Deschanel2032

Stage 10, Tuesday 14

167 km, D+ 3800 m

The stage in the Massif Central looks a bit like the previous (Ussel) stage, but the climbs are significantly more substantial and there is even less flat for recovery, so a breakaway of climbers more than punchers can be expected (if UAE doesn't decide to win it from the peloton).

A stage in 4 acts.

1^st^ act was (successfully) handled by Lidl-Trek for Pedersen🇩🇰's Green jersey. It could have been better because at some point, they had broken the peloton in 2 or 3 pieces, and gotten rid of all or almost all sprinters, but still, the Dane passed the I.S. line in 1^st^ position.

2^nd^ act: the fight for breaking away. It started right on the Intermediate Sprint line, with Van der Poel (🇳🇱 Alpecin). There was many failed attempts until a group of about 30 riders left.

3^rd^ act: the breakaway and the chase. A breakaway that large couldn't stay together for long, and with all the hills it broke several times in many pieces. Behind, UAE never let the gap grow a bit. Last survivor at the front was Romo (🇪🇸 Movistar), who had broken away as a duo, and then solo, for many miles.

4^th^ act: the fight for stage victory and between GC leaders. After UAE caught Romo🇪🇸, the 'peloton' was already quite small. The only attack was (as usual?) led by Carapaz (🇪🇨 EF) in the Puy Mary, about 35 km from the line; he would never be reeled back by domestiques. There was a strange move by Decathlon in the final part of that climb, taking the peloton's lead from UAE. In the next climb, the shortest but steepest Pertus, the head of the peloton was a bit of a mess, Yates🇬🇧 couldn't do much, there were Decathlon riders again, then Visma: a mix that wasn't coming any closer to Carapaz🇪🇨 who was up to 1 minute ahead. I suspect that UAE had planned that the stage would be for Del Toro🇲🇽 but the Mexican wasn't in shape today; anyway, Pogatchar🇸🇮 got pissed, attacked, nobody followed him for a yard, and he caught and dropped the Ecuadorian rider just before the pass. Behind, the usual riders formed 2 groups. In the first one, Evenepoel (🇧🇪 Bora) worked in the transition but cracked when the road went up again. However no one in that group relayed Vingegaard (🇩🇰 Visma) who was pulling everyone: Seixas (🇫🇷 Decathlon), Ayuso🇪🇸 & Skjelmose🇩🇰 (Lidl-Trek) and Lipowitz (🇩🇪 Bora). It was the perfect occasion to get rid of Evenepoel🇧🇪, but nobody but Vingegaard🇩🇰 worked for it. Worse, as the Dane weakened progressively, they allowed the Belgian to come back in the very end and even beat them all at the sprint for time bonuses!

I forgot to mention that Del Toro🇲🇽 had been dropped much earlier and that it was yet another reason to relay, in order to enlarge more significantly the gap with him as well.

So...

The modification caused a change in attitude in the beginning: Lidl-Trek intended to arrive as a bunch at the I.S. and lead the peloton up there. No other sprinter team tried anything intelligent to prevent Pedersen🇩🇰 from taking maximum points or maximum points difference at the I.S., their sprinters just sprinted behind him, except Merlier (🇧🇪 Soudal-QS) who was already dropped.

Then the expectedly long and messy fight for breakaway started. It lasted for 50 km.

Behind, in a very reduced peloton, UAE and Ineos were keeping the gap pretty low. At the front, a handful of strong men finally detached, and they managed to reach the line, despite Lidl-Trek riders (Q. Simmons🇺🇸 & Gee🇨🇦) dropping from the breakaway down to the peloton to join the chasing efforts in the hope of bringing Pedersen . The Dane still scores a few points – despite being beaten by Ganna (🇮🇹 Ineos) at the 'peloton' sprint – and contrarily to the I.S., the other sprinters in the game don't score any, which is more important than absolute figures.

Alpecin can't win through their sprinter? No problem, Van der Poel🇳🇱 beats the other 3 breakawaymen on a hilly stage! T. Johanessen (🇳🇴 Uno-X) scores another 2^nd^place, and Pidcock (🇬🇧 Q36.5) and Baudin (🇫🇷 EF) take the next two seats. Pidcock🇬🇧 was proactive all day, in contrast with the rest of his so far mediocre first week.

