Injuries suffered in multiple crashes of the first week of the Tour de France caught up to Team Jumbo-Visma leader Primoz Roglic on Friday.
With a hilly route that was the longest Tour de France stage in 21 years, there were big splits in the peloton and no more hiding the condition of last year’s second-place finisher, Roglic.
Roglic finished 65th, 9 minutes, 3 seconds behind first-time Tour stage winner Matej Mohoric, who won in 5 hours, 28 minutes, 20 seconds to come in 1:20 in front of Trek-Segafredo rider Jasper Stuyven.
Roglic is now 33rd overall and 9:11 off the lead time of Mathieu van der Poel. And While Jumbo-Visma’s Wout van Aert is second only 30 seconds down and could swipe the leader’s yellow jersey from van der Poel for a few days, it now looks clear that defending champion Tadej Pogacar is the man to beat. The 22-year-old Slovenian is fifth overall, 3:43 down and is in the best shape of any of the strong climbers.
Eyes in Durango will turn to what the team’s tactics will be this weekend with two mountain stages in the Alps to come before the first of two rest days on Monday. Many will expect 26-year-old Duragoan Sepp Kuss to be turned loose to chase potential stage victories if the opportunities arise. If they do, it will come in the mountains for the climbing star. It could come as early as this weekend, and he also has high hopes for Stage 15 in Andorra before Stages 17 and 18 in the Pyrenees.
Kuss has been a loyal support rider for Roglic, but the Jumbo-Visma bosses admitted they would have to look for a new Tour strategy after Friday’s setback to the team leader.
“We had hoped beforehand that Primoz could survive, but in the end, he had a very hard time,” team director Frans Maassen said after Friday’s stage. “Tonight, we will make plans for the upcoming mountain stages, but unfortunately for Primoz, the GC seems to be over and done with. That’s painful, but realistic.”
Roglic will likely abandon the Jumbo-Visma leadership and work in support of Van Aert. While Van der Poel is expected to struggle in the high mountains, Van Aert has proved in the past he can climb well. His phenomenal turns in the big climbs during last year’s race were crucial to lifting Roglic onto the podium.
Van Aert is also an excellent time trialist and should have a shot at the yellow jersey despite his claims he is “too heavy” to perform well in the mountains.
“But for now I’m still in a good position and it’s nice to give it a go like this,” he said. “Also, today was really, really hard, I first need to recover and see what I can do tomorrow when the real mountain starts.”
Mohoric posts first Tour stage win
On the eve of the Tour de France’s first Alpine stage, the standings were given a serious shakeup.
Pogacar lost a big chunk of the time he gained earlier this week in the individual time trial. And Belgian star Van Aert positioned himself as Pogacar’s most dangerous rival.
With its hilly profile, the 155-mile Stage 7 from Vierzon to Le Creusot produced a Tour de France classic as another Slovenian, Matej Mohoric, earned his first stage win on the Tour following a long breakaway.
Mohoric was part of a group that formed more than 124 miles before the finish line. He went solo in the finale, using a tough climb to drop his remaining breakaway companions and reach the finish line alone.
Van der Poel looked exhausted when he crossed 1 minute, 40 seconds behind but he kept the yellow jersey with a 30-second advantage over Van Aert,
“It was 250 kilometers full gas,” Van der Poel said. “It went really fast and we managed to break away with a really strong group, it was really hard. I went to the limit to keep this jersey, which is really special.”
Pogacar could not get into the breakaway and rode at the back with other top contenders after his UAE Team Emirates reacted too late and could not bridge the gap. Pogacar lost more than five minutes and dropped to fifth overall, 3:43 off the pace.
“We tried to close really fast ... but they were pulling like crazy from the beginning” Pogacar said.
Despite big efforts deployed throughout the day by his teammates to limit the damage, Pogacar remained confident they will recover in time for Saturday’s first Alpine stage to Le Grand-Bornand.
“I know my team and I know they are strong,” he said.
Mohoric, who rides for the Bahrain Victorious team, has stage wins now at all three Grand Tours. He seized the best climber’s polka-dot jersey.
“The stage I won in the Vuelta was also the longest stage in the race that year, and the same goes for the stage in the Giro,” he said. “I’m good in these super long, not so brutal efforts. I can keep up with a good pace for a very long time.”
The strong headwind made it difficult for riders to jump out of the pack in the early stages. After many unsuccessful attempts, a group of 29 including Van der Poel and Van Aert managed to get away.
Pogacar’s UAE Team Emirates teammates were caught off guard. When they finally moved to the front of the peloton to organize the chase, it was too late. They tried to set up a sustained tempo but were left to do all of the work as rival teams did not move.
Mohoric went solo in the tough climb of the Signal d’Uchon, an ascent with an average gradient of 11.5% in its last 1,500 meters. The Slovenian rider crossed first at the top and prolonged his impressive effort until the finish line.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
