The view from the Col de la Lombarde, today’s main attraction.
After a calm start and a tough finish yesterday, the riders have a lot more climbing to do as we head deeper into the Alps, moving south near the Italian border. We’re starting off in altitude already in the commune of Mont-Dauphin, a village that in the late 20th century was home to less than 100 people (it has since grown a bit again). The riders actually go downhill to start the day, a sign of things to come as there are a lot of downhill kilometers for them today, but this is only a short one. Then, the climbing fun begins.
We start of with the Col de Vars. It’s on average not too steep (5.8%) because of a few easy-ish stretches, but it’s got its steep ramps as well and also just very long at 20km. The Col de Larche is almost relaxing in comparison, only 16km at 4.1%. But then, we get to the good stuff. The Col de la Lombarde is one of the hardest climbs in the entire race, 21 kilometers long, 6.7% on average with stretches up to 10%, it really earns its HC status. And we get HC climbs back to back with the Col e la Couillole following a 33 kilometers long descent. It’s a bit shorter at 16km but also even steeper with an average of 7.4%.
The finish is tricky to predict. It comes after another short downhill stretch, which might give previously distanced riders a chance to make a comeback, and then consists of two short ramps in the Valberg ski resort. It’s a puncheur finish on paper, but it fully depends on the climb if we see small groups or individual riders coming to the line.
Following yesterday, Herklotz is the new GC leader and realistically, only Sivakov has a chance to pry it away from him again, at least today. Tenorio, Schelling, Wellens and Morton are all just over 2 minutes behind the Puma leader, for them it’s about decreasing that gap at least a little, and fighting each other for the podium spots.
Meanwhile, a serious challenger for Arensman’s polka-dot jersey has yet to emerge but with 66 points to gain over the four categorized climbs, today is a great day for anyone trying to get close. Lastly, some of the poorer climbers in the field will be faced with their biggest challenge yet to make it to the line within the time limit.
As soon as the descent is done, we have an attack by Martinez, a good climber.
Not quite as good a climber, Arensman attacks in another attempt to score more points. Following him are KoM fiend Smith and Foss.
We then have attacks by Rachid, Majka, Nsengimana, a first big name in Beltran, then Hosek and a second big name, Preidler.
Bettiol attacks next, then it’s Almeida and a third Aker rider in Amezawa. They really go all out today.
The attacks keep coming. Giannoutsos and Rodriguez go, followed by Jorgenson, Rosskopf, Goos and Parra Bustamente.
Cataford, Jaramillo and De la Cruz latch on to that group and then things calm down a bit.
Interestingly, Evonik lead the peloton and keep the group somewhat close.
Ah, there we go: They were just waiting for Vosekalns to make his way through the peloton. He attacks, followed by Ardila and teammate Lehtinen. But they have more than one and a half minutes to make up.
And that’s not an easy task with someone like Amezawa making the pace. Despite Lehtinen’s best efforts, the trio doesn’t come much closer yet. But still 12 kilometers to go to the summit.
Arensman leads himself for a while. De la Cruz is certainly the team’s better option for stage glory, but wouldn’t he be better advised to save energy for the mountain sprint? Either way, the group has 5 minutes on the peloton already, with 1’40 on the chasing trio.
Well, so much for defending the mountain jersey. But given that Parra Bustamente with 21 points is the best placed rider in the classification among the 21 still ahead, Arensman can rest assured that he’ll have that jersey at least for a day or two longer.
Amezawa is back at the head of the group and more riders struggle. First, Rosskopf and Jorgenson are dropped, then Rachid.
Aker is tightening the screws early. With 2 kilometers to the summit, only four riders are able to keep up with their trio: Smith, Beltran, Almeida and Jaramillo.
De la Cruz brings himself, Martinez, Parra Bustamente, Rodriguez, Bettiol and Giannoutsos back, but Aker play their superior numbers perfectly: Foss and Preidler attack while Amezawa slows down the rest.
Foss takes 16 points, 12 go to Preidler, then Smith and Beltran take 10 and 8. 6 to Almeida, 4 to Jaramillo, 2 to Martinez.
Those 7 plus De la Cruz, Amezawa, Parra Bustamente, Bettiol, Rodriguez and Giannoutsos enter the Col de Larche together. The next chasers, Goos, Hosek and Nsengimana, are already two minutes behind. The peloton trails the leaders by 4’30.
The Col de Larche is fairly flat – for a mountain –, and with the exception of Amezawa who pays for his efforts at the front, the group remained together until the summit. Almeida attacks first while Preidler and Parra Bustamente got stuck behind an exhausted De la Cruz and now have some catching up to do.
At the very last second, Smith overtakes Almeida to take 10 points.
Heading into the Col de la Lombarde, the first of two HC climbs of the day, the group has reunited except for Amezawa. Preidler is pushing the pace, because as you can see, the peloton is already really close. cycleYorkshire, Puma and MOL are the driving forces.
With still over 10 kilometers to go on the climb and 75 in the stage, the breakaway is done. An unusual situation – how will the riders react?
Well, one team was particularly active today and they aren’t done with the stage yet! Foss attacks once more.
For the moment, it doesn’t look like anyone wants to join him. He establishes a lead of around a minute, but not more, at least for now.
At the summit, that lead has grown to 2 minutes though. A long descent now lays ahead of him. The 20 points take him up to 40 in total and 4th in the mountain classification.