It was supposed to be a stage for Grégoire (🇫🇷 FDJ) but he was dropped by the peloton very early (well, not as early as Merlier 🤣). Even after 2 flat stages he still hasn't recovered a bit. The guy is cooked, boiled and fried. I have little hope in him for the rest of the tour, unless temperatures drop sharply.

Baudin🇫🇷 had been going for Mountain points this week, but not today. He was at the front of the race, but didn't try to pass first (or even second) at any climb top, despite the fact that he could have scored +50% compared to the points he had gathered so far...

Stage 9, Saturday 11

185 km, D+ 3300 m

After 2 flat stages, there isn't one flat yard today, approaching the Massif Central. This will certainly be one of those stages where 150 riders want to join the breakaway.

Due to the heat, the race will be shortened. It appears that they would cut off the first sort of 'loop' between the start and the Intermediate Sprint, and replace it with a direct shortcut that would remove around 30 km.

The time of the start wouldn't be moved, so the riders should arrive a bit earlier. Damn, are they less stupid than French Championship organisers?

Stage 8, Saturday 11

180 km, D+ 1300 m

The second flat stage for sprinters in a row. A grand total of 3 GPM points will have been offered in 2 days…

The breakaway took 2 extra minutes to form because Valsgreen (well, one of them, 🇩🇰 EF) wasn't allowed to join it. It blew up 40 km from the line when Otruba (🇨🇿 Caja Rural) attacked and was countered by Slock (🇧🇪 Lotto). At the same place, there was a bit of action in the peloton with one Valsgreen🇩🇰 attempting to leave again (and failing again). Slock🇧🇪 put up a nice resistance, but blew up with 2 km to go. A sprinter won.

Stage 7, Friday 10

175 km, D+ 700 m

A flat stage for the next favourite arrival of sprinters: Bordeaux.

Veistroffer (🇫🇷 Lotto) left again at km 0, followed by Otruba (🇨🇿 Caja Rural). A sprinter won. No crash.

Veistroffer🇫🇷 has probably already recorded 2500 km of breakaways this year... Without counting the 'breakaways' at the back, like the two days he stayed with Arnaud de Lie earlier this week. He comes from triathlon and hates being inside a large group.

Stage 6, Thursday 9

186 km, D+ 4100 m

The only mountain stage of the Pyrenees this year simply consists of the Aspin Pass, the Tourmalet Pass, and a strange never-ending (18 km) strongly uphill false flat as a finish.

Summary: a mountain stage + a UAE team = another Slovenian victory

Visma attempted several times to put someone ahead so that Vingegaard🇩🇰 could get some help after the Tourmalet, because of the terrible final false flat. First they tried with Campenaerts🇧🇪 who left at km, soon joined by AArtz (🇧🇪 Lotto) and later by M. Pedersen (🇩🇰 Lidl-Trek) for the Green jersey points. But after they got a gap of more than 1 minute, there was movement at the front of the peloton (by Ineos I think), and the gap went down to about 30 seconds. Also, AArtz🇧🇪 had never gotten his car, complained at the commissar's car, and ended up receiving a yellow card, supposedly for incorrect position on the bike, and dropped.

Pedersen🇩🇰 got the I.S. points and kept on helping Campenaerts🇧🇪 a while after that to thank him, but the gap was decreasing even more. There was then other attempts by Visma from the peloton, but none managed to break away.

Both Ayuso (🇪🇸 Lidl-Trek) and Evenepoel (🇧🇪 Bora) were dropped because of a pee stop... It took them a while to come back, especially for Bora to bring the Belgian back.

O'Connor is the only one (at first, with a Q36.5) who managed to break away for good in the beginning of Aspin Pass, but he couldn't resist when Pollitt🇩🇪 finished his work and UAE accelerated for real with Wellens🇧🇪. On the end of the pass, Paret-peintre (🇫🇷 Soudal-QS) and L. Martinez (🇫🇷 Barhain) detached and fought for Mountain points; no one else was interested in remaining points.

