The third and last week stays in the Alps – that we already reached on Sunday, except for the last day which suddenly ‘jumps’ to Paris.

Standings after week 2

General Classification:

Unless he undergoes an accident, the race is already won for the Slovenian rider. The battle for podium is however still open, after the unfortunate withdrawal of Vingegaard🇩🇰. The top-10 didn’t change much, but it ‘stretched’, and Pidcock and Jegat entered it.

  1. Tadej Pogatchar 🇸🇮 UAE
  2. Remco Evenepoel 🇧🇪 Bora: +5′00″
  3. Isaac Del Toro 🇲🇽 UAE +5′58″
  4. Paul Seixas 🇫🇷 Decathlon: +6′23″
  5. Florian Lipowitz 🇩🇪 Bora: +6′48″
  6. Juan Ayuso 🇪🇸 Lidl-Trek: +7′28″
  7. Mattias Skjelmose 🇩🇰 Lidl-Trek: +9′38″
  8. Lenny Martinez 🇫🇷 Bahrain: +10′28″
  9. Thomas Pidcock 🇬🇧 Q36.5: +11′19″
  10. Jordan Jegat 🇫🇷 Total : +19′12″

5 other riders follow close to Jegat, at less than 25 minutes, and can thus hope to enter top-10: Voisard🇨🇭, Carapaz🇪🇨, Van Wilder🇧🇪, A. Yates🇬🇧, and Piganzoli🇮🇹 (Visma) who will have to make up for Vingegaard’s withdrawal. The rest is farther than 40 minutes.

Points classification (Green jersey):

Merlier🇧🇪, who was in 4th position, couldn’t finish the race in time on Sunday and withdrew. Philipsen did the best 2nd week.

  1. Mads Pedersen 🇩🇰 Lidl-Trek: 417 pts (+149)
  2. jasper Philipsen 🇧🇪 Alpecin: 191 (+195)
  3. Biniam Girmay 🇪🇷 NSN: 361 (+138)
  4. Max Kanter 🇩🇪 Astana: 271 (+99)
  5. Olav Kooij 🇳🇱 Decathlon 210 (+100)

Mountain (Polka Dots jersey)

Those who try to fight for points cannot seem to be able to beat Pogatchar who doesn’t, and other GC guys aren’t far either. Martinez didn’t go for points this week, and Baudin disappeared.

  1. Tadej Pogatchar 🇸🇮 UAE: 67 pts (+39)
  2. Valentin Paret-Peintre 🇫🇷 Soudal-QS: 45 (+33)
  3. Richard Carapaz 🇪🇨 EF: 39 (+38)
  4. Paul Seixas 🇫🇷 Decathlon: 34 (+22)
  5. Remco Evenepoel 🇧🇪 Bora: 31 (+26)
  6. Isaac Del Toro 🇲🇽 UAE: 30 (+20)

Stages

Stage 16, Tuesday 21

26 km, D+ 500 m, Individual Time Trial

This ITT presents an unusual profile, with an horrible 4,5% strongly uphill false-flat right from the start which lasts for 10 km (!), then a steeper descent and only finally a flat section.

Press to see the map

Stage 17, Wednesday 22

175 km D+ 2400 m

This stage will probably be disputed between a breakaway which could leave in the small/medium climbs of the first 60 km, and sprinter teams. Perhaps Pedersen will attempt to go into the breakaway.

Press to see the map and the finish profile

Stage 18, Thursday 23

186 km, D+ 3900 m

Many climbs, long and short, but never too steep. There is a finish on top, but it might still be good for breakaways if GC guys wait for the 2 harder stages which follow.

NB: the way the profile is drawn makes it look almost flat, but there is almost 4000 m of total elevation to climb, it is really a medium mountain stage.

Press to see the map

Stage 19, Friday 24

128 km, D+ 3600 m

The first Alpe d’Huez stage presents climbs in the beginning and in the end, with smaller and smoother hills in the centre part. It is short. A breakaway might succeed if Pogatchar doesn’t want the stage (who else would ride for it after the withdrawals of Vingegaard and Lipowitz?).

Press to see the map and the profiles of Noyer Pass and Alpe d'Huez.

Stage 20, Saturday 25

171 km, D+ 5600 m

Another finish at the Alpe d’Huez after 3 Hors-Catégorie climbs for the main and last mountain stage. As the stage also starts from the bottom of the Alpe d’Huez, I fear about the crowd being too important, as it will also be compacted on this reduced version of the climb, and those risks come on top of the race staying 2 days in the same place and this stage being on a week-end.

Stage 21 (final), Sunday 26

133 km, D+ 1600 m

Last year’s experiment is renewed: 4 laps of Champs-Élysées only (7 km) and then 3 longer (16 km) laps including the climb to Montmartre and its somewhat scary downhill. The finish is located a bit farther from the last top: 11 km instead of 6, which may cause more regrouping and favour punchers a little bit less.

