffer (🇫🇷 Lotto) successfully broke away alone. At the I.S. there were a few attacks, I though they had all failed (after reducing the gap by half, to 1 minute), but when I came back, 3 guys had joined Veistroffer🇫🇷.

(Pedersen (🇩🇰 Lidl-Trek) won the peloton’s I.S. but he could have been relegated for he went from the centre to the right of the fence, blocking Philipsen (🇧🇪 Alpecin) and another rider against the fences.)

With 60 km to go, Veistroffer🇫🇷 dropped Caruso (🇮🇹 Bahrain) and Vercher (🇫🇷 Total). 10 km farther, Costiou (🇫🇷 FDJ) gave up, and Veistroffer🇫🇷 was alone again.

When the peloton reached the hills 35-40 from the line, there were a lot of attacks (the fist one caught Veistroffer🇫🇷), mainly by Lidl-Trek who wanted to avoid a mass sprint. They put quite a mess during 25-30 km, but the last 10 km, really flat, allowed sprinters teams to regain control.

Therefore, it ended with a mass sprint. And a mass crash, due to a vicious little wave of the road brilliantly set 350-400 m from the line, which left only a few riders for the sprint (basically, everyone who survived the crash scored UCI points…). The first to hit the ground was Gaviria (🇨🇴 Caja Rural), whose front wheel was hit by a Bahrain rider who changed direction.

Fun fact: after 12 stages, Veistroffer🇫🇷 has grabbed 3 times as much prize money 💶 as the whole GFDJ team 🤣

Stage 11, Wednesday 15

161 km, D+ 1100 m

This is a sprinters stage.

Yes it was. However, the breakaway took longer to form than on other sprinters stages: 10-15 km. There were 4 guys (who didn’t wait for the Lotto who tried to join them): Uno-X, Movistar, Total and… Alaphilippe🇫🇷 who blew up like a Conti amateur on the only 4% slope of the course, 40 km from the line and without any attack happening 🙄. Le Berre (🇫🇷 Total) got the I.S., Charmig (🇩🇰 Uno-X) got the little GPMs and the combativity, and N. Oliveira (🇵🇹 Movistar) got nothing.

The sprint was bizarre, in its preparation (the peloton was super slow between the point they caught the breakaway (5-6 km from the line) and 2 km from the line where they suddenly started all started pushing like crazy: the domestiques were basically sprinting) as well as in the sprint itself (Decathlon’s sprinter left a split behind his launcher, but said launcher didn’t understand and stopped when he saw the gap).

Observation after several similar stages:

In the last few years, the gap granted by pelotons to breakaways was reduced from 8–12 minutes to 2′30″–3′00.

This year, it went down again: only 1′30″ is now granted.

Stage 10, Tuesday 14

167 km, D+ 3800 m

The stage in the Massif Central looks a bit like the previous (Ussel) stage, but the climbs are significantly more substantial and there is even less flat for recovery, so a breakaway of climbers more than punchers can be expected (if UAE doesn’t decide to win it from the peloton).

A stage in 4 acts.

1^st act was (successfully) handled by Lidl-Trek for Pedersen🇩🇰’s Green jersey. It could have been better because at some point, they had broken the peloton in 2 or 3 pieces, and gotten rid of all or almost all sprinters, but still, the Dane passed the I.S. line in 1^st position.

2^nd act: the fight for breaking away. It started right on the Intermediate Sprint line, with Van der Poel (🇳🇱 Alpecin). There was many failed attempts until a group of about 30 riders left.

3^rd act: the breakaway and the chase. A breakaway that large couldn’t stay together for long, and with all the hills it broke several times in many pieces. Behind, UAE never let the gap grow a bit. Last survivor at the front was Romo (🇪🇸 Movistar), who had broken away as a duo, and then solo, for many miles.

