TdF Stage 6: Tarbes – Cauterets-Cambasque

Has everyone got their breath back after yesterday?!

Stage 6 and the race visits probably the most famous mountain of the entire Tour, the Tourmalet, site of the legendary showdown in 1910 on its first inclusion when eventual race winner Octave Lapize confronted the organisers at the top by yelling “Assassins!” at them.

There’s a more in-depth look at its history here including a stunning archive photo:
https://www.rouleur.cc/blogs/the-rouleur-journal/why-the-col-du-tourmalet-is-the-most-important-climb-of-the-tour-de-france

The main climb comes after the Col d’Aspin to loosen the legs up and before a long descent and the first summit finish of the race this year to the ski station of Cambasque above the town of Cauterets, the final slopes much steeper than the climb into town.

Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) made a strong statement yesterday with a powerful attack which left Tadej Poagčar (UAE Team Emirates) isolated and showing weakness so Pogačar will be determined to find an opportunity to minimise the time lost. But Vingegaard will be keen to extend his lead as much as possible and could look to make a similar move as he did yesterday.

Jai Hindley (BORA-hansgrohe) was of course the big winner of the day and letting a Giro winner sneak into the break like that was possibly not the smartest move all around – while Jumbo will be confident they can take on Hindley, what it has done is show that the Tour is unlikely to be the predicted Pogacar / Vingegaard battle for 1st with everyone else competing for 3rd.

Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) – well I reckoned he was in with a chance yesterday and he’s now down in 13th, one of 3 Ineos riders in the top 20. However, if he can be among the first riders over the Tourmalet, he can take full advantage of his descending skills – a 20km descent before a summit finish not dissimilar to his Alpe d’Huez win last year.

Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) missed his chance to get in the breakaway yesterday and gave up the polka dot as a result but if he can get himself into a group that stays away, he could be a contender for a stage win.

Tour de Suisse winner Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) is steadily climbing up the GC rankings and is now just inside the top 10, only 16″ off Pogacar so he may take heart from yesterday’s result and look to move up the rankings a bit, especially if Pogacar doesn’t show an immediate recovery to his normal climbing ability.

Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) has a special connection with the Tourmalet; he won a stage here in 2019 when it was a summit finish. As this is Pinot’s final Tour, what better place to get a win than on a stage which includes one of the country’s most revered climbs?!

Either way, stand by for a day of stunning scenery (if the weather plays ball – it’s actually looking a bit wet there at the moment with a chance of a thunderstorm!)…

…and another potentially explosive day in the GC. Coverage from 2pm on ITV4, earlier on Eurosport plus of course the official website: https://www.letour.fr/en

Oh and as it’s a day of enormous rocks, here’s the geology part for the day:

Stage 6: Wilson

Oh that doesn’t look like a fun day for them…. but should be for us.

It’s funny this year to see ALL teams are running 1 leader and basically no-one else. All teams are Solo. Yesterday Kuss was doing OK mostly and Yates was half-there as support, but other than that, the trains of 5-6 at the front for a large chunk of the hills, well, it’s just not happening.

I loved riding the Tourmalet, you see every kind of bike, and rider, imaginable.

Thanks for taking this on crazy-legs, you, lunge & klunk are doing a great job of making this time of year a spectacle to really look forward to.

some crackers today!

some snaps from yesterday

https://www.meteopyrenees.fr/tourmalet-webcam/

https://twitter.com/EstradaJer93386/status/1676881466553425921

6.85 for 16 mins… that’s quite frankly just insane !!!!

such sensitive brakes #TDF2023 pic.twitter.com/zcptZcVfw9

— Giridhar (@cgiridhar) July 6, 2023

It’s funny this year to see ALL teams are running 1 leader and basically no-one else. All teams are Solo. Yesterday Kuss was doing OK mostly and Yates was half-there as support, but other than that, the trains of 5-6 at the front for a large chunk of the hills, well, it’s just not happening.

