Pretty much over now. From Cyclingnews:
"Vingegaard hardly needed to attack as the Slovenian lost contact with 14.5km remaining in the stage, calling to his teammate Adam Yates that he had nothing and to go for the podium placing.
By the finish line, Pogačar had ceded 5:45 to the maillot jaune but it was more than enough to hold onto second place overall, now without any hopes of overtaking Vingegaard at a gap of 7:35 in the overall standings.
Pogačar’s teammate Adam Yates gained time on Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers), who started the day five seconds behind him in fourth. Yates is now 10:45 down on Vingegaard in the yellow jersey competition.
The Spaniard lost touch not soon after Pogačar but fought his way to the finish in 15th, losing 3:02 to Vingegaard and 1:11 to Yates. He remains in fourth at 12:01 but, more importantly, only 18 seconds ahead of Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla) who claimed second on the stage."
Powless couldn’t get any KOM points, good job by Ciccone. I don’t think the accident(is that the right term?) as the reason Pogacar did so poorly, but it didn’t help.
Well-played stage by Jumbo again. Somehow they always seem to deliver more actual help to their team leader with their domestiques than other teams. But sadly it just didn’t matter as Tadej blew up completely That was what the French call un jour sans. This makes me sad. Certainly not the spectacle that the Col du Granon stage was last year.
At that’s pretty much the race wrapped up. Barring crashing out, heaven forbid, only thing left up for grabs are 4 stage wins and the polka dots. Pretty sure Ciccone will take the polka dots. We might see Vingegaard try for the stage win on Saturday, in which case he’ll pick up some points, but Ciccone’s a good bet to get in the break that day and add some insurance points. Gall jumped up in that classification with the ridiculous 40 points on Col de la Loz, but I’m pretty sure AG2R will have him riding to protect his 8th overall from here on, so he won’t be hunting mountain points.
I was going to make a joke about Voeckler always did have issues getting up mountains, but that’s pretty mean for a guy who won the mountain classification at this race. Which is pretty impressive given that he was much more of an all-rounder than climber.
Well, my opinion of Jasper Philipsen just keeps going down. Not only has he had relegation-worthy deviations in two of his four stage wins and had his lead-out actually relegated in the third, today he tries to bully a rider from trying to bridge to the breakaway, as if he’s the boss of who should be allowed to race. Should have been sanctioned again, though not worthy of a DQ. Could have docked some of his sprint points at least. Seriously, he’s going to get someone hurt if this keeps up.
Thankfully for my sense of justice, Alpecin completely stuffed up the stage tactics and failed to bring the break back. The breakaway holds off the sprint trains to win by just a few metres. So close that they actually weren’t given a time gap. Absolutely magnificent ride by Victor Campenaerts although it ended up by Asgreen for the win.
That was a beautiful finish - the way the break held off the peloton was spectacular. The view from the chopper was confusing; it looked like they were caught but it was just the 4th rider from the break.
Thibaut Pinot in a solo flight on his second last TdF stage ever, in his home region. His fans on the climb going crazy. It would be so cool if he wins.
The way UAE were riding for the stage win, the break was always going to be a long shot. That was some vintage Pinot, though, and wasn’t all that very far from hanging on. Loved watching him ride up Petit Ballone.
Congrats to Ciccone on winning KOM – I’m glad the jerseys are spread. Too bad Powless couldn’t get any climb points.The crash moves Sepp Kuss down to 12th.
Felt bad for the rider on stage 19 who broke his chain – the generic bike car kept giv9ing him bikes with the wrong cleats (he tried at least 3…)
Check out this post-race interview from Friday’s winner Matej Mohoric. Beautifully describes how hard and cruel this sport is.
Also, imposter syndrome from a guy who’s won Milan-San Remo and has 5 grand tour stages on his palmares. For a bit of fun, check out his descent of the Poggio on his way to a monument victory last year. Milano-Sanremo presented by EOLO 2022 | Matej Mohoric's descent - YouTube Seriously, the last half hour of MSR is some of the very best racing of the entire season. You guys who only tune in for Le Tour are missing out on so much.
Note: “for Gino” references teammate Gino Mader, who crashed heavily on a descent at the Tour de Suisse in June, was airlifted to hospital, and passed away from his injuries.
Neils Politt is 6’ 3.5" two of those bikes had the right pedals, but were so much too small for him that he couldn’t reasonably ride them. By that time there was no way he was getting back to the break and so may as well wait for the team car with a bike he can actually ride.
Thanks for the correction. I was wondering why the guy kept giving him wrong-pedaled bikes. Understandable not to have a big enough frame for someone that tall (can’t just move the seat up)
I do, it’s a great follow-up to the Tour of the men. Today was the first stage win ever for a German in the TdFF by Liane Lippert in a great fashion, which made me lucky. I don’t know the profiles for the following stages, but they said today was the queen stage, and it was really very hard with climb after climb.
It’s basically a question of can Annemiek singlehandedly overcome the might of SD Worx, and what crumbs might be left over for other teams to pick up.
Women’s racing is pretty good, though, and the women are super-pumped for the Tour since this is just the second time it’s been on the calendar. (Yes I know there were some really weird versions in the 70’s. They don’t really count.)
