Today, the peloton reaches the Alps. But before they hit the high mountains for 4 days starting tomorrow, we’ve got another classic transition stage. After three consecutive breakaway wins, this one practically screams for another, but maybe the top teams want to stretch their muscles a bit, get back into the rhythm and go a bit faster today?
We’ll see. Herklotz in particular might be interested in being at the front in the finale to collect both bonus seconds for the GC as well as points for the green jersey. Van Stayen is also in the mix for today, of course, but he did struggle two days ago following a similar climb close to the finish. Will that climb be tough enough to create some gaps between the GC riders? It’s possible, for sure, though far from guaranteed.
But, as I mentioned at the top, a breakaway win is certainly well within the range of outcomes as well, so we can expect heated competition to get in. With 20 mountains point on the road, a handful of riders have a shot to take the polkadots jersey away from Abreu, namely Lastra, Bizkarra, Smith and Schlegel. Let’s see if one of them tries.
Puma controlled the peloton for a bit, potentially signaling their ambitions for today. Then Vanthourenhout opens the proceedings and Abreu takes the opportunity to defend his jersey aggressively. Schlegel hasn’t given up on that yet though, he joins as well.
Lastra wants the jersey back it seems, he follows when Boily breaks away and they quickly catch up. The Canadian has collected 28 points over the past week or so, which does not put him in range for the jersey today, but his skillset certainly makes him better equipped for the big stages to come than, say, Abreu or Lastra. Plus, he’s obviously a big threat for the stage win here. Vangstad is also with them, he’s been active on a few stages already as well.
Obviously, the attacks don’t stop with that, and again we have some familiar faces. Zakarin (Ilnur, not Aydar) leads the next wave, followed by Gidich, Groselj, Kastrantas and Bayly.
Once again, Grieg, Festina and King Power are among the most active breakaway teams, they send additional riders up the road that first catch up to the five above and then to the original six. The peloton is fine with this, so we have the following 18 (!) riders to get us through the day:
Nesset
Lastra
Hansen
Vermote
Smith
Gidich
Vanthourenhout
Abreu
Boily
Kastrantas
Karatzios
Schlegel
Affonso
Zakarin
Bayly
Wohler
Vangstad
Groselj
With the exception of Bizkarra, we actually have all contenders for the mountain classification present. And in addition, it’s just a really strong group! A very diverse one in terms of skillsets as well, but some really strong riders for this type of terrain including two of the previous stage winners.
In contrast to yesterday, the peloton does not simply gift this stage to the breakaway. A few teams with riders who might have ambitions today keep them in check and for the most part of the first half of the stage, the gap hovers around 4 minutes.
In the breakaway, every team works with exactly one rider. Which means that pretty much half of the riders take their turns and the other half just hangs around at the back. It’s pretty amusing to observe, but it doesn’t do them any good for their chances today.
Leading up to the first climb, the gap to the peloton is already down to 3 minutes. That doesn’t have to mean much, we’ve seen successful breakaways that were at some point even withing a minute and a half of the pack, but still - why not give yourself some more wiggle room?
The summit is still a bit away, but Abreu already positions himself close to the front of the group. Lastra is right there with him, in contrast to two days ago, when he lost the jersey in part due to poor positioning.
But it’s Vangstad who attacks first. And no one really is keen to follow, so he actually gets a gap pretty quickly. 1,6 kilometers to the summit.
We also have the first victim of the higher pace: Vermote can’t keep up anymore. But his job was to work on the flat, which he did.
When Bayly attacks to go after Vangstad, Lastra follows, Nesset in his wheel. Still no movement from Abreu.
Despite his decent positioning earlier, Abreu was boxed in and can’t compete for the points. He has to watch the others go - Lastra takes the provisional lead if he gets over the line first!
But Vangstad simply caught everyone off-guard and collects the 10 points. Lastra sprints against the Bennelong duo …
… but he can’t add more than 4 points to his total, still trailing Abreu by 4. Bayly and Wohler collect 8 and 6, Groselj takes 2 - not quite the group of riders you’d expect.
Everyone’s back together (except for Vermote), but as they ride towards the intermediate sprint, their lead is already down to 2 minutes. Generali, Evonik and cycleYorkshire are the driving forces in the peloton.
A bit surprisingly, Affonso is not able to keep up on the purely flat roads in this section of the stage. Campero suffered pretty badly after a similar scenario unfolded a few days ago, is there something wrong with the conditioning at ISA - Hexacta? They still have Zakarin up ahead, though.
