Jorgenson (Visma), 10^th^ in GC this morning, 9^th^ after Evenepoel's withdrawal,who never finished better than 8^th^ in a Grand Tour, opting for dropping in order to voluntarily lose time, seems to support my theory of yesterday: there are less and less riders interested in giving their best for the original goal of a Grand Tour, to such extent that it is getting more and more ridiculous.
Sunday 20: 13:20โ13:30 โ 17:05โ17:30
The last stage of this short sequence, starting from Toulouse suburbs with a bit of flat and the comeback of the Lauragais hills we visited a bit on Wednesday before a couple of serious climbs in the Montagne Noire and a long downhill/flat finish, is probably the less stereotyped stage we've had so far. It looks open to many different rider profiles.
L. Martinez did a peculiarly bad descent of the Tourmalet, staying too upright on his bike for his own good (and for the good of his trajectories). Hard to say from TV cameras whether the fog played a role in that.
Yes, he tried, but nobody joined him when he was waiting for more riders. Nevertheless, the consequences of no early breakaway were: 1. no gap for the breakaway before the Tourmalet, 2. a different composition of the breakaway, only climbers.
Point #2 should have been an advantage for the breakaway, but there again, everyone in the breakaway seemed a bit powerless, a bit sleepy. Except for L. Martinez, nobody made a great impression in the first climb(s) like it is sometimes the case before failing in the end (and that was the expected fate for Martinez given his previous stages). Arensman played his card later, others just had no card to play (Johannessen tried, though).
After the stage, I still don't know who was right and who was wrong ๐คทโโ๏ธ ๐
I mean, Pogatchar didn't win but UAE led the peloton and never let the gap get over 4 mn. And they led it fast enough in the last climb. But not so much before that climb, losing downhill what they had gained uphill.
Pogatchar probably could have caught up Arensman (not easily though) but he did not nothing but follow in the last climb.
It looked like the goal was to bring back Johannessen and such (showing than no one in the top-10 was allowed to get away), but not necessarily to win the stage unless it fell naturally into their hand.
It is strange that they didn't connect the back and front stripes.
Pyrรฉnรฉes are Evenepoel's kryptonite.
I don't know but he was unwell yesterday already.
Cras and Evenepoel out, sitting in a car.
Skjelmose out, riding into a traffic sign.
Will Schmidt make it? He was struggling to keep wheels on the flat.
I suppose so. The way I see it, there should be a large and long breakaway today, so anyway sprinters wishing to score points would need to get into the breakaway (and with the long flat start, they have it comparatively easy).
Well, we already got the first part wrong ๐
No one managed to break away on the flat. They were a number of attempts, but almost everyone seemed powerless compared to the previous breakaway days.
I don't think so, but we shall see in a few hours ๐
Saturday 19: 12:00โ12:15 โ 17:05โ17:45
The second and last mountain stage in the Pyrรฉnรฉes. A flat start, and then a hell of 4 passes in a row with little (false) flat in between, starting with the Tourmalet and including climbing Peyresourde again from the same side (not sure Evenepoel will fancy coming back on this slope!).
Weather shall be significantly cooler than on the previous days, and it should be drizzling.
Beware: the stage starts earlier than usual (still not in the morning, though).
Friday 18: 13:10 โ 17:05โ17:30
Between the two mountain stages is a mountain Time Trial, climbing most of the road to the Peyresourde Pass, before turning towards the finish on the 15% slope of the runway of the โJames Bondโ altiport of the Peyresourde ski resort.
I add a link to the PCS profile because the official one doesn't look like they will be climbing a mountain pass https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/tour-de-france/2025/stage-13/info/profiles ๐
Thursday 17: 13:10โ13:25 โ 17:30โ18:00
The first true mountain passes today.
The start is not as flat as often: they will use the hills of Gers instead of going along the valleys as the Tour de France always does. But just a bit: they will ride exclusively on the highway ๐, so, long flat sections will still be present and the climbs will be smoother than on secondary roads; especially smooth as those hills are like factory roofs, and when going from East to West you always get the easy side.
Wednesday 16: 13:15โ13:45 โ 17:05โ17:25
We start the short second sequence (5 days only) with a short stage around Toulouse, yet another stage designed for punchers.
