2023-07-16 17:15:50
Felix Gall was unlucky with a defect in the finale of the Tour de France on the monstrous final mountain stage of week two and fell out of the top ten. The East Tyrolean slipped from ninth to eleventh place before the rest day. The yellow jersey still belongs to Jonas Vingegaard, who parried Tadej Pogacar’s next attack on the final climb. The day’s victory after 180 km and almost 4,500 vertical meters from Les Gets to Saint-Gervais went to Wout Poels from the Netherlands.
Vingegaard remains ten seconds ahead of Pogacar after 15 of 21 stages. It continues on Tuesday in Passy with the only individual time trial. The 22 km should accommodate Gall, who is actually not competitive in this discipline, due to the topography with two climbs. The last six kilometers lead steeply uphill.
This was also the case at the end of the mountain trilogy of the weekend in the Alps, but in the decisive phase around eight kilometers in a short intermediate descent before the finish, Gall suffered the third damage of the day on his bike. The wheel change made him the AG2R driver stopped and finally finished two minutes behind Vingegaard and Pogacar. “I had to change the wheel three times. I think you can imagine how I feel, I don’t want to say more about it now,” was Gall’s first comment. In the overall standings, he had to let the Frenchmen David Gaudu and Guillaume Martin pass them. However, he is only 21 seconds behind Martin and Gaudu is 32 ahead of him.
After about 50 km of the stage, a careless spectator caused a mass fall, which brought down several of Vingegaard’s helpers. The American Sepp Kuss touched the fan’s arm, which was probably outstretched for a cell phone photo, and tore about 20 other drivers to the ground. Among others, Kuss’ teammates Nathan van Hooydonck and Dylan van Baarle landed on the asphalt. Michael Gogl, who was seriously injured in a fall last year, was also involved.
Unlike the day before with seven tasks and Daniel Martinez (Ineos) not showing up because of the mass crash on Saturday, there were no injury-related absences this time. Another incident without serious consequences involved 35 km from the finish Krists Neilands. The Latvian fell in the top quartet with Poel, Wout van Aert and Marc Soler in a confusing downhill passage when a drinking bottle from a companion motorcycle failed to be accepted.
In the large breakaway group, Marco Haller had also briefly put himself in the limelight. The Carinthian from the Bora team tried a solo attack on the longest climb of the day, but the appearance of the sprinting classic specialist didn’t last long.
On the other hand, Poels’ attack on the steep final climb was crowned with success. The 35-year-old Dutchman from the Bahrain racing team finally celebrated his first tour stage win in a superior manner more than two minutes ahead of Van Aert. In the fight for the Tour title, four minutes behind, Vingegaard only had to fend off an attack from Pogacar in the last kilometer. “I tried, but I could see that Jonas was feeling super good, so I didn’t waste too much energy. There are still three crucial days to come, but I’m sure it will be very, very close,” said the Slovenian. The last time there was a gap of ten seconds or less between the leading duo before the last week of the tour was in 2008.
1689528122
#Gall #falls #short #top #ten #defect #rest #day