4^th act: the fight for stage victory and between GC leaders. After UAE caught Romo🇪🇸, the ‘peloton’ was already quite small. The only attack was (as usual?) led by Carapaz (🇪🇨 EF) in the Puy Mary, about 35 km from the line; he would never be reeled back by domestiques. There was a strange move by Decathlon in the final part of that climb, taking the peloton’s lead from UAE. In the next climb, the shortest but steepest Pertus, the head of the peloton was a bit of a mess, Yates🇬🇧 couldn’t do much, there were Decathlon riders again, then Visma: a mix that wasn’t coming any closer to Carapaz🇪🇨 who was up to 1 minute ahead. I suspect that UAE had planned that the stage would be for Del Toro🇲🇽 but the Mexican wasn’t in shape today; anyway, Pogatchar🇸🇮 got pissed, attacked, nobody followed him for a yard, and he caught and dropped the Ecuadorian rider just before the pass. Behind, the usual riders formed 2 groups. In the first one, Evenepoel (🇧🇪 Bora) worked in the transition but cracked when the road went up again. However no one in that group relayed Vingegaard (🇩🇰 Visma) who was pulling everyone: Seixas (🇫🇷 Decathlon), Ayuso🇪🇸 & Skjelmose🇩🇰 (Lidl-Trek) and Lipowitz (🇩🇪 Bora). It was the perfect occasion to get rid of Evenepoel🇧🇪, but nobody but Vingegaard🇩🇰 worked for it. Worse, as the Dane weakened progressively, they allowed the Belgian to come back in the very end and even beat them all at the sprint for time bonuses!

I forgot to mention that Del Toro🇲🇽 had been dropped much earlier and that it was yet another reason to relay, in order to enlarge more significantly the gap with him as well.

So…

The modification caused a change in attitude in the beginning: Lidl-Trek intended to arrive as a bunch at the I.S. and lead the peloton up there. No other sprinter team tried anything intelligent to prevent Pedersen🇩🇰 from taking maximum points or maximum points difference at the I.S., their sprinters just sprinted behind him, except Merlier (🇧🇪 Soudal-QS) who was already dropped.

Then the expectedly long and messy fight for breakaway started. It lasted for 50 km.

Behind, in a very reduced peloton, UAE and Ineos were keeping the gap pretty low. At the front, a handful of strong men finally detached, and they managed to reach the line, despite Lidl-Trek riders (Q. Simmons🇺🇸 & Gee🇨🇦) dropping from the breakaway down to the peloton to join the chasing efforts in the hope of bringing Pedersen . The Dane still scores a few points – despite being beaten by Ganna (🇮🇹 Ineos) at the ‘peloton’ sprint – and contrarily to the I.S., the other sprinters in the game don’t score any, which is more important than absolute figures.

Alpecin can’t win through their sprinter? No problem, Van der Poel🇳🇱 beats the other 3 breakawaymen on a hilly stage! T. Johanessen (🇳🇴 Uno-X) scores another 2^ndplace, and Pidcock (🇬🇧 Q36.5) and Baudin (🇫🇷 EF) take the next two seats. Pidcock🇬🇧 was proactive all day, in contrast with the rest of his so far mediocre first week.

It was supposed to be a stage for Grégoire (🇫🇷 FDJ) but he was dropped by the peloton very early (well, not as early as Merlier 🤣). Even after 2 flat stages he still hasn’t recovered a bit. The guy is cooked, boiled and fried. I have little hope in him for the rest of the tour, unless temperatures drop sharply.

Baudin🇫🇷 had been going for Mountain points this week, but not today. He was at the front of the race, but didn’t try to pass first (or even second) at any climb top, despite the fact that he could have scored +50% compared to the points he had gathered so far…

Stage 9, Saturday 11

185 km, D+ 3300 m

After 2 flat stages, there isn’t one flat yard today, approaching the Massif Central. This will certainly be one of those stages where 150 riders want to join the breakaway.

Due to the heat, the race will be shortened. It appears that they would cut off the first sort of ‘loop’ between the start and the Intermediate Sprint, and replace it with a direct shortcut that would remove around 30 km.

The time of the start wouldn’t be moved, so the riders should arrive a bit earlier. Damn, are they less stupid than French Championship organisers?

Stage 8, Saturday 11

180 km, D+ 1300 m

The second flat stage for sprinters in a row. A grand total of 3 GPM points will have been offered in 2 days…

The breakaway took 2 extra minutes to form because Valsgreen (well, one of them, 🇩🇰 EF) wasn’t allowed to join it. It blew up 40 km from the line when Otruba (🇨🇿 Caja Rural) attacked and was countered by Slock (🇧🇪 Lotto). At the same place, there was a bit of action in the peloton with one Valsgreen🇩🇰 attempting to leave again (and failing again). Slock🇧🇪 put up a nice resistance, but blew up with 2 km to go. A sprinter won.

