The peloton is hitting the Vosges today for the first pure mountain stage of the race. At 200 kilometers, the route from Belfort to the ski resort of Champ du Feu is also the longest mountain stage, with hardly any flat roads. 8 classified climbs await the riders, including two of the first and two of the second category.
Arensman’s mountain jersey will therefore be under attack, with a maximum of 69 points available compared to his (and Lafay’s) 32. By now, there are also many decent climbers with big deficits in the GC who might fancy their chances for a breakaway victory.
We’ll have to watch for changes at the top of the GC as well. Uran wears yellow after Tinkoff’s team time trial heroics, but the final climb might be too hard for him to compete with the best climbers in the field. Could teammate Sivakov take over? Or will it be one of Eastman or Herklotz, the next best contenders in the overall classification?
In the beautiful streets of Belmont, Arensman takes advantage of his position in the front row and attacks. He wants to keep that polkadots jersey for a bit longer! Wright and Sergis follow.
Dal Col, Nareklishvili and Sergent are the next to try and break away. Hardly the riders you’d take as favorites for a mountain stage …
More riders make moves. Lehtinen and Johannessen latch onto Sergent. Further down the road follow Barbio, Delco, Ardila, Malori and Miltiadis. Some intriguing names in there.
And that … seems to be it? The teams of the top GC contenders take charge of the peloton and calm everything down …
… while the 13 riders at the front quickly come together and find a good rhythm. Within just a few kilometers, they’ve built up a lead of 3 minutes. Arensman will like this setup, as only Malori has any mountain points, but he’s of course one of the worst climbers here. The list of the best climbers would likely include Lehtinen, Ardila, Sergis and Miltiadis, who is also the best rider in the GC at + 3’39.
The Ballon d’Alsace is not the hardest climb of the day, but the 10.8km at 5.2% already prove too much for Malori. Dal Col and Sergent are also struggling mightily with the pace mostly set by Delco, Wright and Sergis, and will be dropped just a few hundred meters later.
Nareklishvili loses touch with 2 kilometers to the summit. 9 riders remain, most of them capable climbers, with perhaps the exception of Wright.
In a group of this size, positioning in the leadup to a mountain sprint is key. Ardila has great timing and a strong acceleration, but Arensman is attentive and follows.
Those two cross the line first, collecting 10 and 8 respectively, with 6 going to Barbio. Miltiadis and Johannessen take the remaining points in the group. By this point, the advantage of the group over the peloton is over 10 minutes!
In the following valley, everyone except Sergent and Malori made it back to the group. Nareklishvili even has the strength to counter when Arensman attacks for the next mountain points. Barbio is there again, the rest of the group looks a bit sleepy.
They woke up again, but Arensman wins the sprint to take his points total up to 46. Barbio stands at 10, Miltiadis at 6. Wright was distanced by this acceleration, everyone else just managed to hang on. Their lead over the peloton is up to 14 minutes.
The Grand Ballon is the most demanding climb of the stage so far. It’s 15.9km long with an average slope of 6.1%, but it’s much steeper in the final third. Nareklishvili once again is distanced with 8.7km to go to the summit, Dal Col follows a kilometer later.
In the final few kilometers of the climb, the percentages rise to 9%. Delco did much of the work, now he’s done for the moment. 7 riders remain, Arensman leads the way.
He and Barbio are again the first to attack for the mountain sprint!
Gaps open between the breakaway riders! Lehtinen collapsed, blocking several riders including his teammate Sergis and Ardila, who’s now trying to catch up. Barbio suffers, only Miltiadis is with Arensman.
The Dutch wins the sprint to take 16 points, Cypriot Champion Miltiadis gets 12 ahead of Ardila and Barbio. With 62 points in total, compared to 20 for Ardila, Arensman needs just two more points to keep the jersey guaranteed. Barbio and Miltiadis stand at 18 points, with 43 more available over the rest of the stage.
Meanwhile, the peloton has started to ride a little bit harder. Peaking at 15 minutes, the gap is now down to … 14’30. It’s a start, I guess. 120 kilometers to go!
Delco returned to the front on the downhill and everyone’s taking their turn as Sergis leads them through the intermediate sprint in the small town of Munster, east of Colmar.
It is also in Munster that Malori is the first of the original breakaway riders to be caught by the peloton. Led by a variety of teams, it consists of 99 riders by this point and has reduced the lead of the breakaway to 12 minutes.
Arensman is on top of things all day long and it’s no different on the Col du Wettstein. Barbio and Ardila remain his fiercest rivals.
But they can’t quite get to him. Another 6 points for Arensman, 4 for Ardila makes it 68-24 between them.
On the Col du Calvaire (6.6km at 5.8%), the second Cat 2 climb, Delco is off the back again. With 3 kilometers still to the top, this could be it for him, but in any case, a really strong ride for the Swiss youngster.