Cian U*.* (🇧🇪 Movistar) was dropped in the beginning of the Tourmalet (or was it Aspin already?) and was later announced DNF. 😞

The Tourmalet Pass was ridden the usual way: a UAE train, a UAE launcher, and Pogatchar🇸🇮 going away. Evenepoel🇧🇪 cracked first (after blocking Seixas🇫🇷 a bit...), then Seixas (🇫🇷 Decathlon) lost Vingegaard🇩🇰's wheel. There were a few small recompositions, but stable positions emerged with 2 lone riders ahead (the Slovenian, then the Dane), and then a trio with Seixas🇫🇷, Lipowitz (🇩🇪 Bora) and the Mexican plaster Del Toro (🇲🇽 UAE), and then, was it a quatuor, a quintet, with Evenepoel (🇧🇪 Bora), Ayuso🇪🇸+Skjelmose🇩🇰 (Lidl-trek) and the French plaster L. Martinez🇫🇷.

There was not much gap between the two groups, and it was funny to see Lipowitz🇩🇪 accelerate at the top as if he didn't want Evenepoel🇧🇪 to come back.

The cooperation between those 2 teammates was going to be awful after the two groups joined at the bottom, anyway. The angry chip got angry at other riders as usual. They never managed to close the gap with Vingegaard🇩🇰 even though they reduced it substantially, as the Dane was also losing time to Pogatchar🇸🇮 ahead of him. Del Toro🇲🇽 outsprinted the Belgian for 3^rd^ place time bonus, which allowed him to seat on the GC podium third place.

Oh, and the guys who made it into GC podium positions thanks to their breakaway 2 days ago all vanished, despite the fact that they had some climbing abilities. Vatsek (🇨🇿 Lidl-Trek) and Sean Quinn (🇺🇸 EF) were dropped early (early in the Tourmalet or even in Aspin?), and T. Træen (🇳🇴 Uno-X) crashed in the descent of the Tourmalet after hitting in an hairpin bend the wheel of his own teammate, who waited for him after he was dropped over 10 km from the top of the Tourmalet! Icing on the cake for Uno-X, T. Johannessen🇳🇴 was dropped later from the group of favourites and had to teammate left with him since his twin brother had stayed with T. Træen🇳🇴.

Stage 5, Wednesday 8

158 km, D+ 1600 m

A stage which looks very much like the first 2 stages of the Route d'Occitanie a couple of weeks ago. Despite some use of the hills of Gers, they will probably insufficient or too separated to get rid of the sprinters on their favourite finish city (Pau). There is almost no reward for breakaways, with only 1 GPM...

Utterly useless stage, as expected. Veistroffer (🇫🇷 Lotto) left at km 0, nobody tried to go with him since there was nothing to win. Fast forward 150 km farther: mass crashes and a sprinter won. 👎 Next!

The GPM contender Molenaar (🇳🇱 Caja Rural) won't be able to restart tomorrow, due to that first mass crash. 👎👎

And there will be 2 more stages like this this week... 👎👎👎👎

Stage 4, Tuesday 7

182 km, D+ 2900 m

After a uselessly long bus transfer, this stage meanders in the Cathar Country, the Pyrenean piedmont, and may offer opportunities for breakaways, as well as sprinters if there isn't too much action.

It was indeed for an all-terrain sprinter, inside a breakaway.

It was a masterclass by Lidl-Trek. The breakaway took a relatively long (but not as much as yesterday) time to form, but then it was very large – a bit over 30 riders –, and included M. Pedersen🇩🇰, Q. Simmons🇺🇸 and Vatsek🇨🇿. Vatsek🇨🇿 could have had his own chance when he quietly left with Tratnik (🇸🇮 Bora) but then his team made it clear that today was only for Pedersen🇩🇰 (and it was rather far from the line).

Movistar did all they could with Castrillo🇪🇸 and R. Garcia P.🇪🇸 attacking countless times until the last mile, but they never could get more than a few yards gaps versus the Lidl-Trek riders.