Special regulations: if the streets are deemed slippery, times shall be taken on the 1st crossing of the finish line, or any later crossing of the line. Riders must complete the full distance in any case. Only one car per team is allowed on the circuits.

  • Deschanel2032OPM
    1·
    17 days ago

    Stage 20, Saturday 25

    171 km, D+ 5600 m

    Another finish at the Alpe d’Huez after 3 Hors-Catégorie climbs for the main and last mountain stage. As the stage also starts from the bottom of the Alpe d’Huez, I fear about the crowd being too important, as it will also be compacted on this reduced version of the climb, and those risks come on top of the race staying 2 days in the same place and this stage being on a week-end.

    Mostly another series of confirmations.

    I’ll start with the main difference: Ayuso (🇪🇸 Lidl-Trek) who had lost more and more time on previous stages, decided to take an offensive approach today and join the first breakaway, hoping for a stage victory or a GC rank gain. He also tried a few small attacks from the breakaway but was punished each time by Carapaz (🇪🇨 EF) or another of the top breakaway riders. While ultimately he failed at both objectives, he tried well, and at least he didn’t lose more time in GC.

    Otherwise, it was much like yesterday.

    • In the first HC climb, we saw a crazy Green man🇩🇰, dropped by the main peloton, then catching up with it, then attacking from it to attempt to join the breakaway of climbers, and succeeding in joining it after the top, in order to win the I.S. at the bottom! All these efforts he did alone, he didn’t have the ton of help from his team he got on previous stages.
    • Very good Carapaz🇪🇨 and Kuss (🇺🇸 Visma) again, with Hindley (🇦🇺 ) replacing L. Martinez (🇫🇷 Bahrain) in the final trio.
    • Kuss🇺🇸 lost the stage and scared everyone by crashing twice in half a mile while he was leading the race, the second time ending in the last yard of nets over the precipice! Polka dotted Carapaz🇪🇨, who had been hanging between 5 and 20 seconds behind for, what, 30 minutes? benefited of this to close the gap, overtook the American and rode the last climb up to his 2nd victory in 3 stages.
    • Carapaz🇪🇨 finishes the week much better than V. Paret-Peintre (🇫🇷 Soudal-QS). The Frenchman put up a fight in the first HC climb, but this time could only finish 2nd as the Ecuadorian rider had chosen a long-range attack today (starting 3 km away from the top); then he blew up as the second climb started, while Carapaz🇪🇨 was in demonic shape.
    • Pogatchar (🇸🇮 UAE) lost another stage by trying to help Del Toro🇲🇽, and sticking to that single mission while it was already accomplished. He never changed plan and stayed with him until the end, which was completely useless.
    • Seixas (🇫🇷 Decathlon) has definitely weakened. There again, he and his team stuck to their plan of having teammates (Prodhomme🇫🇷, and then it was supposed to Riccitello🇺🇸 coming down from the breakaway, but the American was as unhelpful as usual) pull the final group for him, in spite of the fact that it was clear, again and again, that Seixas🇫🇷 was suffering more from that pace than the other guys. Ultimately, after his teammate(s) stopped, it was his own turn to pull according to the predefined, not updated, strategy; and the only rider who was dropped as a result of his effort was… himself! He lost almost 2 minutes to L. Martinez🇫🇷 (and Skjelmose🇩🇰) today, somewhat endangering his 4th place in GC.

    Behind, Ayuso🇪🇸’s presence ahead, with a gap that went over 4 minutes, pushed UAE and Bahrain to pull the peloton.

    Evenepoel (🇧🇪 Bora) attacked way too late. He could have attacked in multiple places before, he had ample time for it: in the Sarenne pass (his teammate Hindley🇦🇺 could then have helped him), or anywhere in the bumpy 5 miles transition after; but he waited for the last 2 miles of Alpe d’Huez, and could never see Carapaz🇪🇨’s number sign.

    He took over the poor Kuss🇺🇸 just before the line, despite having absolutely nothing to gain from it.

    Kuss🇺🇸 got the Combative award for the stage, as consolation prize. 👍 He also got penalties of 75 UCI points, 1500 FS and 1 minute for littering!!! 🤣

    I thought that Piganzoli🇮🇹 would be today’s main card for Visma in the breakaway, but it was Kuss🇺🇸 who had used yesterday as a warm up 🙂. In GC, the American therefore ends up just before the Italian: 13th and 14th. The Italian never made it into the top-10 of any stage.

    Jegat (🇫🇷 Total) was busy limiting damage today, after losing one GC rank yesterday. He will save his place of 10thin GC, exact same as last year.

    When the breakaway was reduced to about 10 riders only, there wasn’t a single Frenchman in it any more… (I reckon last one was Braz (🇫🇷 FDJ), dropped soon after V. Paret-Peintre🇫🇷, right?)

    Only one chance left to avoid the humiliation, and with the level of Grégoire (🇫🇷 FDJ) this month and Alaphilippe (🇫🇷 Tudor) this year, hopes are thin. (Surprisingly, Alaphilippe🇫🇷 stayed with the peloton a long time today.) Who else do we have in stock?

