Tuesday 22: 12:10โ12h40 โ 16:45โ17:15
This first stage of the last sequence is made of a long and boring approach that manages to avoid every hill available, before the Mont Ventoux as single and final climb.
Given the profile, and the fact that it comes after a rest day, we may see many explosions on the first slopes of the Ventoux. Luckily, no hot weather is expected.
Unless someone abandons during the rest day, there should still be 166 riders in the race (out of 184 starting on the first day). 165 after Van der Poel's withdrawal.
Standings before the last sequence
General classification
- T. Pogatchar ๐ธ๐ฎ UAE
- J. Vingegaard ๐ฉ๐ฐ Visma โ 4โฒ13โณ
- F. Lipowitz ๐ฉ๐ช Bora โ 7โฒ53โณ
- O. Onley ๐ฌ๐ง Picnic โ 9โฒ18โณ
- K. Vauquelin ๐ซ๐ท Arkรฉa โ 10โฒ21โณ
- P. Roglitch ๐ธ๐ฎ Bora โ 10โฒ34โณ
- F. Gall ๐ฆ๐น Decathlon โ 12โฒ00โณ
- T. Johannessen ๐ณ๐ด Uno-X โ 12โฒ33โณ
- C. Rodriguez ๐ช๐ธ Ineos โ 18โฒ26โณ
- B. Healy ๐ฎ๐ช EF โ 18โฒ41โณ
Points
- J. Milan ๐ฎ๐น Lidl-Trek โ 251 pts
- T. Pogatchar ๐ธ๐ฎ UAE โ 223
- ~~M. Van der Poel ๐ณ๐ฑ Alpecin โ 210~~
- B. Girmay ๐ช๐ท Intermarchรฉ โ 169
- T. Merlier ๐ง๐ช Soudal-QS โ 150
Mountain
- L. Martinez ๐ซ๐ท Barhrain โ 60 pts
- T. Pogatchar ๐ธ๐ฎ UAE โ 52
- T. Arensman ๐ณ๐ฑ Ineos โ 48
- J. Vingegaard ๐ฉ๐ฐ Visma โ 39
- M. Woods ๐จ๐ฆ IPT โ 38
Teams
- Visma ๐ณ๐ฑ
- UAE ๐ฆ๐ช โ 16โฒ51โณ
- Bora ๐ฉ๐ช โ 50โฒ38โณ
- Decathlon ๐ซ๐ท โ 52โฒ38โณ
- Arkรฉa ๐ซ๐ท โ 52โฒ39โณ
NB: the gap between Visma and UAE is the same (difference is just 6 seconds) as before the second sequence!
I am very surprised to see so many riders volunteering for a breakaway.
edit: After a group of 3 fought to stay ahead of counter-attacks for many dozens of km, it was finally a huge group that broke away when there were only 95 km left to go!
That was an insane stage. Healy looked monstrous. Happy for VPP but man, was hoping Healy would take it but he took off too quick.
And Jonas is a beast but just can't shake Tadej. Feel bad for him honestly. He hasn't been set up right to win I don't believe (but Pog is also just next level.)
Yep, Mont Ventoux can be pretty uneventful in my opinion, consisting only of riders dropping little by little, but this Ventoux climbing wasn't the case at all! Lots of attacks, quite many comebacks, 2 or 3 levels of racing at the same time. ๐
I guess we can be lucky that Pogatchar/UAE only used Politt to make a moderate pace at the front of the peloton. If they had put just one extra rider, this race would have ended with only the usual Vingegaard/Pogatchar fight, and another Pogatchar victory.
The Australian commentators wondered whether UAE made a tactical mistake at the beginning of the stage trying to close down too many small groups (in particular the move with Plapp and another rider which was bridging and had a decent gap but was pulled back). In the end, they were forced to let a massive group of 30+ riders go up the road, with multiple riders from the same teams who could work for their leaders in the group to get a big gap. Even with all the cat and mouse games in the lead group and Vingegaard and Pogacar racing each other up the climb, the breakaway still won.
I agree with this mistake in the first part โ and Politt's attempt to intimidate attackers wasn't well received. However, in the second part of race when the large group left, they still could have stopped the gap earlier, they had available riders who wouldn't be useful later on Ventoux slopes; it was just a matter of giving 5 mn instead of 6 mn, and that was easily in UAE domestiques' league.
I think that, perhaps, Pogatchar wasn't feeling wonderful before the climb, and hesitated on playing for victory or not.
Maybe, Pogacar does seem to be racing a bit "smarter" this year. Like not going crazy on every stage like a one-day racer and instead riding a bit more conservatively like you'd normally see from someone leading the GC.