Stage 7, Friday 10

175 km, D+ 700 m

A flat stage for the next favourite arrival of sprinters: Bordeaux.

Veistroffer (🇫🇷 Lotto) left again at km 0, followed by Otruba (🇨🇿 Caja Rural). A sprinter won. No crash.

Veistroffer🇫🇷 has probably already recorded 2500 km of breakaways this year… Without counting the ‘breakaways’ at the back, like the two days he stayed with Arnaud de Lie earlier this week. He comes from triathlon and hates being inside a large group.

Stage 6, Thursday 9

186 km, D+ 4100 m

The only mountain stage of the Pyrenees this year simply consists of the Aspin Pass, the Tourmalet Pass, and a strange never-ending (18 km) strongly uphill false flat as a finish.

Summary: a mountain stage + a UAE team = another Slovenian victory

Visma attempted several times to put someone ahead so that Vingegaard🇩🇰 could get some help after the Tourmalet, because of the terrible final false flat. First they tried with Campenaerts🇧🇪 who left at km, soon joined by AArtz (🇧🇪 Lotto) and later by M. Pedersen (🇩🇰 Lidl-Trek) for the Green jersey points. But after they got a gap of more than 1 minute, there was movement at the front of the peloton (by Ineos I think), and the gap went down to about 30 seconds. Also, AArtz🇧🇪 had never gotten his car, complained at the commissar’s car, and ended up receiving a yellow card, supposedly for incorrect position on the bike, and dropped.

Pedersen🇩🇰 got the I.S. points and kept on helping Campenaerts🇧🇪 a while after that to thank him, but the gap was decreasing even more. There was then other attempts by Visma from the peloton, but none managed to break away.

Both Ayuso (🇪🇸 Lidl-Trek) and Evenepoel (🇧🇪 Bora) were dropped because of a pee stop… It took them a while to come back, especially for Bora to bring the Belgian back.

O’Connor is the only one (at first, with a Q36.5) who managed to break away for good in the beginning of Aspin Pass, but he couldn’t resist when Pollitt🇩🇪 finished his work and UAE accelerated for real with Wellens🇧🇪. On the end of the pass, Paret-peintre (🇫🇷 Soudal-QS) and L. Martinez (🇫🇷 Barhain) detached and fought for Mountain points; no one else was interested in remaining points.

Cian U*.* (🇧🇪 Movistar) was dropped in the beginning of the Tourmalet (or was it Aspin already?) and was later announced DNF. 😞

The Tourmalet Pass was ridden the usual way: a UAE train, a UAE launcher, and Pogatchar🇸🇮 going away. Evenepoel🇧🇪 cracked first (after blocking Seixas🇫🇷 a bit…), then Seixas (🇫🇷 Decathlon) lost Vingegaard🇩🇰’s wheel. There were a few small recompositions, but stable positions emerged with 2 lone riders ahead (the Slovenian, then the Dane), and then a trio with Seixas🇫🇷, Lipowitz (🇩🇪 Bora) and the Mexican plaster Del Toro (🇲🇽 UAE), and then, was it a quatuor, a quintet, with Evenepoel (🇧🇪 Bora), Ayuso🇪🇸+Skjelmose🇩🇰 (Lidl-trek) and the French plaster L. Martinez🇫🇷.

There was not much gap between the two groups, and it was funny to see Lipowitz🇩🇪 accelerate at the top as if he didn’t want Evenepoel🇧🇪 to come back.

The cooperation between those 2 teammates was going to be awful after the two groups joined at the bottom, anyway. The angry chip got angry at other riders as usual. They never managed to close the gap with Vingegaard🇩🇰 even though they reduced it substantially, as the Dane was also losing time to Pogatchar🇸🇮 ahead of him. Del Toro🇲🇽 outsprinted the Belgian for 3^rd place time bonus, which allowed him to seat on the GC podium third place.