Obligatory sprint coverage, Karatzios - Hansen - Vanthourenhout - Groselj - Vangstad is the order over the line. But also, the peloton is already visible in the background. 1’45 left of the gap.
Lastra’s dream of another day in the polkadots fades when he can’t keep up anymore either only a few kilometers later. Stunningly, Nesset has fallen behind into the peloton as well. All those breakaway kilometers over the past days are really taking their toll. Hansen is the last Grieg remnant up front.
We’re still a long way from the finish but Gidich has enough of the slow pace in the breakaway. He attacks!
Actually, the reducing gap may not be 100% on the breakaway. The pace in the peloton is also really, really high. We even see a split! Many of the Top 10 riders are caught behind this one, really only Herklotz, Spilak, Madrazo, Meintjes and Roglic are in the first group.
Up front, Gidich stays ahead for now. Bayly and Vangstad do a good amount of work for the group, which is now less than a minute ahead of the pack. Still 30 kilometers to go.
The peloton is really nervous today. Just as the first split closes, another one opens some 30 positions further behind. Berhane, Schelling, Galta and Olivier are on the wrong side, but Aegon chases hard to close the gap quickly.
We also have this weird situation where a large-ish group containing many strong climbers like Brenes, Elissonde and Ji fell behind on the early slopes of the previous climb already, and because of the high pace of the peloton, they simply wouldn’t make it back.
Eventhough we’re not having a lot of wind, it looks like echelons out here today. It’s kind of no wonder when guys like Stoltz and Holloway are pacing like mad men, but on what many have expected to be a rather calm day, it’s wild to see.
Olivier and Schelling have made it back to the peloton, which currently only contains 46 riders, but Berhane and Galta are almost 2 minutes behind at the moment. Guys like Godoy, Chiarello and Schleck aren’t in the first group either, nor is Chaves for that matter.
A bulk of the breakaway is then caught, which may give those who fell behind some hope that things could calm down. But the second climb of the day is coming up soon, and also, a few rider still hold out.
Four of them do, to be precise. Vangstad attacked while we were busy taking stock of the peloton and he has almost reached Gidich. They still have 50 seconds on the pack. Zakarin and Wohler are somewhere in between.
Wohler makes it to the two leaders at the foot of the climb, Zakarin is done for the day, it seems. But those who hoped for a slower pace were disappointed: The peloton continues to push, they’re within 35 seconds of our leading trio.
Van der Lijke has not left Van Stayen’s wheel for a single second these past kilometers, he seems to feel well ( Holloway’s big turns at the front certainly indicated as much), maybe today’s his day. Herklotz has the not less attentive Madrazo behind him at all times. We’ll see if the sprinters or the stage racers will have this one.
Gidich has not given up on King Power’s second stage win yet, he attacks again! His companions are unable to answer, but will it be enough to hold off the peloton?
It doesn’t look like it. Calmejane has taken done some massive work, Roglic right behind him, and Gidich is almost caught. The group is shedding domestiques and former escapees left and right and is down to around 30 riders, more will fall behind shortly.
Then out of nowhere, Boily attacks from the slipstream of the moto bike. He apparently was able to recuperate a bit after being caught by the peloton and really, he didn’t do a lot of work in the breakaway. This is his second chance.
Smith, from a very similar position, attacks as well and with Calmejane done, Roglic and even Meintjes move to the front to potentially latch on. Herklotz still has Cavagna though, trying to keep things in check.
Among the next riders dropped is Chernetskiy. No result for him today.
By the way, speaking of dropped: The Berhane / Galta / Chiarello group is almost two and a half minutes behind the leaders at the moment. Not looking great for them.
Smith couldn’t get seperation, Roglic and Meintjes never really tried, but Boily still holds on to a small lead, 3 kilometers from the summit. We can also see that Abreu is still in that group, he might be able to snatch a few more mountain points. Van Stayen and Van der Lijke are by the way the only sprinters left, if there was any doubt about that.
And there is Van Stayen! Without any domestiques left, he moves to the front himself. He should be very careful not to overdo it.
This increase in pace is then too much after all for Abreu. He has to let go alongside Schlegel and Quintana, who’s not looking great. But neither is Olivier, who’s really struggling ahead of them! Maybe the earlier efforts to close that gap come back to haunt him?
Roglic, who’s looked strong all day, brings Boily back with just over a kilometer left on the climb. Everyone’s back together for now.
And then Roglic attacks! Smith tries to counter, Boily creates a gap behind them - who of the favorites can still react?
