Full throttle was used from the first meters of the 179 kilometer long mountain stage. Everyone knew that this time the long escape should work, and there was even a threat of crosswinds and terezíns before the first hills. Only four competitors made it to the first escape – Tiesj Benoot (Visma-Lease a Bike), Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility), Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) and Bob Jungels (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).
But they didn’t gain much time, they still held around one minute, because behind them there were non-stop boardings. Almost everyone wanted to make the next escape, and the leaders’ teams also had to pay attention to the overall standings. In the end, the decisive factor was the breakaway of a total of 48 riders, who broke away from the main field in the second half of the stage, in a slight climb before the most difficult exits.
This group was full of real stage favorites, especially Simon Yates, who was accompanied by three of his teammates from the Jayco AlUla lineup, Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), Enric Mas (Movistar) and other strong climbers, including Jan Hirt (Soudal Quick -Step), whose moment came only at the end of the stage. Of course, such a large group did not cooperate much, but on the Bayard climb it was reduced to 28 riders.
Meanwhile, the French duo Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) and Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) went behind the leading four. In the penultimate and most difficult climb, Noyer reached the front, but it was already starting to race behind them as well. Simon Yates was the first to attack and immediately pulled away from his rivals and quickly snapped up the lead group. Carapa recognized that there was no time to hesitate and charged forward from the second group.
Yates continued to set a fast pace and was already in the lead alone. Carapaz, in company with Stephen Williams (Israel-Premier Tech), gave chase. However, Willimas was not enough for Carapaza and the Olympic champion overtook the British cyclist himself. Carapaz wanted no company on the breakaway, so before the top of the swim, Noyer attacked and held a 13-second lead over Yates at the top. Mas was third at the top with a distance of 34 seconds.
There were eleven kilometers left to the finish line, most of them downhill, only the last 3.8 kilometers were once more up a relatively gentle hill. Carapaz increased his lead in the descent and was the best in the finish as well, finishing for his first stage win at the Tour de France. He has a rather unique collection of successes in three-week races, having won stages at the Giro, Tour and Vuelta, but also finished on the podium in all three races and donned the leader’s jersey in all races.
“This win means everything to me,” said an excited Carapaz at the finish line. “I tried to get it from the start of the Tour, that was my goal. We are very far in the general classification, but the hope of winning the stage remained. It was a very difficult day with a lot of attacking, but in the end a big group formed, I he was able to attack at the right time and I managed to get this result that I will remember forever.”
Carapaza’s knowledge of the track also helped. “I knew the finale well because I went through it with my sports director. I won stages at the Giro and the Vuelta, but the Tour de France is a race where all the best riders in the world participate. Each team will come with their best composition and their best line-up. The Tour is the best race. I’m also happy for all the people watching me. I’m proud to be here and represent all of America in the best possible way.”
Yates finished second, 37 seconds behind, Mas was third a further 20 seconds back.
Pogačar attacked at the end of the Noyer climb
The main field lost more than eight minutes to Noyer at the beginning of the climb and it seemed that nothing would happen, but Tadej Pogačar should not be in the group. The leader of the race felt good once more and attacked in the last kilometer of the most difficult Noyer exit and once more managed to break away from Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel. But it happened for the first time that Evenepoel was stronger than the Dane.
At the top, the differences were minimal, Pogačar had only a few seconds to spare and Vingegaard quickly overtook Evenepoel, and mainly his teammate Christophe Laporte waited for him, who was on the breakaway and easily overtook Pogačar.
On the finish climb, Evenepoel decided to test his rivals, attacked and Pogačar did not react. Even Vingegaard didn’t get up and the two rivals looked at each other. Escapees Wout van Aert and Tiesj Benoot awaited Vingegaard and kept the pace to prevent Evenepoel from gaining too much time. But Evenepoel also had a teammate in front of him – Jan Hirt.
The Czech mountaineer gave his leader a very solid lead and was able to compete with Van Aert and Benoot himself. In the last hundred meters, Evenepoel drove alone and held a lead of around 18 seconds. Meanwhile, Pogačar was waiting for his chance to start, which came 400 meters before the finish line. He crossed the finish line ten seconds behind Evenepoel and Vingegaard was two seconds behind.
The other drivers from the top ten of the overall standings finished with a loss of more than two minutes. The first three men in the overall standings thus consolidated their podium positions. Vingegaard loses 3:11 to Pogačar and Evenepoel 5:09. The fourth Joao Almeida (UAE Emirates) has already lost 12:57. The order in the top ten has not changed in any way.
“I was preparing for this stage so I knew it well and that helped me” explained Evenepoel following finishing the stage. “The beginning of the stage was very difficult, it took more than two hours to create a breakaway. Then I thought we would finish quite calmly, but Lidl-Trek launched an attack, then it was Tadej, so there was a confrontation once more. I was with Jonas and he tried to come back, Christophe Laporte and I caught up in the descent. At that moment I felt that I had good legs and I believed in myself.”
“They told me from the car that I might try something. Jan Hirt was in front and I asked him to wait for me and then give me a run in the last kilometer and he did it perfectly. I gave Tadej and Jonas ten seconds, but that was not the goal. I stay focused on my place on the podium, I’m good where I am, but it allowed me to gain some time on those behind me. I know that Tadej is defending the first place, but I’m five minutes away from him he benefited from a bit of freedom and I took advantage of it.”
I don’t even know why I’m attacking, Pogačar admitted
Pogačar was satisfied with the result of the stage and, above all, came one day closer to the overall victory. “It was a very fast stage, 120 kilometers it felt like a junior race! It turned out to be a very tough day, one of those where you spend a lot of energy. Visma-Lease a Bike had a great race today because she was very aggressive . I don’t know exactly if they wanted to torture me or stress us out.” he admitted.
And he also acknowledged that his attacks may not always make sense. “Sometimes I don’t know why I attack. I don’t know anymore either! I guess I was just enjoying the climb because it was steep and very nice and I wanted to attack to test my legs for that third week and see if I might get some kind of lead or something. In the end it was Remco who made a good attack and broke away. If it wasn’t for the guys from Visma, he would have gotten an even bigger lead on me and Jonas.”
