We start heading South. Pogatchar (๐ธ๐ฎ UAE) has already crushed the race: with 2 victories in ~~-4-~~ 3 stages, he leads the 3 classifications...
Rankings after stage #4.
General time classification
- Tadey Pogatchar ๐ธ๐ฎ UAE
- Primoj Roglitch ๐ธ๐ฎ Bora @ 3โฒ21โณ
- Enric Mas ๐ช๐ธ Movistar @ 3โฒ32โณ
- Sepp Kuss ๐บ๐ธ Visma @ 3โฒ44โณ
- Oscar Onley ๐ฌ๐ง Ineos @ 3โฒ45โณ
- Richard Carapaz ๐ช๐จ EF @ 3โฒ50โณ
- Felix Gall ๐ฆ๐น Decathlon @ 3โฒ57โณ
- Matias Skjelmose ๐ฉ๐ฐ Lidl-Trek @ 4โฒ06โณ
- Jarno Widar ๐ง๐ช Lotto-Int. @ 4โฒ06โณ
- Jay Vine ๐ฆ๐บ UAE @ 4โฒ11โณ
Points
- Tadey Pogatchar ๐ธ๐ฎ UAE: 82 pts
- Ethan Hayter ๐ฌ๐ง Soudal-QS: 37
- Matthew Brennan ๐ฌ๐ง Visma: 30
Mountain
- Tadey Pogatchar ๐ธ๐ฎ UAE: 23 pts
- Lorenzo Fortunato ๐ฎ๐น Astana: 10
- 4 riders with 6 pts
Stages
Stage 5, Wednesday 26
173 km, D+ 1700m*
Whith the hills that start 60 km from the line and end 20-30 from it, this should be a game of sprinters vs punchers. Therefore we should see punchers-sprinters having their day.
NB: the profile exaggerates the steepness of the slopes.
Stage 6, Thursday 27
177 km, D+ 3000m*
Another mountain stage, another Pogatchar day. To make sure of it and remind him of his 3 Stade Bianche victories in a row, there will be 2 km on a gravel road at 12% near the summit of the last climb. Shall the first group to ride down towards the finish line be a one-man group or shall he get a few companions?
Stage 7, Friday 28
150 km, D+ 3600m*
I am not sure how to name this stage. There is quite some elevation, but the vast majority of slopes are smooth. Probably a day for breakaways, coming after an UAE stage.
Stage 8, Saturday 29
172 km, D+ 1300m*
I assume this stage is designed to create a fight between punchers and sprinters. However it didn't work on Wednesday, as everyone wanted a sprint; and this time the slope may be insufficient to get rid of all sprinters.
Stage 9, Sunday 30
188 km, D+ 5000m*
A mountain stage fo finish the week. All sorts of climbs, steep or smooth, short or medium-length, precede a 22 km long final climb. This stage will be very hard, there is no flat section and it is rather long.
Stage 5, Wednesday 26
173 km, D+ 1700m*
Summary: Okay... so, punchers / breakawaymen-punchers / punchers-climbers / finishers did nothing at all, therefore there was a mass sprint, therefore Brennan (๐ฌ๐ง Visma) won again.
I heard there were echelons before I turned the telly on, however there were no groups nor breakaway when I came.
Hayter (๐ฌ๐ง Soudal-QS) went ahead a few miles before the Intermediate Sprint. Nobody chased after him, nobody joined him. So he got the I.S. max points, and this was enough to warrant the most combative rider price today, to tell you the extent of nothingness in this stage.
30 seconds behind him, nobody fought for the I.S. points. Nobody fought for the time bonuses in spite of the fact that we have 9 riders in 50 seconds in GC top-10... Visma who was leading the peloton just granted Van Aert๐ง๐ช the points for 2^nd^ place.
Nobody did anything in the hills, except for a short-lived solo by Kron (๐ฉ๐ฐ Uno-X) after a while. The peloton nevertheless started pushing like maniacs in the false-flats before the last and main hill, but then they rode slower and slower along the climb. So the peloton was still massive at the top of this 3^rd^ category, the only KOM of the day. UAE was leading the peloton, so they scored the points, as only 1 Astana tried to score them, but started too late...
Then it was mostly a procession again: as everyone agreed on a sprint, there was no hurry and the final acceleration only started about 4 km from the line.
Congratulations to all riders who had only 3 occasions of getting hilly/punchy terrain this week, and did nothing in Manosque, and nothing here. Congratulations to teams like FDJ and Cofidis, whose sprinter finished 13^th^ and 17^th^ today (that is, behind 2 Visma launchers...) after finishing 24^th^ and 15^th^ in Manosque, but never tried anything in the hills here or there. ๐
The only positive thing today is that there was no crash in the end.
As I expected, *Cian U*.* (๐ง๐ช Movistar) didn't restart today ๐ฅ