Surprisingly, no one attacks from the peloton, so Almeida pockets 14 points, then 12 to Schelling and 10 to Guerreiro.
Downhill riding isn’t his strong suit and neither are flat roads, so Foss loses a good chunk of his lead. He enters the Col de la Couillole (15.5 kilometers at a fairly steady 7.4%) with 50 seconds on the peloton.
Hey, look at that! It’s a Latour attack! He’s followed by both Moser captains, Hirt and Warchol. Almeida and Madouas are the domestiques in front at the moment. Still 12 kilometers to climb.
Madouas makes the catch but immediately, Eastman attacks. He has something to make up for after yesterday. Wellens is there and Herklotz thinks it’s time to cover this one himself! Morton follows the yellow jersey closely, Latour wants in again and Sivakov and Godoy accelerate, too. Foss is still up the road.
But only for a little while longer. The attacks bring him back but don’t create meaningful separation, so Latour tries again.
Latour stays ahead for a bit until Schelling closes him down under the 20km banner. Then, Yates goes for it.
He doesn’t get away for longer than a kilometer, either, so Hirt tries his luck.
And the Czech might have found the perfect moment. His lead increases quickly to a minute, then a minute and a half, then two!
Madouas led the peloton for a while but simply had nothing left to give. With Hirt’s lead at 2’20, Tenorio decides that enough is enough.
The big three pre-race favorites are on the move together. Behind them, Lunke and Sivakov try to chase them down.
And successfully so. When they are caught, the pace slows down again and Hirt’s lead goes back up to over two minutes. He’s 3’15 behind Herklotz in the GC and the German perhaps gets spooked: He attacks with a bit under 2 kilometers left on the climb.
It’s almost too easy: By the summit, Herklotz has caught up to Hirt and the two enter the final 12 kilometers with 30 seconds on Morton, Tenorio and Sivakov. Those three have a small gap to the group with most of the other favorites.
But not all of them: Warchol, Roglic, Geoghegan Hart and Pinot have been dropped alongside Nesset.
7th overall Karnulin is even another group behind, with Pogacar and Foss, among others.
Herklotz wants the stage win, he attacks Hirt on the downhill. Sivakov has lost contact with Tenorio and Morton …
… but all three are in danger of getting swept up by this group of 9, led by Wellens. The Geoghegan Hart group is 55 seconds behind this one, Karnulin another 55 seconds behind those.
Tenorio and Morton catch Hirt, but they trail Herklotz by a whole minute already. 4 kilometers to go.
Into the final climb, those three still have 30 seconds on the 10 chasers now including Sivakov. It would be an important sign especially for Morton after yesterday’s losses to end today with some GC gains.
Experts before the race were unanimous in who was the favorite to win this race, and today might already be the day he puts all remaining doubts to rest. Silvio Herklotz celebrates his second consecutive stage win and adds major time to his GC lead.
Not much changes behind him. Tenorio outsprints Morton for second place, they leave Hirt behind and finish 1’15 behind Herklotz.
Hirt only finishes 6th as Yates and Schelling sprint past him. Sivakov just hangs on at the back of the group, he remains in second place in the GC but does lose 42 seconds (30 on time plus 12 bonus seconds) to Tenorio. Preidler finishes alongside him, but that’s of course not what Aker were aiming for here today. Still, an impressive team performance and likely not the last time we’ll see them in action.
Roglic leads the chasers home to finish 15th. They lose over a minute to the group ahead of them.
Karnulin even gets distanced by his companions around Pogacar and ends up 4’20 behind Herklotz and 2’35 behind the Yates group.
Arensman and Manninen finish in the same group. The former can feel pretty good about this stage: one new, strong contender for the polkadots emerged today in Foss, but many others like Smith or Vosekalns hardly made the most of today. The latter meanwhile has to feel Herklotz breathing down his neck, and he’ll continue to hope for breakaway success tomorrow … maybe finally successfully?
And we actually have the first victims of the time limit today. As expected, they are Schädlich and Dillier. They fall short by just two and a half minutes, but that is still falling short.
With this second stage win in a row, Herklotz asserts his superior strength. Sivakov is now over 2 minutes behind him in the GC, Tenorio and Morton, who has moved up to 4th overall, both trail by more than 3’20. Apart from those two, no one was able to make significant positive strides in the GC, though Eastman will certainly be glad to have felt better, perhaps leaving yesterday as a one-time fluke.
Kritskiy and Chiarello both gained two places, while Karnulin stands out as the biggest loser, falling from 7th to 16th in the GC. Geoghegan Hart, Pinot and Geoghegan Hart were the other contenders losing a bit today.
In the secondary classifications, Sivakov continues to tighten his grip on white, now leading Pogacar by almost 8 minutes. No one could make the most of this stage in terms of mountain points, but Foss at least moves up to fifth there with 40 points, one place behind Herklotz who has now collected 42. Remember that Arensman is at 100, though today has once again shown that more points might be hard to come by for him.
Herklotz is also now just 5 points behind Manninen in the points classification and looking to take over that one tomorrow, though the Fin will be able to strike back over the following days. For the first time in a while, we also have a new team leading the teams competition, namely Moser on the back of their duo Hirt and Warchol, as well as Seboka. And with Dillier out of the race, the lanterne rouge now belongs to Goldstein by a good 15 minutes.
Tour de France 
