The stars of the race took a day of some relaxation before tomorrow’s appointment with the Mende climb
A new stage that will be another opportunity for an offensive from Pogacar to Vingegaard
When the Tour arrives at Saint Etienne, one of the typical villages of the race, it always seems to do it with a stove placed over the heads of the runners. The sky burns and the asphalt almost melts. Four hours of pedaling, between a treacherous wind and a peloton playing cat and mouse, did you capture the day’s breakaway or not? But for one day luck and victory smile on the most skillful of the escapees: Mads Pedersen.
This year’s Tour seems to speak Danish; The race started from Denmark, from that country is the leader of the race, Jonas Vingegaard, and a countryman of his won yesterday in the French cradle of the dog days: Pedersen, perhaps the most unexpected and least known world champion in recent years. He achieved the rainbow jersey in 2019, atBefore the world domination of the absent Julian Alaphilippe -He will be in the Vuelta that little by little is confirming a posh list-.
pokemon, calm down
For a day Tadej Pogacar was calm and there was not even a hint of the announced duel, the sauce of this Tour. For a stage, the gold gregarious of the Jumbo walked with a certain relaxation, others did the job of swallowing the wind, leading the peloton and deciding whether or not to let the breakaway to Sant Etienne arrive. Vingegaard’s team certainly didn’t care. They only wanted to recover from the alpine effort, swim and put away their clothes, which if they had done so, they would surely have been cooler than on a bicycle.
It was the penultimate opportunity for the sprinters before they reach the Pyrenees, the next one will be tomorrow, at the Grande Boucle appointment with Carcassonne and its citadel. But the sprinters are very ripe, like fruit that falls from the tree. At the minimum slope they stayed. Their gregarious tried to refresh them, to encourage them, as another Dane did, Michael Morkov, possibly one of the best throwers in the world squad, with his boss in sprints, the Dutchman Fabio Jacobsen, whose legs were heavy. He was throwing fresh water at him, almost showering him, a shower in full swing. There was nothing to do. There are many people who are too tired from the exhibitions of the leaders in the Alps, from the dream stage that was experienced last Wednesday on the way to the Granon.
Another strong man of the day was Philippe Gilbert, world champion, 40 years old running his last Tour. He spent a good part of the stage pulling the peloton so that his Lotto sprinter, Cadel Ewan, fell in a corner. The Australian sprinter has been running with a crooked pedal all season and his team, the same. Gilbert is retiring this year, like Alejandro Valverde and Vicenzo Nibali, both on the list of artists for the Vuelta.
And so that there would be emotion, so that the day was not just one of transition, of those that invite you to write and make predictions about what can happen today in Mende, will Pogacar attack or not? the ‘fans’ arrived, the cuts, the crosswind. Twice the peloton broke up, 105 and 82 kilometers from the finish line. But they were just like the fireworks that lit up the French sky the night before on July 14.