After Van Niekerk’s spectacular win yesterday, we have another hilly stage to round out Week 2. It’s the second-to-last of the race, so the puncheurs and better puncheurs among the GC riders will try to maximize their opportunities here. Looking at the profile and our experiences so far, Herklotz has to be the big favorite. He also has a chance to take the points jersey if he’s far enough ahead of Van Stayen, for instance if he wins the stage and the Belgian is outside the Top 3.
The final climb is also long and steep enough to create time gaps between GC riders. Someone like Alarcon or even Dombrowski, who is a decent puncheur but has not been very convincing on hill stages so far, might be on the defensive.
Lastly, once again, the mountain classification is pretty open. Even if the breakaway would only make it over the first climb, there are still three riders who could take the jersey away from Lastra: Abreu, Bizkarra and Smith.
But Lastra wants to defend that jersey aggressively. Mere seconds into the race, he attacks.
It takes a while for other interested riders to make it to the front. It’s then interestingly Iturria who wants to support his teammate, with Costagli in tow.
Vangstad, Riesebeek, the next Grieg rider Gillett and Dlamini are next.
Grieg is still not done, but at this point they may shoot themselves in the foot, because when Nesset attacks followed by Kratochvila, Abreu and Smith take the opportunity to now join in as well.
4 riders up front? That’s too few, right? So better follow your teammates, Grossschartner! Zakarin and Schönberger go with him.
That’s finally enough, so we go ahead with 14 riders in the breakaway.
There’s a lot of nothing on the way to the interesting final fourth of the stage, but at least we get some nice sightseeing moments. The breakaway passes under the Viaduc de Millau, the longest cable-stayed bridge in the world at almost 2,5 kilometers. It’s been designed by Norman Foster, too, and the largest bridge pier counts as the highest structure in all of France. So, now you know that, which is something, I guess?
As for the racing, the peloton keeps the breakaway on a pretty short leash. The gap has not exceeded 4 minutes yet.
Another thing you get to know, whether you want to or not: the order at the intermediate sprint. It’s won by Smith ahead of Zakarin, Schönberger, Riesebeek and Dlamini.
The breakaway enters the first major climb of the day only one and a half minutes ahead of the peloton. But maybe they can gain some more time if they hurry up a bit on that climb.
The Côte de Sauveterre is not the biggest challenge, but nothing to sneeze at either.
Bennelong lead the chase in the peloton. No moves from the breakaway yet, who are already within 45 seconds. Still more than 3 kilometers to go to the summit.
Nesset attacks then, but once again it seems kind of counterproductive, since Lastra is with his teammates towards the end of the group, while Abreu, his main rival is right there at the front.
Abreu moves into the lead with 800 meters to go, this could be a bit early.
But he has the legs to sustain the effort. He takes over the polkadots jersey!
Lastra along with his other teammates and a few breakaway riders is already back in the peloton. Overall a rather misguided effort by Grieg today - unless Nesset can still do something.
And that may not be all that farfetched. 8 riders remain and they built their lead back up to more than 2 minutes in the few kilometers after the summit. The riders are:
Vangstad
Nesset
Riesebeek
Zakarin
Abreu
Schönberger
Kratochvila
Costagli
Lots of good puncheurs in there and with Nesset and Costagli two really good climbers as well.
The gap holds steady and the group enters the penultimate climb, the Côte de Chabrits, with just under 2 minutes on the peloton.
Air France and Generali have taken over now and Enger pitches in as well - let’s hope he doesn’t spend too much energy ahead of tomorrow’s sprint stage. They quickly shave half a minute off the breakaway’s lead.
But the guys up front don’t give up yet. They increase the pace on the last part of the climb and at the summit - where Abreu is unable to collect any more points -, the lead is back up to around 1’45.
And they continue to do well on the descent to enter the final 5 kilometers with a lead of 2’20! This could really work out for them!
But the Côte de la Croix Neuve is a pretty nasty beast. With multiple sections over 10%, time can be lost here quickly if the favorites in the peloton become active. The final 1,5 kilometers are then downhill and flat to the finish line.
But the group is still doing so well that it feels unlikely that they’ll be caught. The stage win within reach, Nesset attacks! Riesebeek, Vangstad and Schönberger react quickest.
Vangstad is struggling and has to leave a gap! Can the others move around him? Do they even have the energy for that? For the moment, Nesset and Riesebeek lead the race! But still more than 1,5 kilometers to go on the climb.
Nesset pulls away from Riesebeek - can he turn this stage around for Grieg?
The peloton is out of it, that much seems clear. They’re still more than 2 minutes behind.
Riesebeek cracks, but Zakarin still has some juice left in his legs. He attacks in an attempt to catch up.
Vangstad and Riesebeek fall behind, they will now try everything to at least stay ahead of the peloton. But the others still have a shot to catch up!
Abreu, who is also still looking to gain a few mountain points, leads the chasers back to Zakarin, but Nesset is just too strong. He has already 50 seconds on them.
Now we have some movement in the peloton! Madrazo moves to the front, immediately followed by Chaves. Herklotz on the far side of the road, protected by Stüssi. How will they react?
None of that is of any concern to Nesset. He is heading towards the Flamme Rouge, the stage win firmly in his grasp.
Abreu adds 2 points at the summit, his lead increases to 4.
Vangstad and Riesebeek are caught by Madrazo, who had the tiniest of gaps on the peloton but was blocked by the two.
Without anyone even in sight, Sigurd Nesset can enjoy his stage win! Congrats!
The other five have a big enough advantage over the peloton to safely sprint for the next places. Schönberger and Zakarin are the fastest on paper, the latter leads in the sprint.
Madrazo opens the sprint in the peloton behind them. Van Stayen is pretty far behind, with at least a 9th place, Herklotz could take the lead in the points classification!
But first, back to the front: Zakarin runs out of energy, Abreu takes second place instead. Costagli, Schönberger and Kratochvila follow. Maybe a slight disappointment for Rakuten to end up without a stage podium, but as we see here, there simply was no more energy left in any of them.
Olivier and Schelling now lead the peloton towards the line. Herklotz sprints on the left.
Olivier holds on to finish 7th, but Herklotz comes in next - we have a new leader in the points classification!
Barguil and Dombrowski complete the Top 10, the American proves my pre-stage comments entirely wrong.
Van Stayen had started to sprint, but has to sit up in the end, indicating he simply didn’t have enough energy left. Maybe the previous climb was just too demanding for him, given his comparatively weak climbing abilities.
The group of Van Stayen even gets a small time gap (ahead of Vangstad). That’s not too consequential for him, but Alarcon, Meintjes (a bit shocking considering his skillset), Chiarello and Galta are also in there. They lose 16 seconds.
Schleck ends up even further behind with a more significant gap of 58 seconds. In that group is also Chaves, who looked well earlier but then broke down, apparently. He continues his subpar Tour so far.
We have two more stages before we head back into the mountains. First, the sprinters get their chance tomorrow, when Van Stayen will be looking to take the points classification back and gain as big an advantage as possible on Herklotz to carry into the mountains. Before that, the two will have another potential showdown on the final hilly stage of the race the day after tomorrow.
Tomorrow will also be the first day in the polkadots jersey for Abreu, a great achievement for him and UBS. He’s not an elite climber for the demanding stages that are still to come though, so he’ll be faced with the tough choice to either try and gain as many points as he can on the less mountaineous next two days or save some energy for the Alps. We’ll get our first glance at his plans tomorrow - see you then!
Tour de France 