With a tired Sergis holding everyone up, Barbio and Ardila get the jump on Arensman this time!
Barbio wins the sprint, Arensman is left with just 4 points. It’s not going to matter today, but both the UBS rider and Ardila build the groundwork for more attacks in the coming weeks.
The group was also able to keep the gap to the peloton stable at around 12 minutes. With 66 kilometers to go, it’s looking good for the stage win and one of them could well end up in yellow, too! In addition to Miltiadis, Johannessen at + 4’31 and, long shot, Barbio at + 6’24, could be in play for that.
One look back to the tail end of the race, where Schädlich and Young fight a riveting battle for the lanterne rouge. The American had it to start the day, but just 3’18 behind Schädlich, who now trails him by 2’52. 30 minutes behind the breakaway, they might have to be careful not to lose it all to the time limit, though.
Delco actually did make it back in time for the Col des Bagenelles, the only Cat 4 climb of the day. What a fighter! Barbio wins the sprint ahead of Arensman and Lehtinen to move into second place of the KoM classification. The gap to the peloton is down to 10’50.
The following Col de Fouchy has stretches of over 8%. Sergis and Delco are struggling to follow Arensman’s attack.
The Gjensidige rider shows some cracks towards the top and is ultimately overtaken by both Barbio and Ardila. The tally between those three before the final climb is 75 for Arensman, 45 for Barbio and 36 for Ardila. Miltiadis is the only one who can keep up with them all the way to the summit, even if he doesn’t collect any points.
Barbio holds an 8 second lead on the three chasers at the bottom of the descend. Another 9 seconds later follows Johannessen, then it’s almost 30 seconds to Sergis, Lehtinen and Delco. Not a great performance by the Evonik duo.
Into the first slopes of the Champ du Feu and Johannessen could not catch up. He’s 20 seconds behind the reunited four leaders and about to be swept up by the Evonik group. The peloton trails the leaders by 9’45 at this point. A lot will depend on how aggressively they ride the final climb, though it’s tough to imagine that they catch all the way up to the breakaway.
Here’s a closer look at said final climb. It’s very long, 13.7 kilometers, and on average not super steep, but that average is simply brought down by the very easy first 5 kilometers. Afterwards, the riders are in pretty steep territory.
Sergis brings the chasers back to the front and now Johannessen struggles.
Immediately upon the arrival of the chasers, Barbio attacks! Miltiadis is the first to counter, Lehtinen comes around from the back of the group to follow as well. The rest remain calm for the moment.
Meanwhile, the larger peloton is split into two, with 36 riders falling behind. Among them is GC leader Uran, as well as the likes of Munoz, Vingegaard or Vosekalns.
Led mostly by Barbio, the trio quickly builds a lead of 40 seconds. Is this already the decisive move? Still 9 km to go on the climb before the short descend to the finish, but in the second group, no one seems willing – or able – to do the work.
Johannessen and Sergis are out. Up front, Lehtinen and Miltiadis still refuse to help Barbio out, which leaves the gap to the second group fairly stable. As is the one to the peloton by the way, still sitting at 9’30.
Miltiadis can already smell a stint in yellow, now he wants more! 6km to go on the climb and he attacks! But Barbio and Lehtinen can follow.
Attacks are flying in the peloton now, too! Latour is the first to go, Wellens and Eastman try to counter.
Those attacks go nowhere, now it’s … Chiarello who attacks? Is he aware of the situation up ahead? They’re still 8 minutes behind his teammate, but increasing the pace like this feels unnecessarily risky.
Meanwhile, Lehtinen seems to be out of the race for the stage win. Miltiadis and Barbio look like they're on their last legs as well, though. 5km to the summit, the group with Arensman and Ardila is another minute down the road.
Chiarello and Latour briefly held a small gap but where then caught again by Wellens. Feeling the pressure after his team’s poor TTT, and perhaps extra energized by his fans on the side of the road, it’s now Morton who attacks. Herklotz marks him closely. They're closing in on the breakaway quickly, but there are still some 6 minutes between them.
Those two alongside Latour get a 20 second gap. A very dangerous situation for the other contenders. Guerreiro and Goos try to bring them back.
Morton and Herklotz push the pace so instead of relying on his domestiques, Yates simply puts in a quick acceleration and bridges the gap himself.
The other team leaders have taken over now, but the gap grows to 40 seconds.
The lead of the breakaway continues to melt away – the Herklotz group is only 3 minutes behind Miltiadis and Barbio now! No yellow jersey, but the stage win is still very much possible. 1.5 kilometers until the summit - Lehtinen hasn’t given up yet either!
As they pick up Sergis and Johannessen, Herklotz attacks! He wants to make his mark on this race early – and re-take yellow, of course.
