Nog 63 km – Martinez is the first to reach the top of the Col du Pré, which is good for the mountain classification. Meanwhile, Valentin Paret-Peintre has joined the two leaders.
Nog 65 km – Primoz Roglic has Lenny Martinez with him, who has something to set straight. Martinez was penalized by the jury on Thursday for a sticky bottle and had to give up eight points in the mountain classification. He lost his polka dot jersey after the stage anyway. Tadej Pogacar is now the leader in the mountain classification. Because he has the yellow jersey, Jonas Vingegaard is wearing the polka dot jersey today.
Nog 66 km – Primoz Roglic and Lenny Martinez have ridden away from their fellow leaders and form a strong duo. They are almost at the top.
Nog 68 km – Meanwhile, Sepp Kuss also has to let go of the peloton. The Visma efforts from yesterday are clearly taking their toll.
Nog 69 km – There are now five riders with a lead of 23 seconds on the peloton. The names: Valentin Paret-Peintre, Lenny Martinez, Primoz Roglic, Einer Rubio and Bruno Armirail.
Nog 70 km – There are already many victims in the teams of Pogacar and Vingegaard. So it promises to be another duel between the two best riders in the peloton.
Nog 71 km – It’s on right away today. The riders have now completed the first part of the Col du Pré, the steep part is yet to come. Primoz Roglic is also showing himself at the front. He is currently fifth in the general classification, almost thirteen minutes behind Tadej Pogacar.
Arensman: ‘Hopefully I still have something in my legs’Before the start, Thymen Arensman was already asked about his plans for today. “I don’t know how the other teams want to ride today. Yesterday Visma made it a difficult race, so there wasn’t much to gain for me on the last climb. Maybe that will be the case again today due to the shortened stage. But it doesn’t matter, I’m going to try. Hopefully I still have something in my legs.” The 25-year-old Arensman impressed last week Saturday by winning a tough mountain stage. “I can already be proud of myself. Winning a stage is not for everyone. Especially not for a debutant. The way it was was also great. Besides, I think I was in every mountain stage in the breakaway, I could always fight at the front. I can really be proud and happy with this Tour.”
Nog 74 km – Look, Arensman is also trying to jump away from the peloton. The Dutchman already has a stage win to his name and will also have put this stage high on his wish list.
Vingegaard: ‘I’ll keep trying until Paris’Whether he really feels it is the question, but Jonas Vingegaard remains combative in the media. “You have to keep trying. I’ll keep trying until Paris,” he said before the start. Shortening the stage is a bummer for him. “I prefer a longer stage with more altitude meters. But it is what it is, we can’t change that.”
Nog 79 km – Now that the sprint is over, we immediately see riders trying to ride away from the peloton. Jonas Abrahamsen is the first to start.
Nog 80 km – The work of Lidl-Trek pays off. Milan takes the full loot and gets a high five from Simmons. Plan succeeded!
Nog 89 km – That Lidl-Trek sets the pace has everything to do with the intermediate sprint that is on the roll after 7 kilometers. Green jersey wearer Jonathan Milan is after the points.
Départ réel! Now it’s really loose, the jury car disappears from sight and Lidl-Trek immediately reports to the front of the peloton. The blonde locks of Quinn Simmons are not to be missed.
Now still fraternally, but will it stay so cozy today?
The pace behind the jury car is not yet impressive, so plenty of time to look back on the last time the Tour finished on La Plagne. Can you remember July 24, 2002? It is a day that is etched in the memory of many cycling enthusiasts. Michael Boogerd won the queen stage to La Plagne after a solo of more than ninety kilometers. Who will follow in his footsteps in a few hours?
Départ fictif! Here we go! The riders are on their way for the shortened stage to La Plagne.
Did you also find yesterday’s stage a bit of an anticlimax? A tip: pay attention to the battle for third place today. That promises to be exciting. Oscar Onley (📷) is fourth at 22 seconds from Florian Lipowitz. The Team Picnic PostNL rider will undoubtedly make a bid for the podium place and thus also directly the white jersey for the youth classification. Today is Onley’s two hundredth race day for the Dutch team.
Vingegaard will have to perform a miracle to keep Pogacar from the victory. This is the current situation in the top of the classification:
Last chance for Vingegaard? ‘Do not underestimate tomorrow’s stage either’Jonas Vingegaard just presented himself in the polka dot jersey to the public in start location Albertville. He spoke briefly about today’s and tomorrow’s stage. “Today will be very heavy. The stage is very short and there are many altitude meters.” Whether it is his last chance to achieve something in the general classification? “This is the last real mountain stage, but tomorrow is also heavy, so don’t underestimate that.” Tomorrow there is a transitional stage from Nantua to Pontarlier on the program.
Ben O’Connor has been given a new plate for under his saddle. He took his second stage victory ever in the Tour de France yesterday with a formidable solo to Col de la Loze.
The Tour de France Femmes will also start tomorrow. Can Demi Vollering take revenge for last year’s Tour defeat? She finished second then by just four (!) seconds. Vollering certainly does not have to expect a spicy duel with SD Worx.
The news about the shortened stage only came out last night at 22:27, but the Tour organization had been working on this for days. That is what route builder Thierry Gouvenou says to Sporza. “After all possible dialogues and negotiations, the final decision was only taken last night. That may be late, but exchanges between different parties take time. That was also the case now.” Gouvenou says that the farmers are “desperate” because of the virus. “They are afraid that it will spread further and did not want to take any risks by letting the Tour pass here. They asked us to come up with a solution.”
And this is what remains! Still not an easy day, but still a lot less heavy. If Jonas Vingegaard was still awake when the news came out, he will have slept less well. The Dane now has fewer kilometers to hurt yellow jersey wearer Tadej Pogacar.
The sprinters will probably not be too sad about it, because they have to toil for less time today. The stage was not very long (129.9 kilometers) and has now been shortened to 93.1 kilometers. The peloton skips the first two climbs of the original stage: the Côte d’Héry-sur-Ugine (11.3 kilometers at 5.2 percent) and the Col des Saisies (13.8 kilometers at 6.4 percent).
Bonjour! The peloton could sleep in for an hour today or had time for an extra cup of coffee, because the stage starts an hour later than planned. A remarkable and sad reason: the stage has been shortened due to a virus outbreak among cows.