Grégoire (🇫🇷 FDJ) was in the breakaway, but he has no recovery, is cooked and the opposition is much stronger than Joris Delbove on the National Championship. He was dropped rather early and finished last of the 2^nd^ group... A complete failure.

Pedersen🇩🇰 outclassed all other riders in the first group, and his American teammate even managed to take the 2^nd^ place. This is a 390 UCI points day for the team... (As for teams who need points, Movistar scored an honest 145 points, despite all their earlier efforts; but Groupama scored 0, and Cofidis who had riders at the front for a much longer time than the other French team doesn't get anything either in the end.)

Good old Matthews (🇦🇺 Jayco) won the sprint of the 2^nd^ group, but it was only for the 11^th^ place. The two pure sprinters – Girmay (🇪🇷 NSN) and Philipsen (🇧🇪 Alpecin) – had given up when the longest climb had started, just after the I.S.).

In the peloton, nobody rode against the breakaway. Most teams were in, and Visma and UAE let it go.

Pedersen🇩🇰 also gets the Green jersey.

Baudin keeps the Mountain jersey, as Molenaar (🇳🇱 Caja Rural) was in the breakaway, but failed to score on the last climb.

Stage 3, Monday 6

196 km, D+ 3900 m

Arrival in a ski resort in French Catalunya. Is this a mountain stage or a puncher stage? Or simply a very good day for breakaways?

Everyone wanted to be in the breakaway, so it took long to develop. It wasn't allowed more than the modern standard gap. The UAE pulled the peloton, and Pogatchar won the sprint.

There were a few crashes (notably Armirail after about 12 km). Poor De Lie was dropped since the start, as it was a succession of strong uphill false flats; he fought all day, but withdrew just a few miles from the line, as he had no chance to make it in time any more after suffering all day long: eliminating badly ill or injured riders is the only thing that modern delays 'achieve' on modern GTs 😢

Reluctant with good reason! It’s the day after a time trial and more than a week to a rest day. Would you really risk a good classification place or later stage wins this early, attacking on a hillside crit circuit that the breakaway has maybe 1% chance of winning? Be serious.

1. A circuit like this, like any punchy finish, is a perfect place to attack if one is afraid of losing GC: losing GC won't happen. One can pick one's distance for attacking, and if it fails, one may recover or attack anew when it comes back again. Even if one blows up, gaps won't be big.
2. There aren't only GC leaders in the race, there are punchers who don't give a damn about classification and who won't be served many suitable profiles this year.
3. Last year, both punchers and GC leaders did use punchers stages. There were attacks by Visma lieutenants and even a bit Vingegaard as soon as stage #2. Pog and Ving attacked and created splits in the punchy finish as soon as stage #4, the day before the ITT. It was just an attack 6 km from the goal, but still better than yesterday.
4. I've heard of Time Trial 'blocking' the race for a couple of days before the TT, but blocking it for a few days after the TT would be a first ;)

All right, but if I remember correctly, all typical punchers stages last year were fiercely contested.

Benoot (🇧🇪 Decathlon) did the same thing as on the Tour de Suisse a 2 weeks ago: he started pulling the peloton like crazy and as a result his leader went backwards. Luckily this time, there were enough riders between the first 3 and Seixas🇫🇷, so a split wasn't created.

It appears that the car gave the order, while Seixas🇫🇷 wasn't willing to accelerate or attack, after his difficult chase to get back into the peloton following his puncture and double bike switch.

Stage 2, Sunday 5

169 km, D+ 2000 m

A stage for punchers, again finishing in Barcelona's Montjuic

This stage was turned into a joke. Nobody attacked, except for Johannessen (🇳🇴 Uno-X) followed by Carapaz (🇪🇨 EF), about 18.3 yards from the top of the very last climb. It was just a strong-ish pace by the lone McNulty (🇺🇸 UAE) all along. And then Del Toro (🇲🇽 UAE) won because Pogatchar (🇸🇮 UAE) left him the victory. Yep.

Tomorrow, spectators will be banned from the part of the course in France, as there is a major forest fire developing (far) down the valley.