Must… resist… name jokes…

Burgodos!

Men race

Holy moly! over 100 km of kamikaze attacks and LOL-tactics! 🥳 🥳 🥳 🎆 🎆 🎆

The 3 favourites failed.

France: I love it when a crappy plan comes together...

Belgium: the cyclothymic Evenepoel must be happy, he's beaten Seixas and his charlie horse 🤣

The unexpected ones and the comebacks from nowhere : Matthews, Pedersen, Küng, Schmid, Ayuso, Roglic.

I never saw M. Woods but he finishes 35^th^. I guess that's honest after such a crazy race.

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Armirail:

– come on Bruno, you have 2 laps to catch a 16-man breakaway 8 minutes ahead...

– Okay!

– it includes Leknessund...

– I said 'OK'!

Stage 1, Saturday 1, Team Time Trial

20 km, D+ 220 m

A very short TTT in the streets of Barcelona, with some climbing near and at the end (your usual Montjuic).

This format created quite some mess. Suffice to say that Bernal (🇨🇴 Ineos) will wear the Green jersey tomorrow 🤣

At FDJ, the two guys who were supposed to aim for a modest top-20 in GC crashed. G. Martin🇫🇷 and Berthet🇫🇷 finished the stage, but the latter won't restart tomorrow. Grégoire🇫🇷 finished very well, but it looked more impressive than it actually was because he used a huge gear ratio with a low frequency while standing up .

Astana also crashed.

At Ineos, Vauquelin🇫🇷 who was supposed to be the final arrow and hadn't taken any relay, got a puncture... Subsequently, Ganna, who had taken the heaviest relays on the flat, was forced to also lead the finish. This beast managed to almost win! He climbed faster than all punchers and GC leaders, but one.

At Bora, Evenepoel🇧🇪 dropped Lipowitz🇩🇪 in the last climb.

De Lie (🇧🇪 Lotto) was completely ill. Cian U. (🇧🇪 Movistar) overheated, blew up and had cramps. O'Connor (🇦🇺 Jayco) quickly sank.

Vinegaard (🇩🇰 Visma) and Pogatchar (🇸🇮 UAE) are already on the podium. Top-10 favourites are already in the top-10... And there are still 20 stages to go.

Stage 12, Thursday 16

This one is a bit more hilly than the previous one, but those hills look far from enough to prevent another sprinters stage.

There was quite some action compared to other sprinters stages. My memory and therefore my account will be pretty fuzzy because I slept through several parts and was away at a few others :-)

Breakaway took some time to form. Finally, only Veistroffer (🇫🇷 Lotto) successfully broke away alone. At the I.S. there were a few attacks, I though they had all failed (after reducing the gap by half, to 1 minute), but when I came back, 3 guys had joined Veistroffer🇫🇷.

(Pedersen (🇩🇰 Lidl-Trek) won the peloton's I.S. but he could have been relegated for he went from the centre to the right of the fence, blocking Philipsen (🇧🇪 Alpecin) and another rider against the fences.)

With 60 km to go, Veistroffer🇫🇷 dropped Caruso (🇮🇹 Bahrain) and Vercher (🇫🇷 Total). 10 km farther, Costiou (🇫🇷 FDJ) gave up, and Veistroffer🇫🇷 was alone again.

When the peloton reached the hills 35-40 from the line, there were a lot of attacks (the fist one caught Veistroffer🇫🇷), mainly by Lidl-Trek who wanted to avoid a mass sprint. They put quite a mess during 25-30 km, but the last 10 km, really flat, allowed sprinters teams to regain control.

Therefore, it ended with a mass sprint. And a mass crash, due to a vicious little wave of the road brilliantly set 350-400 m from the line, which left only a few riders for the sprint (basically, everyone who survived the crash scored UCI points...). The first to hit the ground was Gaviria (🇨🇴 Caja Rural), whose front wheel was hit by a Bahrain rider who changed direction.

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Fun fact: after 12 stages, Veistroffer🇫🇷 has grabbed 3 times as much prize money 💶 as the whole GFDJ team 🤣

It seems designed to create differences, so I guess there will be a few. What could happen to minimise them is one stronger leader with a weaker team vs the opposite; perhaps the Pogatchar-UAE vs Vingegaard-Visma will be along this line. But the flat section is relatively short (for a TTT), so I don't know whether significant advantage can be gained there by a strong team.

I don't expect much from Seixas/Decathlon, given what they showed on the Dauphiné.

It could be interesting to see what happens at Bora, performance-wise, but also circus-wise 😀

We can note that the organisers had the 'brilliant' idea of scheduling the last/favourite teams/leaders at the same time as the WC first 1/8^th^ match of the day 🙄 As if they couldn't have made it just 20 minutes earlier...