Standings after the first long sequence:
General classification
- B. Healy ๐ฎ๐ช EF
- T. Pogatchar ๐ธ๐ฎ UAE โ 29โณ
- R. Evenepoel ๐ง๐ช Soudal-QS โ 1โฒ29โณ
- J. Vingegaard ๐ฉ๐ฐ Visma โ 1โฒ46โณ
- M. Jorgenson ๐บ๐ธ Visma โ 2โฒ06โณ
- K. Vauquelin ๐ซ๐ท Arkรฉa โ 2โฒ26โณ
- O. Onley ๐ฌ๐ง Picnic โ 3โฒ24โณ
- F. Lipowitz ๐ฉ๐ช Bora โ 3โฒ34โณ
- P. Roglitch ๐ธ๐ฎ Bora โ 3โฒ41โณ
- T. Johannessen ๐ณ๐ด Uno-X โ 5โฒ03โณ
Points
- J. Milan ๐ฎ๐น Lidl-Trek โ 227 pts
- T. Pogatchar ๐ธ๐ฎ UAE โ 163
- B. Girmay ๐ช๐ท Intermarchรฉ โ 151
- T. Merlier ๐ง๐ช Soudal-QS โ 150
- M. Van der Poel ๐ณ๐ฑ Alpecin โ 128
Mountain
- L. Martinez ๐ซ๐ท Barhrain โ 27 pts
- B. Healy ๐ฎ๐ช EF โ 16
- M. Woods ๐จ๐ฆ IPT โ 11
Teams
- Visma ๐ณ๐ฑ
- UAE ๐ฆ๐ช โ 16โฒ45โณ
- Decathlon ๐ซ๐ท โ 28โฒ12โณ
- FDJ ๐ซ๐ท โ 29โฒ07โณ
- Arkรฉa ๐ซ๐ท โ 29โฒ41โณ
Monday 14: 13:10โ13:25 โ 17:25โ17:55
The last stage of this long first sequence gathers et concentrates all the hills, climbs and other difficulties the previous days were lacking. There won't be a bit of flat, it goes up and down and up and down and up and...
Many climbers as well as many hard-classics specialists (ร la Healy) will probably attempt to break away. Will Visma and UAE insist on looking for a stage win on this first mountain(-ish) stage?
Sunday 13: 13:10โ13:25 โ 17:05โ17:30
Another flat stage for sprinters which, this time, might be disturbed by potential crosswinds/echelons.
Saturday 12: 13:10โ13:25 โ 17:05โ17:25)
Good news for people who are working: they can spend the week-end outdoors, no need to watch the TV. In a strange move by an organiser who, consistently for over a decade, had created a stereotyped course design by placing (expected) spectacular stages on each week-end, both stages this week-end will be pure sprinter stages, as flat as possible. Considering that the opening Saturday was already a stage for sprinters, that's 3 out of 4 week-end days.
Friday 11: 12:10โ12:25 โ 16:40โ17:05
Another stage for punchers, with the now classical ending on the circuit of Mรปr de Bretagne.
Thrusday 10: 12:35โ12:45 โ 17:15โ17:40
It looks like another stage for punchers, but will they be stars of the punch again, or could some breakaway men with some punch (like Healy in his in-shape version) compete? Or might a few sprinters (like Groves) make it through the last climbs?
Wednesday 9: 13:10 โ 17:45
French Caen-Caen
The first individual Time Trial. Basically all flat, it is rather long compared to many others nowadays.
Rankings:
1- Van der Poel๐ณ๐ฑ & Pogatchar๐ธ๐ฎ
3- Vingegaard๐ฉ๐ฐ at 8โณ
4- Jorgenson๐บ๐ธ at 19โณ
5- Vauquelin๐ซ๐ท at 26โณ
6- Mas๐ช๐ธ at 48โณ
7- Onley๐ฌ๐ง & Almeida at 55โณ
9- Evenepoel๐ง๐ช at 58โณ
10- Skjelmose๐ฉ๐ฐ at 1โฒ02โณ
Tuesday 8: 13:15โ13:35 โ 17:20โ17:45
The alternation continues: this stage shall be a puncher stage.
view more: next โบ
Some say that UAE wanted to catch the breakaway along as it contained Visma riders, and that this would have been motivated by the team classification.
Dunno.