Oh, and the guys who made it into GC podium positions thanks to their breakaway 2 days ago all vanished, despite the fact that they had some climbing abilities. Vatsek (🇨🇿 Lidl-Trek) and Sean Quinn (🇺🇸 EF) were dropped early (early in the Tourmalet or even in Aspin?), and T. Træen (🇳🇴 Uno-X) crashed in the descent of the Tourmalet after hitting in an hairpin bend the wheel of his own teammate, who waited for him after he was dropped over 10 km from the top of the Tourmalet! Icing on the cake for Uno-X, T. Johannessen🇳🇴 was dropped later from the group of favourites and had to teammate left with him since his twin brother had stayed with T. Træen🇳🇴.

Stage 5, Wednesday 8

158 km, D+ 1600 m

A stage which looks very much like the first 2 stages of the Route d’Occitanie a couple of weeks ago. Despite some use of the hills of Gers, they will probably insufficient or too separated to get rid of the sprinters on their favourite finish city (Pau). There is almost no reward for breakaways, with only 1 GPM…

Utterly useless stage, as expected. Veistroffer (🇫🇷 Lotto) left at km 0, nobody tried to go with him since there was nothing to win. Fast forward 150 km farther: mass crashes and a sprinter won. 👎 Next!

The GPM contender Molenaar (🇳🇱 Caja Rural) won’t be able to restart tomorrow, due to that first mass crash. 👎👎

And there will be 2 more stages like this this week… 👎👎👎👎

Stage 4, Tuesday 7

182 km, D+ 2900 m

After a uselessly long bus transfer, this stage meanders in the Cathar Country, the Pyrenean piedmont, and may offer opportunities for breakaways, as well as sprinters if there isn’t too much action.

It was indeed for an all-terrain sprinter, inside a breakaway.

It was a masterclass by Lidl-Trek. The breakaway took a relatively long (but not as much as yesterday) time to form, but then it was very large – a bit over 30 riders –, and included M. Pedersen🇩🇰, Q. Simmons🇺🇸 and Vatsek🇨🇿. Vatsek🇨🇿 could have had his own chance when he quietly left with Tratnik (🇸🇮 Bora) but then his team made it clear that today was only for Pedersen🇩🇰 (and it was rather far from the line).

Movistar did all they could with Castrillo🇪🇸 and R. Garcia P.🇪🇸 attacking countless times until the last mile, but they never could get more than a few yards gaps versus the Lidl-Trek riders.

Grégoire (🇫🇷 FDJ) was in the breakaway, but he has no recovery, is cooked and the opposition is much stronger than Joris Delbove on the National Championship. He was dropped rather early and finished last of the 2^nd group… A complete failure.

Pedersen🇩🇰 outclassed all other riders in the first group, and his American teammate even managed to take the 2^nd place. This is a 390 UCI points day for the team… (As for teams who need points, Movistar scored an honest 145 points, despite all their earlier efforts; but Groupama scored 0, and Cofidis who had riders at the front for a much longer time than the other French team doesn’t get anything either in the end.)

Good old Matthews (🇦🇺 Jayco) won the sprint of the 2^nd group, but it was only for the 11^th place. The two pure sprinters – Girmay (🇪🇷 NSN) and Philipsen (🇧🇪 Alpecin) – had given up when the longest climb had started, just after the I.S.).

In the peloton, nobody rode against the breakaway. Most teams were in, and Visma and UAE let it go.

Pedersen🇩🇰 also gets the Green jersey.

Baudin keeps the Mountain jersey, as Molenaar (🇳🇱 Caja Rural) was in the breakaway, but failed to score on the last climb.

Stage 3, Monday 6

196 km, D+ 3900 m

Arrival in a ski resort in French Catalunya. Is this a mountain stage or a puncher stage? Or simply a very good day for breakaways?

Everyone wanted to be in the breakaway, so it took long to develop. It wasn’t allowed more than the modern standard gap. The UAE pulled the peloton, and Pogatchar won the sprint.

There were a few crashes (notably Armirail after about 12 km). Poor De Lie was dropped since the start, as it was a succession of strong uphill false flats; he fought all day, but withdrew just a few miles from the line, as he had no chance to make it in time any more after suffering all day long: eliminating badly ill or injured riders is the only thing that modern delays ‘achieve’ on modern GTs 😢

Reluctant with good reason! It’s the day after a time trial and more than a week to a rest day. Would you really risk a good classification place or later stage wins this early, attacking on a hillside crit circuit that the breakaway has maybe 1% chance of winning? Be serious.