Btw, someone needs to tell Seixas not to be so hard on himself, he’s almost ready to jump from a building after not winning the WC at age 20. France rode a good race, Amirail was impressive, and Seixas will get stronger for the next 5-6 years at least. Chill out.

The problem changes when you know that Seixas already decides of most things. His team and national director seem to be confined to a role of advising councils. The mystery is how this happens, how they allow a 19 yo to dictate their choices and strategies. Is there active blackmailing from the Seixas family ("if you don't comply, he'll be in UAE next year"), or is it self-inflicted?

He decided to go on the Tour of France against the advise of his team. He decided of his teammates. Even in this WC he decided of most of the team. (Like Zidane insisted of having his club pal Dugarry back then).

So, that's why he takes responsibility to this extent. Because he decided of many things (and asked to decide of many things); he wasn't just a (final) cog in a machine decided by others.

Now there are people who wouldn't charge themselves so hard even after being having decided even more and fucking up harder, but that's not his mentality indeed.

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France strategy was no good, considering the team that had been built: no co-leader or even leader number 2, just single leader. No good domestique except for Armirail, whom they decided to wear out way before we even came 100 km from the line... No puncher who could risk casting a shadow over Seixas. Just small climbers, most of them out of shape.

Strategy-wise, they applied a stereotyped plan. Armirail to forbid other from attacking, and then the little climbers would attack in order to... in order to what? In a single-leader team, you fuck yourself if you do that, and that's exactly what happened. Icing on the cake if you don't have the manpower to regain control; and you don't have it because of both the team composition and the fact that you already used most of the manpower you had to do whatever.

After Armirail stopped, there was nobody in the team to pursue his effort (due to the absolute lack any other rouleur in the team), so they went with part B of the plan way too early. France themselves created the mess that would kill them. Paret-Peintre, Jegat played their little 2 minutes act to start messing things up and disappeared. Baudin initiated (or simply took an active part to?) the movement that would ultimately become the Van der Poel breakaway...

Then you have tactics. There was zero tactical adaptation, neither about the A & B parts of the plan, nor within the mess which happened later.

That part when there were still a few teammates and they were chasing at the front the peloton, Jesus... You had Labrosse (I reckon?) dying pulling the peloton, and... there wasn't a single French anywhere in the line behind him! Nope. The 4 riders including Seixas were aside, in the wind a bit behind, using 1 other rider to make their own line... Result: out of Seixas' 4 teammates, they lost 2, thus 50%, in this short action. Instead of using only Labrosse (?).

Before or after that, what the heck was this ridiculous solo counter-attack attempt by Prodhomme at some point? A vast overestimating of his own shape and a misjudgement of the situation (was he hoping to compete with Van der Poel and the likes later, ahem?)

Seixas remained focused on sticking to Del Toro. That was the only tactic he applied. The original orientation can be understood because he had done too much on the Montreal GP and the Mexican had finally beaten him. But not seeing what was going on, not seeing that he was soon going to be solo with more than 100 km to go... And sticking to racing 100% the opposite way of 2 weeks ago... He never followed an attack or counter-attack by all the outsiders who were breaking away.

Then when leaders were isolated, many times there were several occasions to join the head after Del Toro had made a big effort to start reducing the gaps; but he never relayed nor counter-attacked to jump to the head of the race, in order to re-establish a calmer situation.

All Del Toro actions, gaps over the following riders were aborted this way. On a profile like that, you cannot only count on gaps created in the short climbs. It is a berg classic. A berg classic without the mutant. A mutant-free berg classic, a 'classical classic', therefore the gaps have to be created for real by keeping on pushing very hard at and after the top of the climbs, after you have only created a tiny gap in the climb. That's what the Seixas/Del Toro did perfectly on the Montreal GP: they considerably grew the gap on the false flat and descent of the University plateau area. Because Del Toro immediately relayed Seixas when he joined him on the top 2 weeks ago, which Seixas always refused to do this Sunday. On this profile and in this racing situation, efforts need to be extended longer than what the short climbs naturally allow, or they are worthless.

In fact, the whole strategical and tactical mistake may well come from my previous paragraph: France wrongly decided it was a race for climbers. There was a slight possibility to turn it into a climbers race, and it was part of their goal, but they completely failed at making it so (wrong team composition, wrong timings, wrong moves).

That and the fixation with Del Toro.

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The synthesis of the strategical mistakes + Seixas charging himself can be highlighted by his declaration before the race, when he said there was no other objective for him than the victory.

That means a wrong analysis was made (by himself, by his entourage or by the head of the French team, I don't know who started, but in the end everyone involved held that analysis), that consisted of considering everything would be as on Montreal GP and there would be no new opponents and no new configuration. This analysis saw the WC race unfolding exactly the same way as the GP, with the same and only opponent, except that in the end that opponent would be more tired and Seixas would not fail at sprinting.

