procycling

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.

Nobody but a poor Burgos rider (Fernandez🇪🇸) volunteered for a breakaway.

The peloton was musing around. There was a first crash after a guy at the front took a satchel from a supply assistant and he dropped it or the satchel was ridded, and anyway its whole content went in the middle of the peloton, ultimately causing a crash probably near the back.

Then the peloton started pushing like idiots before the Intermediate Sprint (that basically nobody disputed, Van Aert (🇧🇪 Visma) just did a 30 m sprint for the points, and Skjelmose (🇩🇰 Lidl-Trek) at a distance for the last time bonus) and kept on pushing after, for no reason at all.

Pogatchar (🇸🇮 UAE) was on the left side of the (straight) road, and suddenly moved rightwards, collided and crashed badly. His shoulder was badly hit, he couldn't get back on his bike and had to withdraw. There is no clear explanation to why he lost control his bike, there was nobody on his left, he didn't seem to be on the asphalt limit, the only hypothesis I could make is the rider behind touching his backwheel, but in such cases it is most of the time the rider behind who crashes, and the rider ahead barely feels it. Other than that, something in or on the road.

Nobody did anything in the climb.

Azparren (🇪🇸 Q36.5) did a nice solo after the summit: he was only caught 1 mile from the line.

The sprint result was weird for a flat sprint: 34 y.o. Coquard (🇫🇷 Cofidis) beating M. Pedersen (🇩🇰 Lidl-Trek)! The favourite Brennan (🇬🇧 Visma) was stuck in a wrong place during sprint preparation while his teammates were leading, and when the real sprint started, he sat down after a while.

There was another mass crash in the sprint. Ladies and gentlemen, this was a sprinters stage: sportingly useless, boring for the watcher, and causing many injuries to riders for nothing 😠

NB: there had already been a crash causing withdrawals before the real start...

Morality: when half of the riders have tasted the asphalt during a stage, French riders stand a chance. That's what it takes 😀

All classifications are now 'reset' due to Pogatchar's accident:

• E. Mas🇪🇸 now leads GC with about 1′ over Gall🇦🇹 and 1′30″ over the good old Roglitch🇸🇮;
• Leknessund🇳🇴 now leads Mountain classification; surprisingly, Van Aert🇧🇪 comes second as he was let pass first on today's unique climb;
• Van Aert🇧🇪 already started leading the Points classification after taking the I.S. and a good final position yesterday.

Stage 6, Thursday 27

177 km, D+ 3600m*

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?

Summary: a disappointing Pogatchar (🇸🇮 UAE)... scores a 3^rd^ victory!

I didn't quite follow the beginning/mid race. I heard it was one of those days where breakaways take ages to form. Then at some point there was a counter-attack behind the big breakaway, and Pogatchar🇸🇮 was in that chasing group, which returned to the peloton.

Concerning the parts I saw, UAE was pulling the peloton, followed by Movistar. The gap was maintained around 2 minutes and brought back as they were getting near the main climb.

In the climb, Widar (🇧🇪 Lotto-Int.) was dropped on the fast parts before the slope got harder. It was the usual train with Torres (🇪🇸 UAE) as last element before Pogatchar🇸🇮 attacked on the small asphalted road before the dirt track.

Contrarily to the Andorran stage, Gall (🇦🇹 Decathlon) let himself drop when the head accelerated; and it was O. Onley (🇬🇧 Ineos) who tried to follow Pogatchar🇸🇮. The Brit blew up in the process, while Gall🇦🇹 was progressively coming back with the top guys (other than Pogatchar🇸🇮).

Actually, the Slovenian wasn't creating the large gap we expected. Mas (🇪🇸 Movistar) attacked from the little group, and after a (long) while closed the gap with Pogatchar🇸🇮 on the summit. He even jumped him on the KOM line!

Then there was a descent on a winding and very narrow road with a concrete ditch on the right side and a 6 inches step on the left between the asphalt and the shoulder. E. Mas🇪🇸 told the Slovenian to stay behind him and go easy. However, while the road was about to transition to one of those concrete tracks thye love in Spain, Pogatchar🇸🇮 took him over and started dropping the Spaniard. It didn't last long as the Slovenian rider came too fast in a curve, slid a bit, and went off the road. Luckily, he had managed to break significantly and was then very slow, and it was one of the rare places where there was a somewhat spacious shoulder. So he was stopped but didn't crash. Then he just followed Mas🇪🇸 until they were on a less steep and standard-width normal road.

