Le Bourg D’Oisans to L’Alpe D’Huez – Photos: A.S.O.
It was the penultimate stage of this Year’s TDF, and four major climbs lay ahead.
It would be the second consecutive finish at Alpe d’Huez for Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), after passing Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) who came off his bike twice in a tricky descent, the first after coming through a dark tunnel he hit the wall in the curve. In the second crash, Kuss almost fell off the mountain, but didn’t thanks to a barrier and an orange fence–phew what a close call. In the second crash, Carapaz who was about 10 seconds behind, sailed past–on his way to the stage victory.
Third yesterday at the first finish at L’Alpe d’Huez, the Ecuadorian climber takes his third Tour stage win, the second this year, two days after conquering Orcières-Merlette.
Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) finished second ahead of Kuss. Completing the top 5 arm in arm, Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates XRG) and Isaac del Toro (UAE Emirates XRG) are set to step onto the overall podium tomorrow in Paris, with the Mexican leader claiming the white jersey and the third position overall. Carapaz all but secured the polka-dot jersey, while Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) did the same for the green jersey.
One of the more interesting actions of the day was the way in which Tadej Pogacar, who has well over 7 minutes over his closest rival–and is thus almost guaranteed the Yellow Jersey in Paris tomorrow, was how he coddled Isaac del Toro, his teammate, by riding with him to the end, and guaranteeing not only his third place podium win, but also his White Jersey.
He acknowledged that the roles had been reversed in this stage–here he was playing domestique–whereas that was primarily the role of el “Torito”–(the little bull). But he said it was to give back to his team who had worked so hard for him in this Tour.
