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
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
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.
You must log in or # to comment.
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.
I won’t comment much on this one, as I only carefully watched the first 2 miles, then was hearing fragments from another room, until I
satlay in front of the telly for the last 50 km in order to reconnect properly with race… and slept through a good 45 of them, although a lot of things were happening.Veistroffer (🇫🇷 Lotto) was a km-0 attacker, but blew up as soon as the first gentle slope started.
Del Toro (🇲🇽 UAE) was dropped at some point with sprinters. Nobody took advantage of it.
A. Yates (🇬🇧 UAE) got sick or fully depleted his batteries, and was dropped from all groups.
Jegat (🇫🇷 Total) managed to get into the right, big breakaway. As the peloton only came 9 mn behind, that gives him a lot of breathing space to save his final GC rank (top-10: 9th at the moment). He left the territory of those around 25 mn, to get close to the guys ahead of him: L. Martinez (🇫🇷 Bahrain) and Pidcock (🇬🇧 Q36.5), at 13 mn, are now just 1 minute ahead.
Pedersen (🇩🇰 Lidl-Trek) was extremely active today. Yet at the end of the day, Philipsen (🇧🇪 Alpecin), who spared no effort either, is now at the same level as him in the fight for the Green jersey.
Bit of a wasted day for Pedersen, tried to both win and win the jersey and ended up doing neither. Let’s see if he gets clear today and wins some points.
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.
I watched little of the race. In other times, the horrible flat climb would have caused a few riders to miscalculate their effort by not finding their pace on this bastard slope, but in the days of computerised cycling, it cannot happen.
Therefore there were very few surprises. The profile, a more regular version of the Gavarnie stage finish, looked perfect for Evenepoel (🇧🇪 Bora) and Pogatchar (🇸🇮 UAE), and so it was. We might have believed Seixas (🇫🇷 Decathlon) to make a difference over Del Toro (🇲🇽 UAE), but Sunday’s stage was a big warning that one shouldn’t be overconfident about that, and in the end there was almost no difference. Ayuso (🇪🇸 Lidl-Trek) confirmed as well the more serious troubles he experienced on Sunday. Skelmose (🇩🇰 Lidl-Trek) may have done a bit better than expected, but he is used to ITT top-10s.
In fact, the only true change in top-10 is caused by Lipowitz🇩🇪’s crash (on the flat section) and withdrawal.
Among the 6 contenders for places 9 and 10, Voisard (🇨🇭 Tudor) did the best time. Yates (🇬🇧 UAE) probably didn’t give a damn, which allowed Piganzoli (🇮🇹 Visma) to gain 2 ranks in order to try to save GC for his team.
Feel bad for Lipo. Hope he recovers and gets back soon.
Outside of the top GC guys, Tarling made for an entertaining early portion. He was screaming down the course.
Zero chance del toro doesn’t get p2 with the way UAE have been controlling. Happy for Remco’s stage win but that’s the end of that surely
I’d typically agree, but as incredible as Del Toro can ride, he’s had a couple of “off” days that have shown that he’s not invincible.
Remco might be able to build a bigger lead on some of the other guys in this TT stage, but then we’ll see what happens for Alpe d’Huez.
Remco certainly seems due for an off day too, but who knows. I could see him going into the red, getting angry, gesticulating wildly at motos and other riders, and losing 3 min in one of the Alps stages. He’ll probably win today and get a minute or two on Del Toro, but not sure if that’s enough buffer for his eventual Remco© moment.
One thing we’ve learned so far is that no one besides Tadej is unbeatable. They all are at risk of a bad day that changes the standings.
I hope you are right!
What’s procy cling?
