Wednesday 16: 13:15โ13:45 โ 17:05โ17:25
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 ๐ฎ๐ช EF
- T. Pogatchar ๐ธ๐ฎ UAE โ 29โณ
- R. Evenepoel ๐ง๐ช Soudal-QS โ 1โฒ29โณ
- J. Vingegaard ๐ฉ๐ฐ Visma โ 1โฒ46โณ
- M. Jorgenson ๐บ๐ธ Visma โ 2โฒ06โณ
- K. Vauquelin ๐ซ๐ท Arkรฉa โ 2โฒ26โณ
- O. Onley ๐ฌ๐ง Picnic โ 3โฒ24โณ
- F. Lipowitz ๐ฉ๐ช Bora โ 3โฒ34โณ
- P. Roglitch ๐ธ๐ฎ Bora โ 3โฒ41โณ
- T. Johannessen ๐ณ๐ด Uno-X โ 5โฒ03โณ
Points
- J. Milan ๐ฎ๐น Lidl-Trek โ 227 pts
- T. Pogatchar ๐ธ๐ฎ UAE โ 163
- B. Girmay ๐ช๐ท Intermarchรฉ โ 151
- T. Merlier ๐ง๐ช Soudal-QS โ 150
- M. Van der Poel ๐ณ๐ฑ Alpecin โ 128
Mountain
- L. Martinez ๐ซ๐ท Barhrain โ 27 pts
- B. Healy ๐ฎ๐ช EF โ 16
- M. Woods ๐จ๐ฆ IPT โ 11
Teams
- Visma ๐ณ๐ฑ
- UAE ๐ฆ๐ช โ 16โฒ45โณ
- Decathlon ๐ซ๐ท โ 28โฒ12โณ
- FDJ ๐ซ๐ท โ 29โฒ07โณ
- Arkรฉa ๐ซ๐ท โ 29โฒ41โณ
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...)