A stage condemned to sprint became a nightmare for the Jumbo
The yellow jersey, which fell off, lost Primoz Roglic and Steven Kruisjwijk to the Pyrenees, key climbers
Suddenly the sky fell on his head jonas vingegaard to tell him that a Tour is not won until Paris and being a little generous until Saturday in the final time trial. When it seemed that Jumbo was an untouchable team, the dream team of the Grande Boucle 2022, the best group of artists to protect the star, the yellow jersey, who even fell to the groundlost two pieces, which were not only essential, but essential to defend him in the Pyrenees that start tomorrow.
Primoz Roglic, the eternal contender for victory in the Tour, the Raymond Poulidor of the 21st century, the cyclist who wins the Vuelta with the feeling that he hardly messes up, has not taken the start today, after having been the architect, almost the executioner of Tadej Pogacar in the historic stage last Wednesday where Vingegaard snatched the yellow jersey from the Slovenian star. Roglic was the one who executed Pogacar with his attacks, always followed by a Vingegaard demarraje, on the slopes of the Galibier. But he had been touched since he had a tremendous blow on the cobblestone stage where he already said goodbye to any joy in the general classification. And a year ago something similar happened to him. He crashed in the third stage, endured as long as he could and before starting to climb the Alps he went to Slovenia to prepare for the Vuelta.
There are runners who go through the Tour, like food that stays in the stomach and resists going down to the intestines. And that is the case of Roglic. He comes from the boss of the Jumbo, ends up becoming a luxury domestique of Vingegaard and leaves him just when the final sentence of the race begins. Terrible for the yellow jersey and the Jumbo, in the blackest day for them since the Tour game began in Denmark.
Because there was another essential runner, another cyclist always jinxed with falls, the one who had won the Giro in 2016 until he fell down the Agnello: Steven Kruisjwijk. It was the resistant climber, the one who acted in penultimate place, the one who had to increase the pace to tire Pogacar and the one who had to leave the wheel of the Tour a few kilometers from the top, just at the moment in which Sepp Kuus had to become the guardian angel of the yellow jersey.
And as good as he is, which he is, the American runner based in Andorra, climbing Vingegaard by himself through the Pyrenees is an impossible mission, even if instead of Kuss his name was Tom Cruise. Today, the falls of the Jumbo, in a stage with no more history than the sprint victory of the Belgian Jasper Philipsen, were the nightmare.
Everybody to the floor
Only they practically went to the ground, as if the noisy cicadas were pushing them to the ground with their songs. Because apart from Kruisjwijk, Wout van Aert and Tiesj Benoot also crashed and even Vingegaard. Nobody was spared. «I have also lost two runners (both due to covid and their director). Next week will be very interesting”, stressed Pogacar. Tomorrow it’s time to rest in Carcassonne, its surroundings and even in Narbonne. Everything is for the Tour.