POGAČAR 10 With every race, every win, every passing year, his rivals hope to see him fade, and not only does he not give up an inch – if anything, he seems to grow stronger all the time. In spring he is Flemish; in summer he is a chamois that looks as though it has stepped out of a Tank Girl story. With rockets in his legs. Of course, a finish like yesterday’s was drawn for him: a punchy uphill kick for explosive riders after a hard day and after a full-blooded lead-out from his faithful Del Toro. What more could he have asked for? His twenty-second Tour stage win comes on a blisteringly hot day – once the kind of heat he used to suffer in – and it comes by winning the sprint with a gap, against the very best around. Everyone else – rivals, fans, commentators – knows it, recognises it, and is frightened all the same, because the Tour already risks being over with him in yellow on day three.
DEL TORO 9 One mark less than the day before because he does not win, but he sacrifices himself by launching his leader’s sprint, blowing apart what was left of the group on the final ramp, claiming victims along the way, and finishing on the wheel of all the podium contenders. A place among them to which he now lays claim without hesitation.
FANS 9 They were not supposed to be on the final KOM – at the invitation, not the order, of the organisers and the prefect – and yet not only were they there, but a large group of them, a mix of French, Basque, Catalan, Norwegian and Danish supporters, brought the Viking Row back to the roads of the Tour: the Norwegian fans’ celebration, just hours after they had sent Brazil packing at the Women’s World Cup. Yes, that one – the tournament of the Trump–Infantino farce and the rescinded suspension of the US striker. Then, in the night, things went as they were always supposed to.
SEIXAS 8 Here he is, the young French golden boy, sticking his nose into the fray — and near the very front, too. He finishes fourth, behind Pogi, Vingo and Carapaz, after two difficult days, on a finish that suited him — but plenty of others it suited as well ended up behind him. Talents like his can bloom even on a day when the heat scorches harder than ever.
BREAKAWAY RIDERS 7 Without naming them all, we will single out Van Mechelen, Prodhomme, Vercher, García Pierna and Baudin – the men from the break within the break who lasted the longest. Baudin in particular, the last to give in, goes on to pull on the polka-dot jersey, one of EF Education–EasyPost’s minimum objectives at this Tour. Baudin, afflicted by the cyclist’s version of wanting to have his cake and eat it: the riders who go up the road despite still being close on general classification and perhaps dreaming of yellow, of a stage win, of everything at once – only to end up ensuring that the break goes nowhere, precisely because they are still too close on GC and, well, you never know.
CARAPAZ 7 The regret remains for all the time lost in the team time trial, where his team, incidentally, had come in with solid credentials, but over the past two days he has thrown himself into the sprint finishes and delivered, even taking third yesterday. He climbs seven places in the overall standings, and now we wait for the real mountains, which will tell us just how far this rider can go – a rider who seems to be reborn every time he looks on the verge of cracking.
AYUSO AND LIPOWITZ 6 The Spaniard from Lidl–Trek keeps flirting with the front positions (12th and 10th), and says that without Skjelmose’s mechanical issue in the team time trial he would have been fighting for the win, but to me it seems he has lost some of the explosiveness he once had – or perhaps, let me correct myself, it is simply that the others are going unbelievably fast. Lipowitz, meanwhile, improves just as the script suggested after the previous two days and, for the first time, finishes ahead of Evenepoel in a duel that will command attention all the way to Paris and could well end up being worth a place on the podium.
VISMA 5 More bad news for the team that had left us open-mouthed in the opening time trial and has instead been shedding pieces ever since the following day. Yesterday there was also a crash involving Armirail and Affini, while Jorgenson is a pale copy of the rider we admire through the season, Kuss and Piganzoli are suffering, and Vingegaard can do nothing against Pogačar’s finishing kick. Half a mark more for relinquishing the yellow jersey and leaving the routine obligations to everyone else.
EVENEPOEL 4 Is it the heat? I do not know – I always find myself looking for an explanation when I talk about him. The day before yesterday he looked ready to win; yesterday, instead, he was dropped by Del Toro’s forcing even before Pogačar launched the final sprint. With him, you never quite know which way to look, and if he is struggling here, today, I hardly dare imagine what will happen when the real climbs begin tomorrow.
UIJTDEBROEKS 3 Much the same applies here as with Tiberi – in fact, the parallels are growing ever stronger. Both were seen as chosen ones after doing remarkable things in the youth categories. Both were likened to illustrious riders – the Belgian to Evenepoel, the Italian to Nibali. Both were brought along patiently, with the 2024 Giro as a turning point. Uijtdebroeks arrived there off the back of eighth place at the previous year’s Vuelta, only to abandon the Giro while fully in the fight for a top-five finish and the white jersey. Tiberi, by contrast, finished fifth. For both of them, the 2023 Vuelta for the Belgian and the 2024 Giro for the Italian remain the high-water marks of careers now moving forward in a haze of few highs and several heavy misfires, beginning with this Tour, which should have relaunched them and has instead found them ill, flat and in trouble.
PIDCOCK 2 Some of the same applies as with Evenepoel, with the added aggravating factor that, even more than the Belgian, he is suited to finishes of this kind. If he cannot get himself into the mix on a finale like this – I am not saying beat Pogačar, but at least challenge for a stage podium – then I wonder: how far will he be able to go when the longer climbs begin? Then again, in a world turned upside down, perhaps that is where we will find him stronger.
CALVARY 0 Calvary is not only one of the climbs tackled in yesterday’s stage – it is also what poor De Lie is going through. Ill since the eve of the race, he was dropped early again yesterday, held on for as long as he could with Veistroffer’s help (10/10), but he is clearly far too unwell and struggling to breathe. It is better that he stopped. But enough now: he needs help, they need to understand what is wrong with him, and he must not be thrown back into the fray in some race a few days from now.