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Rest Day Round Up: We are now in the most important part of any Grand Tour, the third and final week. It could all be turned upside down in one stage. First Ed Hood looks back at week 3 and all the stories that caught his Tour de France eye. Stage 10 through to stage 15.
# You can see the ‘Rest Day #1’ HERE and ‘Rest Day #2’ HERE. #
STAGE 10:
‘He can out climb most people who are quicker than him but it wasn’t science or watts that won him the stage, it was ‘racing pedigree,’ he was dropped in the last kilometre but fought back and didn’t stop fighting until he’d crossed the line.’ The words of EF Education EasyPost DS, Charly Wegelius on his stage winning Dane, Magnus Cort.
Cort takes his stage win
After enlivening the first week the man from the island of Bornholm in the Baltic again gave guys like me plenty to write about on a ‘classic’ Tour stage – heat, mountains, excited fans, fabulous scenery, a big break and a wily, foxy, ‘old hand’ winner. At 29 years-of age Cort is hardly a veteran but he’s been in the pro peloton for a decade and more and knows himself inside out. Chapeau!
Wily, foxy, ‘old hand’ winner
It was good to see my old Kiwi amigo, Jack Bauer ‘doing the business’ in the big break to bring back Bettiol for the Kiwi’s Aussie team mate, Nick Schultz. Here at PEZ we first caught up with Schultz some four years ago when, riding for Spanish ProTeam, Caja Rural he’d been posting some nice results, including third in the GP Miguel Indurain. Mitchelton Scott signed him for 2019 and since then he’s been making steady progress to where he’s now just a bike throw away for a Tour de France stage win. There’ll be other times, Nick. . .
Close for Nick Schultz
At 26 years-of-age Schultz is hardly a ‘young gun,’ but at 23 years-of-age, Movistar’s ‘Yankee at the Court of King Alejandro,’ Matteo Jorgensen certainly is. The tall American has produced some nice results these last few seasons but progress was derailed by a bad crash in Paris-Nice at the start of this season, it’s good to see him back. The Cycling Podcast’s Ian Boswell – with whom we hope to bring you an interview soon about his transition to gravel – interviewed Jorgensen after the stage and asked him how it felt to be top four on a Tour de France stage; ‘it sucks!’ The man is a winner.
Matteo Jorgensen ‘Young Gun’
And then there’s Bahrain’s Londoner, Fred Wright, it seems like yesterday I was taking his picture at the u23 Berlin Six Days in 2017 – where he rode and won with Jake Stewart, who’s now with Groupama FDJ – and here he is at 23 years-of-age in the thick of it again in the big break after being my ‘man of the match’ on Stage Eight to Lausanne. Chapeau!
Fred Wright… again
Pog lead the peloton home; but a big blow to lose Bennett to Covid having already lost Laengen – Majka, Soler, Bjerg, McNulty and Hirschi will be drawing deep breaths. . .
Stage 10 highlights:
STAGE 11:
Like that morbid song from a few years ago said; ‘I Wasn’t Expecting That!’ I don’t think many were, except my amigo Jakob from Copenhagen who accurately predicted that Jumbo’s strength in numbers would make the difference for Vingegaard.
A solo Vingegaard had wings
Pogačar and UAE have lost mountain strongman Bennett and big, reliable rouleur, Laengen to Covid – whilst Hirschi and ever-faithful Majka are both below par. The one-two which the Dutch team worked on the Slovenian on The Galibier started the rot but it looked like the man in yellow was in full control, even launching cheeky counter-attacks – one could wager that he wishes now he’d saved those watts – however it was all chipping away at his internal ‘energy block’ and come the cruel slopes of the Col du Granon the unthinkable happened and Pogačar cracked wider than the San Andreas fault.
A cracked Pogačar
Maillot flapping in the breeze, shoulders rocking, head sunk between his shoulders – very much a sight we’re unused to. That smile for the camera in the valley road – was it bluff or was he completely unaware that, ‘the man with the hammer’ was lurking on the ‘Monster of Briançon,’ as the Granon is known?
A ‘softener’ from Roglič
But it was Jumbo’s day, Vingegaard reminding one of a 70’s specialist climber – ‘never change down on a climb, only change up!’ – Roglič playing his part in the drama and it goes without saying that Wout played his part – all the while now on virtually double second placed Jakobsen’s points total in the green jersey competition.
Wout played his part too, of course
It was also a good day for the home nation with Bardet moving up five places and now on the virtual podium in second spot – and Gaudu, whilst dropping one place on GC is still in seventh place.
Quintana back?
Quintana was back to looking like the man who a few years ago seemed like a Tour winner in waiting; second on the stage and moving up seven places on GC to fifth. Vlasov and Lutsenko too both rode well, moving up six and eight GC places respectively, albeit five minutes away from the virtual podium. But for the second time in 24 hours the stage belonged to Denmark – and Vingegaard, winning the stage in ‘old school’ fashion en route the maillot jaune – TiLLYKKE!
