The first of two short but tough days in the Pyrenees both featuring a flattish first half and then a climbing-loaded back half. Today’s finish is on another mountain runway, this one famously used as the location for the opening “terrorist arms fair” in the Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies.

130km with 3300m of climbing, mostly in the latter half.

This is another “what could happen here?!” stage, similar to yesterday. An early break (as yesterday) will get broken to pieces once the climb starts, a late break is likely to be GC contenders. So far Pogacar and Vingegaard have been the equal of each other – if anything Vingegaard looks slightly stronger on the climbs.

Both UAE Team Emirates and Jumbo-Visma are getting low on riders now and haven’t got the strength to be smashing it through the flats and on the climbs – possibly with the exception of Wout van Aert who seems to have the form to smash it everywhere! Teams are beginning to look at consolidating positions on GC as well and the gaps at the top are spreading out subtly.

Last time the race came here, the stage winner was Romain Bardet.

I’d just written mine 🙂

Yeterday saw a great day’s racing for the breakaway with a superb debut world tour win for Hugo Houle

Plenty of action in the GC too, no major changes in the top 3 but Bardet collapsed and dropped out of the top 10, Vlasov used his place in the break to shoot up the standings and Niro passed Adam Yates.

Today sees a flattish rollout as they leave Saint Gaudens (once the home of Sunn bicycles) heading for an intermediate sprint in La-barthe-de-nes after 32km, then into the high mountains: Col d’Aspin is Cat 1, climbing back up the uncategorized Sarrat de l’Artigou followed by a brief descent then the Cat 2 Hourquette d’Ancizan. We’re not done there though as we have two cat 1 climbs remaining, first the Col de Val Louron-Azet then the summit finish in the ski station at Peyragudes

Expect fairly frantic action in the first hour as everyone tried to get in the break, then Wout cruises past them as he tries for bags the intermediate sprint points.

After that, who knows? Expect Pogacar to attack multiple times and Vingegaard to respond. Nairo’s kept his powder dry so far, will he finally explode into action? Will Vlasov and / or Dani Martinez take heart from their respective performances in yesterday’s break and go for the long range win? Will the Lanterne Rouge Caleb Ewan make it inside the time cut?

ITV4 and GCN coverage both start at noon with the roll out (Départ fictif) at 12.15. Can’t wait!

I know GC is hard, but slogging around 100km+ in the scorching heat then riding up a Pyrenee (singular?) when you have no prospect of winning and the best you can hope for is to not get disqualified for being too slow must be absolutely brutal.

Fantasy league after yesterday’s efforts is here:
Fantasy Tour table

Simon Farrington has pulled away at the top, but there is a lot of potential for changes in the lower positions as the next two stages pan out.

Fantasy league after yesterday’s efforts is here:
Fantasy Tour table

I think the table will be re-written by the end of the Pyrenees simply due to the riders who have abandoned so far!

The next two days will be great. Tomorrow is the harder stage, with 2 HC climbs (Aubisque and Hautacam), but can Pog leave it to the last mtn stage? Even the last climb of the last mtn stage?

Pog only seems to be able to stick it to Vinnie in short attacks, which Vinnie has just shadowed so far. If Pog wants to win this Tour then he’ll have to either go longer out, or go earlier on the final climb.

It’ll also be interesting to see if Ineos and/or Arkea try something, or just settle for their current GC positions.

The constant Attack! Attack! approach in the GC battle has been so refreshing, such a welcome change from the strangle-the-race Sky tactics of the past decade.

Yesterday looked like Majka ran out of gas just when Pogacar needed him to make a difference – both JV and UAE being down so many riders makes things more interesting. Vingegaard looks a match for Pog in the mountains but what’s his TTing like? I’d say Thomas is sitting in a nice position right now.

Interesting on ITV last night that Deignan, Martin and Kennaugh all reckoned Pog would come out on top, 2 mins+ is quite a gap to close.

What I want to know though is WTF does Wout van Aert ask for at the hairdressers btw? That’s quite a do he’s got!

Yesterday looked like Majka ran out of gas just when Pogacar needed him to make a difference

He snapped / jammed his chain and the second that happened Kuss and Vingegaard went to the front and sent a high enough tempo that Majka would never be able to get back on.

It’ll also be interesting to see if Ineos and/or Arkea try something, or just settle for their current GC positions.

Even if Nairo Quintana can move himself up to third on GC, Geraint Thomas will annihilate him in the TT. I’ve never been a Quintana fan but he seems happy now and doing well which is good to see. He was very unhappy at Movistar and it seemed the team didn’t really like him, he often ended up isolated and unsupported.

