Durango’s Sepp Kuss and Quinn Simmons were ready for the first mountain stage of the Tour de France on Monday. The two riders representing Durango did very well in Stage 10 and moved up the general classification standings.
Kuss finished the 165.3-kilometer 10th stage from Ennezat, France, to Le Mont-Dore Puy de Sancy, France, in 23rd out of 172 riders who finished. He moved up from 31st to 22nd in the GC.
Simmons finished 29th in Stage 10 and moved up from 65th to 47th in the GC.
The 10th stage of the Tour was a beast, with eight categorized climbs through the challenging roads of the Massif Central in Central France. There was over 4,500 meters of climbing and Stage 10 featured a 3 km finish with an 8% gradient.
Kuss’ Team Visma-Lease a Bike teammate Simon Yates won his first Tour stage in six years when he crossed the Stage 10 finish line victorious in four hours, 20 minutes and five seconds. The 32-year-old finished nine seconds ahead of Thymen Arensman, riding for INEOS Grenadiers, in second and 31 seconds ahead of Ben Healy, riding for EF Education - EasyPost, in third.
Healy’s strong ride gave him the GC lead and the yellow jersey after he surged ahead of the fellow GC contenders. Team UAE Emirates-XRG’s GC contender, Tadej Pogačar, finished 4:51 behind Yates in ninth and 4:20 behind Healy. Visma-Lease a Bike’s leader, Jonas Vingegaard, finished with the same time as Pogačar in 10th.
Kuss finished 5:58 behind Yates, while Simmons was 7:41 behind Yates.
Healy leads the GC by 29 seconds over Pogačar in second and is 1:29 ahead of Soudal Quick-Step’s Remco Evenepoel in third. Kuss is 19:49 behind Healy in the GC and Simmons is 37:55 behind.
On Monday, it was another sprint finish to the line, which was won by Tim Merlier from Soudal Quick-Step after 174.1 km from Chinon, France, to Châteauroux, France. Kuss finished 84th, 17 seconds behind the leaders and Simmons was 111th, 2:20 behind the leaders.
The riders got their first rest day on Tuesday and will tackle a flat, 156.8 km loop which starts and ends in Toulouse, France, on Wednesday.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