The ‘killer blow’ from Jonas
Bastille Day and l’Alpe tomorrow – I’m excited. . .
Stage 11 highlights:
STAGE 12:
2016: European Junior X Champion
2017: National Elite Criterium Champion
National Elite Scratch Champion [track]
Worlds Junior iTT Champion
2018: European u23 X Champion
2019: Worlds u23 X Champion
1st u23 Paris-Roubaix
3e Worlds Road Race u23
2020: 2e Worlds Elite X
1st Baby Giro with three stage wins
2021: 1st Brabantse Pijl
Olympic Mountain Bike Champion
2022: Worlds Elite X Champion
Today wasn’t such a surprise then, Pidcock is a force of nature – and he has another 10 years at the top if his head holds out. Remarkable.
Winner on l’Alpe d’Huez – Tom Pidcock
‘A future Tour winner,’ they’re saying already – but it seemed just a matter of time before Quintana won it, Ulrich was going to win a half dozen. . . But a stunning ride nonetheless and he moves up to eighth on GC whilst team mate Thomas hung tough and is now on the ‘virtual’ podium in third spot.
Thomas held the two ‘big’ GC men
Continuing a good day for INEOS, Yates shed time on the stage but moved up to fifth on GC. Not such a good day for the home nation on this special day though, Bardet despite battling hard shed time and dropped from second on GC to fourth whilst Gaudu remains seventh on GC he was dropped in the final.
Gaudu still seventh
Among those with a ‘walk on’ part, Vlasov and Lutsenko both lost time, now sitting 10th and 11th respectively; but Mas – you know, that Movistar guy who never goes to the front – moved up one spot to ninth.
Vingegaard and Pogačar marked each other
The Bigs? There were no snaffled seconds for Pogačar at the end of this stage with Vingegaard practically in his jersey pocket. And there we were thinking the other day, ‘it’s hard to see anyone taking the jersey from Pogačar,’ and just a couple of days later here we are thinking, ‘it’s hard to see anyone taking the jersey from Vingegaard. . .’
Memories of Hampsten
Watching on TV brought back my memories of l’Alpe; I was there for Pinot, Riblon, Rolland, Sastre, Pantani, Conti – and my all-time favourite l’Alpe experience, Andy Hampsten’s win. The images of the huge, crazy crowds today reminded me of that day in ’92, it’s hard to believe that 30 years have passed since that day.
Jumbo-Visma ‘in control’
And a final point, Jumbo-Visma, the way they rode on l’Alpe, they reminded me of another team from a few years back, I can’t quite remember their name though. . .
Stage 12 highlights:
STAGE 13:
Mads had hardly dropped his arms from his victory salute when my phone, ‘pinged’ – a neat little row of Danish flags from my buddy Jakob in Copenhagen. He has every right to be pleased; their third stage win, Cort’s time in polka dots and the current maillot jaune. ‘Meget godt!’
Another Danish victory
A transition stage so there’s a bit of a tussle until the right composition of break goes clear then it all calms down – the break gains time, stays away, contests the sprint and the peloton ambles in, right? Wrong!
The ‘break of the day’
Not these days, every race is contested like a world championship and it wasn’t until Lotto Soudal lost Caleb Ewan to [another] crash and stopped chasing, then late in the day, hard chasing BikeExchange-Jayco threw in the towel when it became apparent that the six men up the road were just too strong that it was certain the break would survive.
Fred Wright there again
For the third time in this Tour the 23 year-old Londoner, Fred Wright has impressed, this time it took former World Champion, Pedersen to deny him the win. The quality of Wright’s ride is under scored by the fact that when Pedersen split the break on a rise only the Londoner and Canada’s Hugo Houle could respond; Matteo Jorgensen, Stefan Küng and ‘Pippo’ Ganna could not – enough said.
Quinn Simmons…. No Didi the devil
And on the subject of, ‘young guys’ Pedersen owes some degree of his success to selfless work by team mate Quinn Simmons who rode himself to a standstill to maintain the gap for the break. It’s hard to believe when you observe his ‘Grizzly Adams’ look and the way he rides that he’s only 21 years-old – but then it’s only three years since Martin and I watched him destroy the best juniors in the world to become World Junior Road Race Champion in Harrogate.
Pog scheming
What of The Bigs? It wasn’t a day for them but Jumbo were massed at the head of the peloton most of the day, just to remind everyone who’s in charge and Pog spent the day scheming. . .
Wout very safe in green
Wout has more than double the points score his nearest rival, Pog with 333 to 164 whilst Geschke leads the King of the Mountains by four points from Meintjes – that jersey in Paris would be a huge deal to either’s team but Vingegaard is only a handful of points behind and sure to score more in the Pyrenees.
Victor Lafay out
But let’s spare a thought for poor Victor Lafay, the Cofidis press release puts it this way:
‘THE HARD PART
The rider, who discovered the Tour de France for the first time in his career, had to quit on Friday. He had been trying to resist for several days, despite his weakened state of health due to repeated efforts.’
