On a make it or break it day for the general classification, Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) fortified his position with two days of racing remaining, by conquering Isola 2000 and gaining an additional 1’42” over his podium rivals Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step).
It was his fourth stage win and his third in yellow at this year’s Tour with a finish 21” ahead of Matteo
Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) and 40” in front of Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla), who had both been in the breakaway.
After Pogacar attacked, he decimated the GC contenders and made mincemeat of what remained of the breakaway on the final climb, Evenepoel and Vingegaard crossed the line fifth and sixth respectively, behind fourth placed Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), who now has the polka dot jersey. Going into the final two stages this weekend Pogacar now leads by 5’03” overall from Vingegaard, with Evenepoel in third, 7’01” from the leader. Unless something radical happens, such as a major crash or illness, Pogacar appears to have clinched the lead.
An early break
An early breakaway group of 22 riders formed, with Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) the first of them to reach the line at the intermediate sprint in Guillestre (IS, km 21.1). Coquard was among the riders who then fell back as the lead group was decimated on the first climb of the day to Col de Vars (km 42.6, HC, 18.8 km at 5.7 %, 20 Mountain classification points).
A smaller lead group forms
Through much of the stage, riders were taken across vertiginous mountain passes through the French and Italian alps, with steep zigzagging climbs and descents that would make any normal person dizzy.
Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) and Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla) left the peloton on the Col du Vars climb and made it to the front group to join Matteo Jorgenson, Wilco Kelderman (Visma-Lease a Bike), Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale), Ilan Van Wilder (Soudal-Quick Step), Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Cristian Rodriguez (Arkea-B&B Hotels) and Oscar Onley (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) on the gruelling ascent. Olympic champion and Stage 17 winner Carapaz topped the Col de Vars first, ahead of Jorgenson, Kelderman and Van Wilder, with the peloton by that point 3’30” behind.
Cime de la Bonette climb
As the breakaway riders began the brutal ascent of the Cime de la Bonette (km 87.5, HC, 22.9 km at 6.9 %) –also extremely challenging, with vertiginous turns and an unending beyond category elevation, their lead over the bunch had grown to 4’30”.
The Cime de la Bonette is deemed the highest paved mountain road in the world by some (though that is debatable, see our side article.) It included passing through an old camp that has long since been abandoned. We drove the route from Jausiers to Isola,
and even in a car, the mountain is tormenting and challenging, but with astounding views of this mountain peak.
Onley, Prodhomme and Van Wilder were dropped on the climb, with Carapaz again reaching the summit first to take 40 Mountain classification points and put him in the polka dot jersey, with the main GC group getting there 3’40” later.
Isola 2000 showdown
Riders caught a small break in the run into Isola before the climb to Isola 2000. As they began the
ascent, Cristian Rodriguez was dropped by the five remaining breakaway riders – Jorgenson, Keldermann, S. Yates, Hindley and Carapaz – early on the final climb to Isola 2000 (km 144.6, Cat.1, 16.1 km at 7.1 %, 10 Mountain classification points).
Then 13.5km from the summit Hindley also lost ground and a few meters later Jorgenson attacked, going solo at the front. But 9.5km from the summit Pogacar also attacked, with Evenepoel and Vingegaard trying to follow him and unable to hold his wheel. Within 2km the Yellow Jersey quickly built up a 20” advantage over his two rivals on the provisional podium. 1.9km from the summit Pogacar caught and overtook Jorgenson for another victory, cruising to the finish unrivaled.