Racing has changed completely – partly down to the much more stringent anti-doping although I don’t doubt that it still goes on in some form or other – but there have been major advances in tech, nutrition, aero etc and the level now is so high that there simply aren’t true specialist riders anymore.

Gone are the days when you’d have some climbing domestiques, a couple of sprinters and a leader – everyone has to be able to do everything. There are still some rare exceptions (like Cav!) but they’re increasingly on the older side. You do get specialisms of course but now it’s more “a sprinter who can also climb” or “a climber who can also sprint”. They’re all rounders with a leaning to one end of the spectrum or another.

And so many times we’ve seen what happens when a team throws all its eggs into one basket and that basket falls over in the first week – I’m looking at you Ineos! Better to have a few options and, while you can help each other out, you don’t all sit in front of one guy for 3 weeks.

Peter in the vines

he can take full advantage of his descending skills

Happy to be wrong on this, but I doubt it – the descent on that side is pretty easy, some hairpins at the top but lots of long straight sections as far as I remember.

I loved riding the Tourmalet, you see every kind of bike, and rider, imaginable.

Not if you get up early enough! ;0)

@klunk – I see you sneaked in a cheeky photo of Cirque de Gavarnie

no smiles from the Pog on startline

Rolling out now, 1km to the flag drop.
Some good analysis on Eurosport in advance of the stage.

Oh look, WvA attacks!

Flag drops and this looks more like the final km of a sprint stage  than the first km of a mountain stage, they’re sprinting to get in a break even though it’s going straight into a climb

Alaphillipe is in there of course, JV have someone, there seems to be abot a dozen in total but my wifi seems ropy, and frankly I can’t tell who’s who becuase they’ve all changed bloody jerseys so I don’t recognise them easily

Alaphillipe is in there of course, JV have someone, there seems to be abot a dozen in total but my wifi seems ropy, and frankly I can’t tell who’s who becuase they’ve all changed bloody jerseys so I don’t recognise them easily

James Shaw
Bryan Coquard
WvA
Alaphillipe
Benoit Cosnefroy
MvdP has suddenly popped up in it.
Kwiatkowski (I think…)
plus others

The peloton have finally let it go after an initial hard chase and a few riders bridging.

Edit: UAE have Matteo Trentin in there.

What rubbish timing. I’ve had to go into the office today, gutted!!! First time in months, I bet that means todays race will be a corker!

1. Wout van Aert
2. Matteo Trentoin
3. michal kwiatkowski
4. James shaw
5. Julian alahilippe
6. Nikias arndt
7. Benoit cosnefroy
8. Matthieu van der Poel
9. Bryan coquard
10. gorka izaguirre
11. krist neilands
12. Chris juul-jensen
13. m. louvel
14. t.h. johanneson
15. jonas  gregaard

and the block is in place

another 5 chasing to try to get across

<p>Powless and asgreen in the chase group</p>

Amazing work Crazy Legs and Klunk, thanks!

Powless and asgreen in the chase group

Good to see them bridge, Powless gets the 2 points at the 3rd Cat climb.

another snap from yesterday

Oliver Naesen, Ruben Geuerreiro and Anthony Perez were the other 3 in the chase group

WvA must be after sprint points (his climbing doesn’t seem to @ the same level as last year) and MvdP is there to see if he can stop him getting the Max ?

Bryan Coquard
WvA
MvdP

for the intermediate sprint. It wasn’t really contested, they just rolled over it although BC made sure he was in front and kept a sharp eye out to make sure he got maximum points.
That’s Coquard’s day done. 😂

Ooh – Jumbo want to ride on the front of the peloton to make life hard for UAE and Bora. The problem is that WvA is up in the break and now being chased down by his own team….

The commentators are very confused.

Jumbo chasing Jumbo

we’ll crack the peloton you crack the break ?

Jumbo chasing Jumbo

I think in the peloton they’ve found an opportunity to crack UEA and Pogacar a little more…

Hindley cracking!!

💥