Behind, there were 3 men who had passed the summit about 35 seconds behind, and then 2 other guys a bit later. In the first of these small groups were Gall🇦🇹, Roglitch (🇸🇮 Bora) again, and R. Debruynes (🇧🇪 Alpecin) who was in the breakaway; the second group was made of Carapaz (🇪🇨 EF) and H. Tejada (🇨🇴 Astana).

The Gall🇦🇹 came closer to the front pair in the descent and the beginning of the flat, but then lost a bit of terrain and was caught by the 2 South-Americans.

Contrarily to what I thought, there was no agreement in the front pair for stage victory, despite a very good collaboration on the flat, and Pogatchar🇸🇮 naturally beat Mas🇪🇸 in the sprint.

An attack by Tejada🇨🇴 in the group of 5 didn't seem to disorganise it. However they started acting like morons in, say, the last mile, and in the fear of losing a 4″ time bonus, all lost an extra 10″ to Mas. Worse, it is Debruynes🇧🇪, who as the last breakaway survivor most likely didn't relay much in the group of 3 then 5, who beat the others for the 3^rd^ place and time bonus. Debruynes🇧🇪 was sort of ranked in GC, but farther than others.

1′40″ after the winners, a group of 5 with most of the rest of the GC guys came: Onley🇬🇧, Skjelmose (🇩🇰 Lid-trek), Kuss (🇺🇸 Visma) and the surprise Berthet (🇫🇷 GFDJ). This group (minus Rodriguez (🇪🇸 Astana) who had his teammate Tejada ahead) collaborated until the end and didn't lose time in the final part contrarily to the previous group of 5.

Widar🇧🇪 lost 4 minutes today 😞

E. Mas🇪🇸 is now second in GC with a relatively significant 45″ advance over Roglitch🇸🇮 and about 1′30″ over the following ones.

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.

It was indeed for a breakaway. As everybody wanted in, it was one of those days where there is a long struggle since the start of the race. However it was a km-0 breakaway who won. It sounds contradictory, but it means that today the long struggle concerned counter-attacks.

At some point, a group of 3 broke away from the large-ish counter-attack group and managed to join the first 2 riders who where Van Aert (🇧🇪 UAE) and Leknessund (🇳🇴 Uno-X). The large-ish counter-attack group nevr rode very well, before or after that; nor did it ride very bad; it was really an in-between where on average they were at the same pace as the first group.

In the final climb, Leknessund🇳🇴 left the group of 5. Van Aert🇧🇪, who was in trouble for a little while, rode behind him but never managed to catch him, and was ultimately countered by the other Uno-X, T. Johannessen🇳🇴, who came second and scored a double Norwegian–Uno-X victory.

It is used to be very common a few years ago, but it's much rarer now with the new way of riding: we had competition at the front of the race for stage victory, and later in the peloton for GC.

Decathlon took the place of UAE in the final climb and started pushing harder (Riccitello🇺🇸 made himself useful in that respect, perhaps for the first time this year(?)). Riders dropped and dropped at the back. There were not many left when Gall🇦🇹 attacked. Only Pogatchar (🇸🇮 UAE) and E. Mas (🇪🇸 Movistar) resisted him. Naturally, when they were 2 km from the line, with 1 hard then 1 easy km to go, the Slovenian countered, then Mas🇪🇸 was dropped and Gall🇦🇹 hanged in between.

Widar (🇧🇪 Lotto) was dropped early again.

No big gaps were created (just many small ones), therefore no big changes appear in GC. Gall🇦🇹 gets closer to Roglitch's (🇸🇮 Bora) podium position. Carapaz (🇪🇨 EF) is going down, he is still 7^th^ and among a small pack of 3 riders at a about 6 minutes (that's barely more than 1 minute behind the podium).

Stage 5, Wednesday 26

173 km, D+ 1700m*

With 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.

Summary: Okay... so, punchers / breakawaymen-punchers / punchers-climbers / finishers did nothing at all, therefore there was a mass sprint, therefore Brennan (🇬🇧 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 (🇬🇧 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 Aert🇧🇪 the points for 2^nd^ place.

Nobody did anything in the hills, except for a short-lived solo by Kron (🇩🇰 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. 🙄

The only positive thing today is that there was no crash in the end.

As I expected, *Cian U*.* (🇧🇪 Movistar) didn't restart today 😥