Feeling the pressure from the top favorites behind him, Arensman has one more acceleration in him. Ardila can follow. They have a minute to the race lead and a minute on Herklotz.
Miltiadis makes his final bid for the stage win and leaves Barbio behind. If he makes it to the top alone, he only has some 2 kilometers of downhill left.
Arensman and Ardila were flying for a bit and they catch up to Lehtinen, but now they’re back in the saddle, too.
Morton, Latour and Yates have caught back up to Herklotz and Delco. Behind them, Wellens attacks to reach them, with Tenorio, Sivakov and Eastman in tow. The latter two are the only riders ahead of Herklotz in the GC.
Eastman struggles, as does Latour, who is caught by Wellens, Tenorio and Sivakov. Hirt tries to make a move from the main group, while Morton actually gets a small gap on Herklotz and Yates. Things are happening everywhere!
Miltiadis reaches the summit with the big tower of the Champ du Feu. Barbio is still close though, and the slightly better downhill rider. Morton has a 20 second gap on the Herklotz group of 5, where Wellens, Tenorio and Sivakov managed to join him and Yates.
Make that a group of 4, Yates can’t keep up! Hirt has made his way to Latour, behind them Godoy has a very small gap to the Schelling-led group that includes the remaining favorites.
Or rather, most of them. Warchol has fallen behind, as has Giannoutsos a bit earlier. Nesset and Roglic are trying their best to keep up at the back of the group, as are Pogacar, Beltran, Karnulin and Kritskiy.
2 kilometers for Miltiadis, he has 12 seconds on Barbio, surely that has to be enough?
Morton now leads the chasing group, but Arensman was able to collect another 10 points at the summit, limiting his losses to Miltiadis and Barbio. They have 25 seconds on Herklotz and co.
Flamme rouge for Miltiadis …
… and he does it! I think it’s fair to call this an epic win for Andreas Miltiadis, what a moment for Cypriot cycling and ELCO – ABEA! Barbio finishes second, a great performance as well and he’ll certainly have his eyes on the polkadot jersey in the next few days.
Morton sprints to put as many seconds as possible between him and his chasers, and collects 8 bonus seconds for third place. A strong reminder that he still needs to be accounted for in the GC fight. Great results by Arensman, Ardila and Lehtinen as well.
Shockingly, those 8 seconds are the only ones that Morton is going to get. The jury awards not time gaps to this group, where Herklotz finishes 7th.
Still, the German misses out on the yellow jersey, which goes to Sivakov, who finishes 9th behind Wellens. Tenorio is 10th and Yates managed to fight his way back to come in 11th. Some good results here.
Another 45 seconds later, Latour and Hirt come through. Latour initiated the carnage with his early attack, which ultimately isn’t rewarded because the jury continues its lenient stance on time gaps and gives these two the same time as the pursuing group.
That group of 14 is led over the line by Beltran and Preidler. It includes most of the remaining GC contenders, as well as Foss who emerges as the main – if only distant – challenger for Sivakov’s white jersey, and Delco, surviving as the sixth best breakaway rider. His valiant performance ends up giving ELCO – ABEA the lead in the teams classification, too.
Johannessen and Nesset follow, then this group with Warchol, McNulty and Chamorro.
Uran finishes the day some 8 minutes behind Miltiadis. It was just one day in yellow, but it must’ve felt great nonetheless.
Finally, Schädlich finishes the stage with plenty time to spare and a solid 5 minutes behind Young to claim the lanterne rouge.
After almost 200 kilometers at the front of the race, and despite never really looking like the strongest rider throughout the stage but perhaps perfectly saving his energy, Andreas Miltiadis celebrates a mightily impressive stage win - could it be the first GT stage win for a Cypriot? While it looked like he could take yellow as well for a bit, that didn’t come to fruition, but I’m sure he will be plenty happy today anyway.
Yellow instead goes to Sivakov, who was strong enough to keep up with Herklotz, also an impressive feat. With three flat stages coming up, he has a good chance to keep it for a while, too. cycleYorkshire meanwhile will be outraged, and arguably rightfully so, by the jury’s administration of time gaps. Had those gaps been recorded on a mountain top finish, it would have been an easy 25-35 seconds gained on his rivals for Morton, which has been erased here. Still, he showed that he can compete and even trump Herklotz and the others on any given climb, which should be encouraging.
Like Sivakov in yellow, Arensman can expect to keep the polkadots jersey for quite a while. His lead over Barbio stands at 33 points, more than the available point on the next three stages combined. Meanwhile, Manninen should probably be pretty happy with today’s outcome, as Herklotz, presumably his main rival among the GC contenders, wasn’t able to collect too many points.
Lastly, Sivakov of course extended his lead in the youth classification further, while ELCO - ABEA, as previously mentioned, leads the team classification.
Tour de France 