Given Ineos still have a full team I’ve been wondering if they could pull something off for G over these next couple of days in the mountains – next you’ve a flat stage and then hope he can hold his own in the TT. However even with their depleted teams, Vingegaard and Pogacar still look a step above.

much much cooler today

Given Ineos still have a full team I’ve been wondering if they could pull something off for G over these next couple of days in the mountains – next you’ve a flat stage and then hope he can hold his own in the TT. However even with their depleted teams, Vingegaard and Pogacar still look a step above.

I think if they carry on with this moviestaresque sitting in then Oily jim may pull his funding. 😉

Rafał Majka non starter (pulled something due to that mechanicalchain snap! Been there too!)

I think if they carry on with this moviestaresque sitting in then Oily jim may pull his funding. 😉

There have been a few flashes of genuine brilliance – Tom Pidcock’s win will rank up there as one of the TdF all-time greatest – and some overall solid performances (both Thomas and Yates) but it’s not been the superteam of the past for a couple of years now.

Majka retiring is bad for my fantasy team, but maybe even worse for Pogacar. Without the Pole to drag him up the mountains I can see JV trying something to ensure there’s plenty of time distance between them before the TT.
Ineos still have a strong team too and G isn’t far behind Pogacar – I can see Pog getting attacked by both teams and potentially losing time.

Yeah, without Majka, that’s a significant blow to Pogacar.

Ned Boutling reckons that mathematically, WvA has secured the Green Jersey now (noting of course that he has to finish in Paris).
Enjoying Dan Martin’s commentary / punditry too. Although I can’t help but think he looks like he’s about to burst into tears.

As expected, we’re an hour in, on the first climb up Col d’Aspin and we have still to see the definitive breakaway get a gap of any size. Owain Doull trying hard but is passaed by Pinot, Lutsenko and Hamilton, in turn they’re being chased down by the Cofifis team working for Geschke

edit – Pinot and Lutsenko are about 100 metres clear but as epxected, chasers are coming fro the peloton

Bardet attack

Yates and Pidcock out the back

Bjerg is shredding the peleton

That’s a very reduced peloton.
Yates and Pidcock dropped. Mas was dropped for a bit, seems to be back on now.

fricking ‘el what a pull

UAE absolutely drilling it now.
Tom Pidcock has parked up.

Can the Pog finish it off ?

G is puffing a bit

Quintana dropped.

this is brutal.  it looks like people could crack at any point.  loving this tour

edit:oh my, now Kuss is off

Kuss gone, UAE going down swinging!

and Thomas

Pogacar still looking smoooooth

I reckon Pogacar is going to launch in a minute. Maybe just a “small” attack and save the big one for the final climb.

Thomas consolidating a 3rd place at best, there’s no way he’ll claw back this amount of time.

UAE been quite clever, McNulty was “rested” (checking out early on previous days) for this.

blast off.  Jonas concentration is amazing though

Why did Pog attack there and blow out his help? That was never going to work 150m from the top?

Why did Pog attack there and blow out his help? That was never going to work 150m from the top?

Testing. Just trying him out. He knows that if Vingegaard responds, he can just ease up on the descent and let McNulty get back on.

Bardet calls Thomas a wheel-sucker

is yellow struggling a bit here, a bit “weavy”

is yellow struggling a bit here, a bit “weavy”

I think they’re all on the absolute limit. Literally 1W more from any of them and they’ll blow.

looks that way

brilliant! fake from Pog

beautiful finish.  They are so strong

That feels like a tactical error from UAE to me. They are a depleted team and tomorrow is a beast – so if Pog was not going to attack why burn up McNulty all the way up the final climb?. I guess the only benefit was to knock Thomas beyond what he could do in the TT and protect 2nd if tomorrow does not divide the top GC contenders up further.

so if Pog was not going to attack why burn up McNulty all the way up the final climb?.

Because that was the attack. Just not a sprint attack but a “let’s see if you can hold on” attack. After all, it was faster than everyone else could climb, so possible they’d break Vingo.

Because that was the attack. Just not a sprint attack but a “let’s see if you can hold on” attack. After all, it was faster than everyone else could climb, so possible they’d break Vingo.

Why is it better for McNulty to do that instead of Pogacar, given that eventually Pogacar has to drop Vingegaard? (Genuine question).

Because that was the attack.

Yep It did have the feel of Bora vs Carapaz @ the Giro.