1. A circuit like this, like any punchy finish, is a perfect place to attack if one is afraid of losing GC: losing GC won’t happen. One can pick one’s distance for attacking, and if it fails, one may recover or attack anew when it comes back again. Even if one blows up, gaps won’t be big.
2. There aren’t only GC leaders in the race, there are punchers who don’t give a damn about classification and who won’t be served many suitable profiles this year.
3. Last year, both punchers and GC leaders did use punchers stages. There were attacks by Visma lieutenants and even a bit Vingegaard as soon as stage #2. Pog and Ving attacked and created splits in the punchy finish as soon as stage #4, the day before the ITT. It was just an attack 6 km from the goal, but still better than yesterday.
4. I’ve heard of Time Trial ‘blocking’ the race for a couple of days before the TT, but blocking it for a few days after the TT would be a first ;)

All right, but if I remember correctly, all typical punchers stages last year were fiercely contested.

Benoot (🇧🇪 Decathlon) did the same thing as on the Tour de Suisse a 2 weeks ago: he started pulling the peloton like crazy and as a result his leader went backwards. Luckily this time, there were enough riders between the first 3 and Seixas🇫🇷, so a split wasn’t created.

It appears that the car gave the order, while Seixas🇫🇷 wasn’t willing to accelerate or attack, after his difficult chase to get back into the peloton following his puncture and double bike switch.

Stage 2, Sunday 5

169 km, D+ 2000 m

A stage for punchers, again finishing in Barcelona’s Montjuic

This stage was turned into a joke. Nobody attacked, except for Johannessen (🇳🇴 Uno-X) followed by Carapaz (🇪🇨 EF), about 18.3 yards from the top of the very last climb. It was just a strong-ish pace by the lone McNulty (🇺🇸 UAE) all along. And then Del Toro (🇲🇽 UAE) won because Pogatchar (🇸🇮 UAE) left him the victory. Yep.

Tomorrow, spectators will be banned from the part of the course in France, as there is a major forest fire developing (far) down the valley.

Stage 1, Saturday 1, Team Time Trial

20 km, D+ 220 m

A very short TTT in the streets of Barcelona, with some climbing near and at the end (your usual Montjuic).

This format created quite some mess. Suffice to say that Bernal (🇨🇴 Ineos) will wear the Green jersey tomorrow 🤣

At FDJ, the two guys who were supposed to aim for a modest top-20 in GC crashed. G. Martin🇫🇷 and Berthet🇫🇷 finished the stage, but the latter won’t restart tomorrow. Grégoire🇫🇷 finished very well, but it looked more impressive than it actually was because he used a huge gear ratio with a low frequency while standing up .

Astana also crashed.

At Ineos, Vauquelin🇫🇷 who was supposed to be the final arrow and hadn’t taken any relay, got a puncture… Subsequently, Ganna, who had taken the heaviest relays on the flat, was forced to also lead the finish. This beast managed to almost win! He climbed faster than all punchers and GC leaders, but one.

At Bora, Evenepoel🇧🇪 dropped Lipowitz🇩🇪 in the last climb.

De Lie (🇧🇪 Lotto) was completely ill. Cian U. (🇧🇪 Movistar) overheated, blew up and had cramps. O’Connor (🇦🇺 Jayco) quickly sank.

Vinegaard (🇩🇰 Visma) and Pogatchar (🇸🇮 UAE) are already on the podium. Top-10 favourites are already in the top-10… And there are still 20 stages to go.

It seems designed to create differences, so I guess there will be a few. What could happen to minimise them is one stronger leader with a weaker team vs the opposite; perhaps the Pogatchar-UAE vs Vingegaard-Visma will be along this line. But the flat section is relatively short (for a TTT), so I don’t know whether significant advantage can be gained there by a strong team.

I don’t expect much from Seixas/Decathlon, given what they showed on the Dauphiné.

It could be interesting to see what happens at Bora, performance-wise, but also circus-wise 😀

We can note that the organisers had the ‘brilliant’ idea of scheduling the last/favourite teams/leaders at the same time as the WC first 1/8^th match of the day 🙄 As if they couldn’t have made it just 20 minutes earlier…