Another nervous stage awaits with crosswinds and rain too. The final has a series of wall-like climbs.
Lille aux trésors: the stage win and yellow jersey for Jasper Philipsen. His third win of the season and tenth Tour stage. It was well-delivered in every sense, thanks to a strong lead-out from his team. Impressive but arguably the last interesting moment of the day as we’ve seen it before and had expected it.
Matteo Vercher was the first to attack and was joined by four others including Benjamin Thomas. It was Thomas that took the first mountain point but the group was caught by a nervous bunch.
The bunch eased up after the intermediate sprint. Vercher attacked again and was joined by Thomas, again. If that scenario was unusual the déjà vu duo reached Mont Cassel and Thomas won the sprint for the second mountain point of the day to win the mountains jersey for a day. Only their wheels were bouncing on the pavé and Thomas wiped out, taking Vercher down too. When crashes can be so worrying and political this was fortunately just a slapstick moment. Vercher was easygoing about it later and got the combativity prize for his twin attacks. It’ll all be anecdotal but there’s a serious side in a race where a handful of riders and teams will feast, the rest have to take the crumbs left.
With 17km to the peloton split. Visma-LAB were at the front but, a pleasant surprise, Movistar were also at work. A group of 36 was away with Vingegaard and Pogačar in there, they both had team mates and this helped keep the pace up and dissuaded attacks, Visma are here to provoke moves. Pogačar though only had Tim Wellens who was on bodyguard duty, often on his leader’s wheel to prevent anyone taking out the world champ by accident.
Filippo Ganna and Stefan Bissegger crashed out with concussion, their race over. Remco Evenepoel’s win in the Stage 5 time trial looks even more likely now. Only his chances of a spell in yellow have diminished after his Soudal-Quickstep team missed the split and he lost 39 seconds. There will be enquiries in the Flemish press about this today.
Others fared worse still. Ben O’Connor made the front group but had a hard crash inside the final 5km so he didn’t lose time but smashed his knee. The likes of Adam Yates, Pavel Sivakov, Simon Yates, Thymen Arensman, Eddie Dunbar lost over five minutes and if you didn’t see them going for GC anyway, their teams can’t use them for decoy bluff moves now. Luke Plapp lost more time still. Lenny Martinez finished last, alone at nine minutes after yo-yoing off the back all day, unable to stay on the wheels as if he had a dodgy moules-frites the night before.
The Route: 209km, the longest stage and 2,550m of vertical gain. Today’s stage is all about the final 35km but to get there plenty of lumpy roads and unmarked climbs. Take the intermediate sprint which is followed by the 3km climb up Mont Voyenne, not savage but exposed.
The Haut-Pichot climb begins with a turn into a narrow road and then it’s 1.2km at 9% with some 12% along the way. Short but the top is then along a ridge and exposed to the wind before the descent.
Once the descent is over there’s a big main road and it’s here the race can easily split as it runs north with the wind coming in from the west.
The next climb at St.Etienne-au Mont is a wall-like effort, 1km at 10% but with a long 15% section before the slope eases, and it’s here many sprinters can be ejected with 9km to go. A quick descent and other climb, short this time but steep again.
The Finish: a run along the banks of the river Liane in the streets of Boulogne and then a right turn and under the flamme rouge. It’s uphill from here but gentle for the most part, peaking at 5% and the finish line is around a gradual bend so the riders can’t see it until 100m to go.
The Contenders: a series of sharp climbs and a slow uphill sprint, this is suited to Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck). Plus his maman Corrine Poulidor told FranceTV she thinks he’s picked today to try. Jasper Philipsen is handy in the hills but a harder pick.
There’s a Belgian trio next. Wout van Aert (Visma-LAB) is suited too, but how to beat his nemesis, especially as he didn’t make the cut in the crosswinds yesterday? Once upon a time Arnaud De Lie (Lotto) would be an easy pick as he was a master at low speed sprints like today but he’s been struggling for some time with form and almost confidence even. It’s probably not steep enough at the finish for Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek) plus he’s sore from a crash.
A fitness test for Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty), at his best he can cope with the climbs and is good in an uphill finish. Likewise but the other way around for Marc Hirschi (Tudor) who should be good on the climbs but may find the final climb to the line isn’t selective enough, likewise Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) but his team mate Lewis Askey gets a stage to suit.
Laurence Pithie (RedBull) seems suited but he’s had few wins. Magnus Cort (Uno-X) ought to be suited to this too but his form in the Dauphiné seemed off. Vincenzo Albanese (EF) won a stage of the Tour de Suisse but there’s a lot of competition to see off today.
Tadej Pogačar (UAE) has a chance here too but if he’s in the mix Van der Poel ought to be faster and after yesterday’s ride with only Wellens for company look to see if he has more support with 10km to go or not.
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Van der Poel |
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De Lie, Philipsen |
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Van Aert, Pogačar, Nys, Girmay |
Weather: cool conditions, just 18°C and with rain coming in the afternoon. The wind will blow from the west at 25-30km/h, crosswind conditions again.
TV: KM0 is at 12.35pm the finish is forecast for 5.35pm CEST. The prospects of crosswinds makes it a hectic day but most of the stage heads east and so into a headwind. The route will catch the crosswind more around 3.00pm and the first climb. The intermediate sprint around 4.15pm.
Postcard from Lauwin-Planque
Lauwin-Planque? Well you’ve heard of it now. It’s a village of around 1,500 people on the outskirts of Douai.
For years the mayor here was Christian Poiret. He is also chief of the Douai agglomeration, a councillor for the Nord départment and its president too. This multi-tasking is a feature of politics in France – you might remember from the UCI President’s roles before – and being the local boss means Poiret is the one who has led the bid for the Tour’s grand départ. It’s his party and he’ll decree it goes here if he wants to.
It’s a reminder that mayors make the Tour go round. They host the race. While we see racing for 21 days, the Tour is a logistics operation today and crucially for the rest of the year. Hosts are picked, routes are planned and then every detail is worked out. Where will the signing-on podium go? Where will team buses line up? Can the publicity caravan park its wacky vehicles in a sports field, if so does this need matting if it gets muddy or are there multiple exit points? Is the electricity supply sufficient? What is the capacity of the cell phone towers? Thousands of related matters have to be resolved and the initial point of contact is the mayor and the organisers will send their teams to work with his teams.
The Tour gets more offers to host it in the run up to an election year, as if mayors want the prestige and photo opportunities. Hosting the Tour often makes commercial sense. Some mayors just love cycling and a few will even contribute to the route design, passing on tips about climbs or other features. Many want to showcase something local, it could be a new municipal building or some local heritage.
All this takes planning and ASO has separate start and finish host teams. Their roles are 99% logistics but the other 1% is art as they try to imagine how to photograph and film the start and finish and which angle and shots will look the best. Hopefully President Poiret enjoys today’s TV coverage.