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PHEW…rest
day breather on Tour following
On
Friday’s stage 13 from Dole to Belfort via the one big climb of the day, the
Ballon d’Alsace, Britain’s Tom Pidcock soared up the general classification to
fourth overall.
Swiss
star Mauro Schmidt won this 205-kilometre stage, as both he and Pidcock (who was
third) joined a big break of lowly placed men allowed to go clear by race
leader Tadej Pogacar and his UAE team.
Saturday,
stage 14. was a very tough stage over four categorised climbs in the Vosges Mountains,
155km to Le Markstein Fellering, crossing the Ballon d’Alsace again.
Pidock loses all that he gained and drops to 8th
overall at nine minutes as Pogacar reasserted himself to take his fourth stage
win of this year’s Tour.
Sunday,
stage 15, from Champagole to Plateau de Solaison, 184km.
The
race dynamic is completely changed as bad luck strikes
second
overall Jonas Vingegaard who abandons with a broken collarbone. The
Dane crashed when he hit a kerb coming out of roundabout with 20km to go.
More
shocks in store on the hardest finishing climb so far, as the Belgian Remco
Evenepoel deals out a rare defeat to Pogacar, leading out and outsprinting the
Tour champion on the line. It was the Belgian’s first road stage victory in the
Tour, after two time trial successes.
Here’s little more detail. On stage 14 not even a brave escape by Tobias
Halland Johannesasen and GC contender Richard Carapaz would be allowed to
disturb Pogacar. His team swept them up as they paved the way for stage win
number four for Pog as Pidcock lost all the gains made the day before.
Enormous crowds cheered him on, but they were there,
too, for young French hope Paul Seixas.
Vingegaard’s show of strength at the head of the Pog
train which brought the breakaway to heel was all for nothing, as he was
immediately distanced when Pop took off with about 8km to go.
In
the press room writers are asking is Pog’s domination becoming tiresome?
Is
he killing the competition?
If
his power data is to believed…no one else has an engine that comes close. No
one else can make such huge demands of his body time after time; defy the pain
of lactose acid in muscles that surely cannot take much more.
He’s in a formula one car, the rest are
driving family saloons.
If
there is a key to understanding how this powerhouse works, it must be in longer
periods of rest he takes between his targeted events. We know he rides fewer
events than most, and targets particular races to win. In-between times he
folds his wings and hangs upside down in his mountain lair, like Batman.
And so to stage 15 marred by Vingegaard's crash which saw Pogacar's main rival abandon with a broken collarbone.
There is a collective sigh relief as Evenpoele snatches
the stage win from Pog in a rare defeat for the Slovenian. For Evenepoel is one of the few riders Pogacar
knows can beat him in a sprint – given half a chance.
The top
three on the rest day as follows.
Pogacar;
55 hours, 41 minutes, 31 seconds: 2, Evenepoel at 5 minutes; 3, del Toro at 5
minutes 6 seconds.
The Tour resumes with the stage 6 time trial on
Tuesday, with Evenepoel favourite to win.
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