Wednesday 16: 13:15–13:45 → 17:05–17:25
We start the short second sequence (5 days only) with a short stage around Toulouse, yet another stage designed for punchers.
Standings after the first long sequence:
General classification
- B. Healy 🇮🇪 EF
- T. Pogatchar 🇸🇮 UAE – 29″
- R. Evenepoel 🇧🇪 Soudal-QS – 1′29″
- J. Vingegaard 🇩🇰 Visma – 1′46″
- M. Jorgenson 🇺🇸 Visma – 2′06″
- K. Vauquelin 🇫🇷 Arkéa – 2′26″
- O. Onley 🇬🇧 Picnic – 3′24″
- F. Lipowitz 🇩🇪 Bora – 3′34″
- P. Roglitch 🇸🇮 Bora – 3′41″
- T. Johannessen 🇳🇴 Uno-X – 5′03″
Points
- J. Milan 🇮🇹 Lidl-Trek – 227 pts
- T. Pogatchar 🇸🇮 UAE – 163
- B. Girmay 🇪🇷 Intermarché – 151
- T. Merlier 🇧🇪 Soudal-QS – 150
- M. Van der Poel 🇳🇱 Alpecin – 128
Mountain
- L. Martinez 🇫🇷 Barhrain – 27 pts
- B. Healy 🇮🇪 EF – 16
- M. Woods 🇨🇦 IPT – 11
Teams
- Visma 🇳🇱
- UAE 🇦🇪 – 16′45″
- Decathlon 🇫🇷 – 28′12″
- FDJ 🇫🇷 – 29′07″
- Arkéa 🇫🇷 – 29′41″
Hectic race from the start until the end. Raced like a classic from which you’d have cut the boring first 100 km! Very little actual flat, but a lot of false flats in a hilly landscape, even before they reached the steeper hills of Lauragais (the last 50 km).
Q. Simmons in the shape of his life again, but one more time a bit short in the end. He hasn’t spared his efforts since the beginning of the tour: when he’s not ahead, he’s either trying to get ahead, or working for his team.
Astonishing performance from the winners who started soon after km 0 and resisted non-stop counter attacks all day!
(And disastrous TV direction again. Not sure if you get the same final cut on the international signal, but showing cycling really hurts the French TV director…)
Nooo, they crashed Pogačar!
Looked to me like he crashed himself on the back wheel of an UnoX rider.
The rider in front (Johannessen Tobias) steered right in front of Tadej and hence touching Tadej’s front wheel. How is this Tadej’s fault? At least that’s my impression.
It’s probably not anyone’s fault, but typically riders will follow each other’s movement so it does not happen. But it happens a lot, so… Just a part of racing.
Just read that Vingegaard and the others waited for him, fair play to them.
I disagree, the rider “in front” (he wasn’t in front, he was on the left perhaps a bit more ahead, but not by full bike length) has to make sure he doesn’t cut in front of others recklessly. And yes, chapeau to peloton for playing fair, they indeed waited.
I just watched it again and you’re right 🙂
I hope it doesn’t affect him. It would suck for the Pogacar vs Vingegaard showdown to influenced by injury for the third year in a row. Only 4(?) days until the next rest day at least.
These injuries (“only” burned skin, hopefully, but I guess also at least a impact where he hit the road) are painful at very least. It will affect him, but let’s hope not to bad extent.
At the very least he will sleep worse, which will hurt his restitution. So it’s decent news for Visma, though I don’t think they wished for it it’s part of cycling to race in a way which pushes the other teams and riders to take risks and sometimes the result is a crash.
