Despite sweltering heat on Stage 10 of the Tour de France on Tuesday, there was a lot of attacking and climbing right from the beginning.
While Team Jumbo-Visma did not succeed in impacting the battle for the day's victory, leader Jonas Vingegaard maintained his lead in the general classification. The black-and-yellow squad tried to be part of the early breakaway with Wout van Aert, but was unable to do so in the tricky opening phase.
“The early stages were tough,” Van Aert said. “It was a tough day. The course had very few flat kilometers; it was up and down until the finish. I didn't have the best legs. That's why I wasn't in the breakaway of the day. After that plan failed, I tried to help the team. We didn't get into trouble today. That's the most important thing.”
Heading into the final climb of the day, Van Aert suddenly reappeared at the front with Mathieu van der Poel. At some points, the two were several kilometers ahead of the peloton. “I just followed Mathieu,” Van Aert said. “I think he was in front of one of his teammates. On a descent he kept up the pace, and I followed him. In no time we had a gap. It was an ideal situation for me. I could take it easy on the last climb and still do something for the team. My condition is good, but the legs were just a bit less than I would have liked today. It's a shame that I wasn't in the early breakaway, but that's how it is.”
Vingegaard, meanwhile, rode well all day and was surrounded by his teammates.
“We knew beforehand that this stage would be good for the escapees,” Vingegaard said. “There was a lot of enthusiasm at the start, which made for a good pace.”
Vingegaard saw Tadej Pogacar get away, but Vingegaard reacted in time. Pogacar cut his lead from 25 seconds to 17 seconds on Stage 9, but Vingegaard didn’t allow him to get any closer on Tuesday.
“I was able to follow him easily,” Vingegaard said. “Later in the stage, we slowed down a bit, and there was even help from other teams, but the heat didn't make it easy today. Luckily I can cope well with these conditions. I wouldn’t mind if these tropical temperatures lasted for a while. The team helped me throughout the stage today, so we wasted as little energy as possible.”
Pello Bilboa of Bahrain-Victorious won the 167.2-kilometer stage in 3 hours, 52 minutes and 34 seconds. Vingegaard finished 21st, 2:53 back. Pogacar crossed 27th in the same time as Vingegaard.
Durangoan Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) finished 30th in the same pack with Vingegaard. He slipped one place in the GC, however, from ninth to 10th (+6:45) as Bilbao moved up six spots into fifth with the stage win.
Mattias Skjelmose finished seventh on the stage to lead Lidl-Trek. He moved up three spots to 25th in the GC (+26:50). with his effort.
Jasper Philipsen added one point to his points lead and now has 111 more than Bryn Coquard of Cofidis in second, 260-149. Mads Pedersen of Lidl-Trek is third with 143 and Van Aert is fourth with 112.
American Neilson Powless still leads the King of the Mountain race while Bahrain-Victorious now has the best team time.
“This day was maybe more demanding than we thought,” said Jumbo-Visma sports director Grischa Niermann. “We would have liked to be in the breakaway with Wout, but it didn't work out, partly because of the chaos at the start. Fortunately, Jonas was alert when some of the GC riders started to move on the opening phase. We were prepared for a situation like that. If you have to try to close the gap as a team, you waste a lot of energy. Luckily that was not the case today. We were in control all day—a big compliment to all the guys. Today’s conclusion is that we have again delivered a strong team performance.”
On Stage 9 on Sunday, Pogacar finished one spot ahead of Vingegaard on the stage, in 13th place, to close the gap to 17 seconds.
Michael Woods of Isreal Premier Tech won the stage by 28 seconds.
Kuss moved into ninth in the GC (+6:45) with a 20th-place finish on Sunday.