Few sports show less mercy. . .
Stage 13 highlights:
STAGE 14:
The chances are that Michael Matthews has never heard of Italy’s Guido Bontempi and would wonder what the hell I was doing comparing him to some Italian guy from the history books. Big Guido started as a track man, he rode the Kilometre Championship at the Moscow Olympics in 1980 but soon crossed over to the road – where the real money lay. He was quick, winning 16 Giro stages, six Tour de France stage, four Vuelta stages and two Gent-Wevelgems to list but some of his palmarès. BUT not all of those stage wins came from mass charges. As Father Time began to catch up with Guido he realised he wasn’t one of the very quickest any more. The solution, ‘The Buffalo’ – as he was known – came up with? Infiltrate the breaks, do his share and trust his fellow escapees would think they could lose him on a gradient somewhere along the percorso – he was a BIG man – and work with him. If they couldn’t get rid of him then there was only going to be one winner out of that breakaway.
Guido Bontempi
It was good to see the Aussie ‘doing a Guido’ but there’s no way Guido could have climbed that col like the Aussie did, or despatched Bettiol as he did. The stage winner and ‘man of the match’ after his aggressive, dogged display – Monsieur Matthews, CHAPEAU!
Matthews: ‘Climbs well for a sprinter’
And if we had any doubts that it’s a two man race for the GC then they were lessened today as Pogačar and Vingegaard struck out on that last climb to the airfield at Mende. Pog will have to get a new white jersey made with pockets large enough to accommodate Jonas though. . .
The Pog/Vin duo at the finish
And hope for Pog fans with Vingegaard’s team looking decidedly weary in the final – but that’s hardly surprising given their work rate. And despite the Pog-inspired drag race at the start and the fireworks on the final climb the top six remains unchanged – but Louis Meintjes’ day out in the Massif Central thrusts him up to seventh, moving the rest of the top dozen down one place.
Meintjes moving up
The management at Intermarché Wanty will be telling him not to take any risks now, top 10 in the Tour de France is a huge result from the team. Tomorrow with the long downhill to the finish just could be for the sprinters and there should be a GC truce – but in this Tour nothing is certain.
Stage 14 highlights:
STAGE 15:
Quote of the day; when asked by Eurosport interviewer Bernie Eisel why he was ‘only’ sixth in the final charge for the line, Dutchman Dylan Groenewegen responded succinctly; ‘I was totally f##ked!’ Thank you, Dylan.
‘A little tired’
His self-assessment was confirmed by the overhead cameras showing him wrestling with his machine on the final drag. But his efforts to stay with the peloton were made to look positively balletic in comparison to those of Alex Kristoff whose attempts to dismember his bike on that rise reminded me of myself as a youngster trying to keep up with local star, Colin Carmichael on one of our horrible winters evening training runs in the early 70’s.
Philipsen’s tour stage win
Men of the day on this long, infernally hot day – apart from Groenewegen, that is? Philipsen, taking his first Tour stage after his three Vuelta stage wins – a product of Axel Merckx’s Hagens Bermans development team, much was expected when he turned pro with UAE. But his progress was steady rather than spectacular and it wasn’t until he joined Alpecin-Fenix in 2020 that he blossomed and he’s now one of the fastest around, able to win the likes of the Scheldeprijs, GP Frankfurt and Championship of Flanders as well as Grand Tour stages.
Stunning sprint form Philipsen
Then there’s versatile Benjamin Thomas – world champion on the track, stage race winner, time trial rider of quality – whose brave, committed escape on the last classified climb, with Alexis Gougeard was only snuffed out with 450 metres to go.
Quite a ride by Thomas
And I’m biased, but I have to nominate my old friend, Michael Mørkøv – way off the back, it was apparent that he was going to miss the time cut but refused to board the, ‘sag wagon’ and rode in to the finish in this, his 128th Tour de France stage, 65 minutes behind the winner, and 12 minutes outside the cut. Respect, sir.
Mørkøv out of time
And, ‘The Tour giveth and the Tour taketh away:’ It’s been Denmark’s Tour – the wonderful Grand Depart, stage wins, jerseys, everything going their way, until yesterday:
Cort is out with Covid; Michael is out as per my comments above; Vingegaard was on the deck and lost two team mates – Roglič has gone home to lick his wounds and Kruijswijk broke his collar bone in a crash; and Fuglsang out with a broken rib as a result of being involved in a crash.
Next up the Pyrenees
‘Expect the unexpected,’ in this race. The Pyrenees on Tuesday – but don’t lose the rhythm of the race on the rest day, watch a stage on ‘catch up’ or fish out an old Tour DVD, I’ll be knocking out a couple of hundred words just to keep my hand in. . .
Jusqu’a demain. . .
Stage 15 highlights:
# Stay PEZ for all the ‘Stage Reports’, Rest Day Round-Ups’, ‘Race Breakdowns’ and all the news in ‘EUROTRASH’ Monday and Thursday. #
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