Laurel Rathbun is back again to recap week two of racing. After a brutal first week + and a much-needed rest day, the Tour started its second week with the Pyrenees over the horizon.
Let's kick it off with...
Stage 10
After a brutal first week and a much-needed rest day (this guy knows ^), the Tour started its second week with a flat 188km stage. And with a mighty mountain stage on deck for tomorrow, the peloton spent most of what looked more like a casual coffee ride.
We were bored watching too, don’t worry.
BUT THEN
At 5 miles to go we saw the sprint teams come to the front - primarily Alpecin as they knew this was a prime stage for Jasper Philipsen to close the gap in the green jersey competition to Biniam Girmay
Mathieu van der Poel did what he does best (rip everyone’s legs off) and delivered Philipsen to the final few hundred meters and to his first stage win of this year’s Tour. MVDP is the MVP
Stage 11
After a rest day and a previous stage that wasn’t much harder than a rest day, stage 11 took an absolutely brutal turn in the Massif Central.
Enough signing autographs back to racing.
Todays 211km stage included over 13,000ft of elevation gain (sorry Cav), more than any stage so far in this year’s tour. Definitely going to need some fuel from The Feed for that.
At the steepest part of Mary Pas de Peyrol Pogačar launched an attack and Vinegaaard could not respond, but Vinegaard over the next 20km was able to catch Pogacar.
Toward the finish line, it became a game of cat-and-mouse as Vingegaard was constantly looking over his shoulder, waiting for Tadej to go. Finally, Pogacar Poga-went, and in a surprising turn of events, Jonas beat Pogačar in a sprint to the line. This was not on our 2024 Tour Bingo card.
We are about emotional about it too, Jonas.
Stage 12
Todays 204km sprinter stage started with Cav’s key lead out man Michael Mørkøv, didn’t start the day, after being diagnosed with Covid-19.
At 12km to go there was a crash that left the back half of the peloton in absolute carnage. The likes of Primoz Roglic and the current world champion Mathieu van der Poel were caught up in the crash
It came down to a long, straight sprint, and it was fan favorite and Eritrean Hero, Biniam Girmay of Intermarche who won his third stage of the Tour, outlasting world’s best Wout van Aert.
Girmay extends his lead in the green jersey competition as he blazes a trail of triumph and inspiration.
Stage 13
It’s another sprint stage. We got our question answered last week as to whether Mark Cavendish will do it (stage win number 35) but now we want to know if he will do it again?! Short answer is no, but a girl can dream right?
The race was full-gas from the start with plenty of attacks and crosswinds splitting the peloton a few times. But in the end it was Jasper the Master who grabbed his second stage win over Van Aert. Wout needed a few more watts from those wings.
Stage 14
Todays mountain stage included 2 above category climbs including two HC climbs including the Tourmelet. This had GC battle written all over it.
The last of the breakaway riders to remain was Ben Healy who was really going for it on the final climb of the Pla d’Adet.
But Team UAE emirates put their men, Nils Politt, Joao Almeida and Pavel Sivakov on the front for the Tourmalet to bring back the break. These riders did an estimated 5.6w/kg for 54 minutes up this climb.
We are exhausted just reading that
In the final climb it was Adam Yates with the surprise attack ok the group getting a 30 advantage on the group. At 4.5k to go, Pogačar attacked and bridged to Yates in less than 40 seconds. He dropped Jonas Vingegaard, eventually dropped his teammate Yates and went on to win his 13th stage in the Tour in dominating fashion.
Stage 15
Another day another mountain top finish. And this stage didn’t just finish with an HC climb it also kicked off with one which was the Col de Peyresourde. The sprinters were in instant trouble as the climbers set a brutal pace.
The breakaway group of 20 riders got smaller and smaller until 7 riders remained going into the final climb of the Plateau de Beille which is a 15.8-kilometer climb with an average 7.9 percent gradient. Big oof.
The peloton kept them close - a mere 90 seconds behind. In a surprise turn of events it was Vingegaard who attacked with 10 kmto go, but the Maillot Jaune of Pogačar was right on his wheel. Evenepoel couldn’t follow, the duo but he continued to chase. Vingegaard and Pogačar caught the break and only Carapaz was narrowly able to hold on for a bit.
Around a hairpain turn, Pogacar artacked and was able to gap Vingegaard. At the finish line, Vingegaard had lost 1:10 to Pogacar. Evenepoel lost even more time, 2:51 down on Pogačar, but held on to his third place in the GC. Pogacar goes into the rest day with a comfortable lead over second place and only 6 more days of racing remain.