    I am not sure how, but in spite of the reduced areas where they were allowed, the crowd wasn’t dense today. A good thing, I just don’t understand how it happened so, as logically it should have been worse than yesterday in spite of the presence of the Galibier on the way.

    • CarstenBoll@feddit.dkM
      2·
      17 days ago

      With Vingegaard out, it’s been a joy to see Mads Pedersen boss the peloton around. What a champion. I hope he wins tomorrow to top it off!

      • Deschanel2032OPM
        2·
        17 days ago

        Meanwhile we, French, had to watch the future Hinault slowly turn into the future Bardet, day after day. 😄

        Also the Cotton Bud from Soudal-QS, and the Wheelsucker From Outer Space too 🤣

        • CarstenBoll@feddit.dkM
          2·
          17 days ago

          I don’t know, I think Seixas has exceeded all my expectations. He’s 19, his recovery and physical development will improve. When Pog and Vingegaard quit in a few years he will be just as likely to win as Remco or Lipo or Martinez.

          • Deschanel2032OPM
            2·
            16 days ago

            He’s 19, his recovery and physical development will improve.

            And his crash on the Dauphiné didn’t help his preparation.

            But I was alluding more to the attitude: extremely conservative and stereotyped. A vibe of Romain ‘take the risk’ Bardet who just signed up before the Tour to be a manager at Decathlon; he is not supposed to be in charge yet, but it feels like he is already 😆. Bardet is a rather bland rider and a very bland character who sees himself very differently, almost opposite to what everyone else see in him; for example he got the sentence “take the risk or lose the chance” (in English) printed on his bike, which made everyone roll their eyes. 😄 We can still hope that he applies his vision and not his actual attitude unto others.

            Back to what I called extremely conservative and stereotyped attitudes:

            1. A “the race is still long” attitude that reminds me of horrible periods when all riders were always acting like that, just looking at each other until the last half-mile of each stage, until the last two stages of a race.
            2. Not taking advantage of his good shape in the first two weeks or the first half of the race. After many stages, he declared: “I could have gone faster”. Well…
            3. Unable to perform any attack. The only thing he does is taking the lead and trying to suffocate other riders by accelerating progressively, like a caricature of Evenepoel. This only can ever work on a weaker field, not when others are as strong or stronger. Only in the Basque Country did he show a different way of doing.
            4. Particularly obvious on this last mountain stage : everyone in the team seemed remote-controlled from the team car, sticking to the plan and orders without communicating between Seixas and his domestiques or even looking at each other, in order to assess locally the situation and adapt. That’s different from what we saw on previous races, where Seixas seemed to be the one calling most shots, and doing rather OK with it. This concurs to point (2.): no tactical decisions (or bad tactical decisions) were taken on the field when appropriate to the current shape of Seixas and the perceived shape of others. Perhaps he could lift his eyes from his watt-metre from time to time to look at other riders and what happens around him. But he was like this already at young age (I mean, when he was 15 years old), never changing anything to the instructions that had been given to him, never getting a little bit away from his ‘watts’ plan…
            5. The team’s attitude in general. They are lucky that they were forced to take Kooij because he immediately scored victories in the very few races he could ride when he returned from injury shortly before the Tour of France, otherwise everyone would have stayed with the leader from day 1 to 21, and they would have been at the mercy of their leader’s GC result; like they did on the Giro d’Italia, like they did on the Dauphiné. Well, actually, they did that here too, as bringing a sprinter only changes the result, not the fact that the whole team can stay with the leader, as everyone stays together on sprinters stages. If you will, Decathlon is the exact opposite of Lidl-Trek who tries (even on the same day) to play on two different classifications and at the same time to win the stage on top of this.

            When Pog and Vingegaard quit in a few years he will be just as likely to win as Remco or Lipo or Martinez.

            But in a few years, a new marvel will have appeared from nowhere, if we trust it keeps happening at the current rate. 🙂

            Unless he gets fed up – which is possible, Pogatchar is likely to stay much longer than Vingegaard: younger (he was riding for White jerseys not long ago), less broken, more versatile and still getting better. Not only getting better, but getting better faster than others, young and old, get: Evenepoel prepared as much as humanly possible for this Tour, with utmost dedication, yet he didn’t get closer to Pogatchar by an inch, compared to 2 years ago. What I mean is that it seems that he hasn’t reached his peak/plateau and rides most of his races with a safety margin (the only case without margin I remember must have been in Romandie this year, and yet he won 4 stages, GC and points…), so we can’t see the beginning of his future decline yet.

      • Deschanel2032OPM
        1·
        17 days ago

        I hope he doesn’t crash! I feared he would, when I saw him going after the breakaway, and he needed to catch them up in the descent of the Croix de Fer for of course he wouldn’t be able to catch them up in the climb.

        Carapaz is the pocket climber version of Pedersen 🤣 To each his terrain.