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.
- Tadej Pogatchar 🇸🇮 UAE
- Remco Evenepoel 🇧🇪 Bora: +5′00″
- Isaac Del Toro 🇲🇽 UAE +5′58″
- Paul Seixas 🇫🇷 Decathlon: +6′23″
- Florian Lipowitz 🇩🇪 Bora: +6′48″
- Juan Ayuso 🇪🇸 Lidl-Trek: +7′28″
- Mattias Skjelmose 🇩🇰 Lidl-Trek: +9′38″
- Lenny Martinez 🇫🇷 Bahrain: +10′28″
- Thomas Pidcock 🇬🇧 Q36.5: +11′19″
- 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.
- Mads Pedersen 🇩🇰 Lidl-Trek: 417 pts (+149)
- jasper Philipsen 🇧🇪 Alpecin: 191 (+195)
- Biniam Girmay 🇪🇷 NSN: 361 (+138)
- Max Kanter 🇩🇪 Astana: 271 (+99)
- 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.
- Tadej Pogatchar 🇸🇮 UAE: 67 pts (+39)
- Valentin Paret-Peintre 🇫🇷 Soudal-QS: 45 (+33)
- Richard Carapaz 🇪🇨 EF: 39 (+38)
- Paul Seixas 🇫🇷 Decathlon: 34 (+22)
- Remco Evenepoel 🇧🇪 Bora: 31 (+26)
- 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.
Stage 21 (final), Sunday 26
!! CHANGE !! The race will only take place in Paris, the 50 km of approach are cancelled, and a couple of Champ-Élysées circuit laps are added.
The claimed reason is the lack of availability of firefighters (who in France are paramedics as well), police and civil defence forces, due to the megafires in Southern France, as well as the ending fire in the Fontainebleau Forest near Paris.
The longer distance after the climb indeed favoured regrouping. Also, the leader and/or their rare launchers weren’t often able to kick right from the start of the climb, so less difference could be done.
Decathlon was the main chasing force in all 3 laps. As often in such case, their sprinter got beaten in the end.
Pedersen (🇩🇰 Lidl-Trek) shouldn’t have chased the top-3 guys after the second climb. He made a big effort chasing alone, and then took relays in that group of 4, but the group couldn’t survive given the peloton’s chase behind with quite a workforce left in teams like Decathlon who had riders like Seixas🇫🇷 leading the chase. He paid those efforts in the next (and last, thus the most important) climb. However Pedersen🇩🇰 is Pedersen🇩🇰 and he didn’t give up like Evenepoel🇧🇪 did.
Van der Poel (🇳🇱 Alpecin) owes his victory to both Pogatchar (🇸🇮 UAE) who relayed him until the end without an afterthought, and his teammate Philipsen (🇧🇪 Alpecin) who would probably have won, should the lone guy ahead have belonged to another team.
Kanter (🇩🇪 Astana) survived and made a nice 4th place but that doesn’t allow him to get a seat on the Green jersey podium; he needed someone to withdraw for that.
Veistroffer (🇫🇷 Lotto) was the first rider to disturb the peace of the UAE parade, to launch his teammate for the first attack of the day on the flat(-ish) first circuit. He also attacked solo later, and got the I.S. prize one more time!
A single but huge change in GC: thanks to his breakaway, Guernalec (🇫🇷 Total) beats Kwiatkowski (🇵🇱 Ineos) for 109th place! 😄
French riders were sorely lacking at the front each time there was a climb. Turgis (🇫🇷 Total) gets an OK 8th place for his team. But here we are: that’s only the 3rd time in 113 Tours de France that the French riders didn’t win a single stage. The first time since 1926 that they didn’t win a stage nor a jersey, and that may be because there was no jersey but the yellow in 1926, otherwise it might have been the very first time in history… 😭
How strange this is, happening right at the same time that Seixas🇫🇷 appears and there are 3 Frenchmen in GC top-10… Naturally, if those 3 had popped out GC classification, they might have gone for jerseys (well, the Polka Dot jersey was the only reachable one) and had better chances at stages victories.
At Lidl-Trek, Vatsek🇸🇰 started the Tour very strongly, after a surprisingly good Tour de Suisse, but vanished as time passed. I am not sure what to expect today, as he didn’t seem to have especially rested during the week, but has worked for others.