Roglic seems to have found the perfect moment - the other favorites are just looking at each other, no one wants to take responsibility and within a few moments, he and Smith open a gap of 45 seconds! The Australian might now be in play for his second stage win.
And he really wants that! In the final few hundred meters of the climb, he attacks Roglic, who does not immediately counter.
Still no reactions whatsoever from the other favorites, which is good news for those who were in trouble. The trio around Quintana makes it back.
Abreu even attacks for the KoM points but only collects 2, as Schlegel jumped past him first and then Van Stayen attacked! The Belgian really doesn’t want to let this potential stage win slip away, he takes matters into his own hands!
Meanwhile, Smith has built a gap of around 30 seconds already in the first few switchbacks of the descent. He’s looking really well!
The slow pace of the favorites also allowed the group with Galta, Berhane and Godoy to almost come back. They might be in reach on the downhill. Chiarello somehow missed the move though and is some 2 minutes further behind.
Van Stayen is not a great downhill rider, but he quickly catches up to Schlegel and is now in pursuit of Roglic. A Top 3 finish or better could really go a long way for him in his defense of the green jersey.
The Roglic attack has left the peloton almost paralyzed. Cavagna and Kangert are now back at the front to pick up the slack, but they’re already 2 minutes behind Smith, 1’30 behind Roglic and 1 minute behind Van Stayen and Schlegel - and all those gaps materialized in less than a handful kilometers!
Meintjes is one of the better downhill riders among the favorites. He now takes a turn and the others struggle to keep up for a moment. But even that reduces the gap to the guys ahead only by a few seconds. Interestingly, and very impressively, Saber and Van Poppel made it to the front group alongside Galta and co. They could be a factor in what looks like the sprint for 5th - much to Herklotz’s chagrin, I’m sure.
This man will not have to sprint for anything, though. With a perfectly timed and powerfully executed move, Smith has brought enough space between himself and anyone else to be able to enjoy these last 2 kilometers on his way to his second stage win!
Roglic on the other hand has to give it everything he’s got. First, to stay ahead of Van Stayen and Schlegel, and then of course to gain as much time on his rivals as possible. With the current time gaps (1’20 to the peloton), he would move from 9th to 5th!
He knows what he’s done and he can be proud! Make it two for Dion Smith!
Behind him, Van Stayen can see Roglic under the Flamme Rouge now. Maybe he can still reach him with a big acceleration - that would be 25 incredibly valuable points.
In the peloton, many of the major GC riders have found their way to the front row. The aforementioned sprinters are still a bit further behind towards the end of the group, not having recovered from their efforts yet.
But let’s turn our attention back to the front. Van Stayen makes his move with 800 meters to go, but it looks like Roglic is too far gone.
Indeed, the Slovenian had some energy left and really pushed it in the final kilometer. He crosses the line 58 seconds behind Smith and can now watch the seconds tick for his rivals.
Van Stayen finishes third - had he reacted immediately to the final attacks, more could have been possible, but you can’t fault him for not trying. 22 points go to his pocket, he too now waits for what happens behind him.
But also, credit to Schlegel, who made a very smart move and gets a surprising, but well deserved 4th place here today.
No one wanted to be the first to open the sprint in the peloton, which led to another stalemate situation! Which again costs time, but also results in a very unorganized leadup to the sprint. Domestiques Brambilla and Prado have taken over, while Herklotz stays calm on the right side.
Herklotz tries to squeeze past Barguil, but to his left, Reimer brings Van der Lijke to the front - two naturally much faster riders.
It really was the perfect finish for Van der Lijke, but in the end, his team was not able to hold everything together. He’s left with a 5th place, Herklotz makes the most of the situation and finishes 6th, which means that Van Stayen gains 7 points on him.
Moser - Sygic place 3 riders in the Top 10 as Prado and Barguil finish 7th and 8th, then Alarcon in 9th and Morton in 10th.
Chiarello is the best-placed GC rider to finish behind the peloton today, he loses 2’01 on the main group. Godoy is another 40 seconds further behind. He still leads the young rider classification comfortably with around 5 minutes ahead of Novak and Geoghegan Hart, who finished in the main group, but that’s two and a half less than it was before.
Going further through the cassifications, Roglic does indeed move up in the GC from 9th to 5th after gaining 1’30 today (including bonus seconds), but everything’s still very close together in that range. Chiarello loses 2 places, he’s 20th now.
Finally, on the heels of Roglic’s daring move and another good all around team performance, Isostar increase their lead in the team classification by another 3 minutes.
The hills are now completely behind us, the mountains await. See you tomorrow!
Tour de France 
