The road rises at 10 percent and the finish is still more than thirteen kilometers away, but on the Col de Joux Plane there is a substitute going on. Top favorites Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar attacked each other, all other riders in the Tour de France broke away in at least a minute, and now they are suddenly almost standing still.
Neither has left for another attack, neither wants to be in the lead. They want to be in the wheel of the other, which makes it easier to attack when the top comes into view. Because bonus seconds can be earned there.
Saturday’s stage, over 150 kilometers from Annemasse to Morzine, is one in which minutes are normally thrown. With five cols, four of which belong to the two steepest categories of climbs, the stage would have been crowned a queen stage in many other Grand Tours, were it not for an even tougher stage in this Tour de France next Wednesday.
That does not alter the fact that the race on Saturday demands a lot from the riders. In the beginning, when the unexpected rain makes the roads very slippery and causes a massive crash in the peloton, even before the race can really ignite. In exceptional cases, the Tour organizer ASO stops the race for more than half an hour, so that the injured can be treated. It should not help Louis Meintjes and Antonio Pedrero, they have to get off immediately with injuries. Moments later, Esteban Chaves is the third victim, and Romain Bardet and James Shaw crash hard in the descent of the second col. They also have to stop their Tour.
After that restless opening phase, the black and yellow shirts of the Dutch team report to the head of the peloton, because it is also a day of which they must have thought at Jumbo-Visma when studying the road book: ‘This is one for Jonas ‘.
That is why his teammates have been given an assignment: to make the race as tough as possible by cycling as fast as possible. At Jumbo-Visma they know that Tadej Pogacar is the best rider in the world, and that they cannot be beaten in a one-on-one situation. But, they also know, if Pogacar gets exhausted, then he is on a long climb to break. Their leader Vingegaard may be less explosive, but he is able to maintain a high pace uphill just a little longer than his competitor.
Horrible pace
Last year the tactics worked to perfection in the stage that ended on the Col du Granon. After a race in which the Slovenian had to parry attack after attack from Jumbo-Visma, Vingegaard’s attack on the final climb was too much for him. The Dane immediately took minutes, then the Tour was de facto decided.
Jumbo-Visma will have envisioned such a scenario again this year on Saturday morning, although they are taking a slightly different approach this time. This time no teammates are sent ahead in the break, but the entire team controls the stage from the start. And so the pace is horribly high: from kilometer 20 to 70, with two climbs with average gradients higher than seven, the pace is over 37 kilometers per hour.
The group of refugees who nevertheless managed to get away, with recognized climbers such as Giulio Ciccone, Michael Woods, Guillaume Martin and Wout Poels, can dream of a heroic stage victory, but this time it is no match for the Jumbos. Looking stoic, the teammates of Vingegaard pass Ciccone, the last remaining leader, at 58 kilometers. The Italian has to release almost immediately, he has a thumbs up from Tour director Christian Prudhomme when he passes him in the car.
Even before the top of the Col de la Ramaz has been reached, the peloton consists of only twenty men, including five Jumbo riders. Pogacar’s UAE Emirates also has five, for the rest all other teams have been reduced to a leader and at most a helper. And then the Col de Joux Plane still has to come.
On that climb it is Team UAE Emirates that surprisingly turns out to be the strongest. Adam Yates gets a nod from his teammate Pogacar and then takes the lead from Vingegaard’s teammate Sepp Kuss. A kilometer later Pogacar jumps away and Vingegaard seems to have to pass. But the gap between the two favorites remains three seconds, becomes five, then four again. And after two kilometers Vingegaard, who has continued to drive his own pace, is back in Pogacar’s wheel.
Even before the top of the Col de la Ramaz is reached, the peloton consists of only twenty men
Bonus seconds
That is the moment of the surplace. With the nine second difference in the standings in mind, the sprint to the top of the final climb, with bonus seconds to be earned, suddenly becomes very important.
It is Pogacar who is the first to attack a few hundred meters from the top. However, he has to abort his acceleration because the motorcycles in front of him have nowhere to go due to the crowded crowd. A mistake by the organization, sports director Matxin Fernandez of UAE judges afterwards. “But it’s not up to me to make that decision.” In this tense fight, he seemed to be saying, he prefers not to waste energy on matters beyond his control.
In the end, it is Vingegaard who emerges first, surprising Pogacar after his attack failed. Then the two front runners are caught up by the Spaniard Carlos Rodriguez, who takes advantage of the dropped pace and hurts in the descent and risks coming down first. That works, he wins. Behind him, Pogacar and Vingegaard sprinted to second and third place.
This is how the game of seconds between the Dane and the Slovenian continues. Pogacar took eight seconds back on the Grand Colombier on Friday – four seconds on the line, four bonus seconds – on Saturday it was Vingegaard’s turn to run out again. “It’s worth a film, this is a wonderful day for cycling,” says Jumbo team leader Frans Maassen afterwards about the conflict.
The question is whether the other riders feel the same way. Behind the top-3 the differences are immense: the number last Adrien Petit comes in more than 38 minutes behind. In the general classification, after the two top favorites Rodriguez, he is now third at 4 minutes and 43 seconds.
The result of that battlefield? With the bonus seconds at the top of the Joux Plane (eight for Vingegaard, five for Pogacar) and at the finish (six for Pogacar, four for Vingegaard) calculated, the Dane is one second ahead of the Slovenian.