They didn't plan for teams being different, for a few extra riders coming, for a few riders being worse and a few being better. They didn't plan for different races configurations and situations.

They only had one very basic plan, against one single opponent, and ignored all the rest of the field and all the rest of options.

Stage 16, Tuesday 21

26 km, D+ 500 m, Individual Time Trial

This ITT presents an unusual profile, with an horrible 4,5% strongly uphill false-flat right from the start which lasts for 10 km (!), then a steeper descent and only finally a flat section.

I watched little of the race. In other times, the horrible flat climb would have caused a few riders to miscalculate their effort by not finding their pace on this bastard slope, but in the days of computerised cycling, it cannot happen.

Therefore there were very few surprises. The profile, a more regular version of the Gavarnie stage finish, looked perfect for Evenepoel (🇧🇪 Bora) and Pogatchar (🇸🇮 UAE), and so it was. We might have believed Seixas (🇫🇷 Decathlon) to make a difference over Del Toro (🇲🇽 UAE), but Sunday's stage was a big warning that one shouldn't be overconfident about that, and in the end there was almost no difference. Ayuso (🇪🇸 Lidl-Trek) confirmed as well the more serious troubles he experienced on Sunday. Skelmose (🇩🇰 Lidl-Trek) may have done a bit better than expected, but he is used to ITT top-10s.

In fact, the only true change in top-10 is caused by Lipowitz🇩🇪's crash (on the flat section) and withdrawal.

Among the 6 contenders for places 9 and 10, Voisard (🇨🇭 Tudor) did the best time. Yates (🇬🇧 UAE) probably didn't give a damn, which allowed Piganzoli (🇮🇹 Visma) to gain 2 ranks in order to try to save GC for his team.

The only new inhabitants they can get there are virtual ones 😄

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I checked the lap times, and can you imagine that the last 3 laps (­≈ 40km) were raced slower by leaders than on the U23 race?! (and their fastest circuit laps were when Armirail🇫🇷 was pulling as a domestique!)

Those guys exhausted themselves before that, when Van der Poel🇳🇱 was ahead, I'd say. Especially Del Toro🇲🇽 and Seixas🇫🇷, who both started experiencing troubles at the same point, and started ingesting anything they could find in panic mode.

Also contributed to the low final speed the fact that their pace was switching ON-OFF-ON-OFF-... all the time in the last laps.

I don't know why he stopped riding when he was in the group of 6 (?), and one guy (Stuyven?) broke away. The group was more than 1 minute ahead of the rest of the big breakaway. That's what happened, right? (everything is fuzzy in my mind)

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As for today, he will certainly be tired from yesterday's expedition. Same thing for the teammates who helped him.

One positive point however is that there is 0 transfer: they restart from the same town where they arrived yesterday! I put an exclamation mark because what should be the norm is incredibly are these days 😄

Another problem is that, although it doesn't look so, today (stage #18) is very hard: it presents more elevation gain than the first Alpe d'Huez stage will. The I.S. is 55 km from the line, however, thus not all this elevation gain has to be ridden of course.

If I were Alpecin, I'd send at least Van der Poel with the mission to stick to Pedersen's wheel as soon as he moves an inch. Goal: 1. be a deadweight 2. beat him on the sprint by harassing him.

Stage 2, Sunday 5

169 km, D+ 2000 m

A stage for punchers, again finishing in Barcelona's Montjuic

This stage was turned into a joke. Nobody attacked, except for Johannessen (🇳🇴 Uno-X) followed by Carapaz (🇪🇨 EF), about 18.3 yards from the top of the very last climb. It was just a strong-ish pace by the lone McNulty (🇺🇸 UAE) all along. And then Del Toro (🇲🇽 UAE) won because Pogatchar (🇸🇮 UAE) left him the victory. Yep.

Tomorrow, spectators will be banned from the part of the course in France, as there is a major forest fire developing (far) down the valley.

Reluctant with good reason! It’s the day after a time trial and more than a week to a rest day. Would you really risk a good classification place or later stage wins this early, attacking on a hillside crit circuit that the breakaway has maybe 1% chance of winning? Be serious.

1. A circuit like this, like any punchy finish, is a perfect place to attack if one is afraid of losing GC: losing GC won't happen. One can pick one's distance for attacking, and if it fails, one may recover or attack anew when it comes back again. Even if one blows up, gaps won't be big.
2. There aren't only GC leaders in the race, there are punchers who don't give a damn about classification and who won't be served many suitable profiles this year.
3. Last year, both punchers and GC leaders did use punchers stages. There were attacks by Visma lieutenants and even a bit Vingegaard as soon as stage #2. Pog and Ving attacked and created splits in the punchy finish as soon as stage #4, the day before the ITT. It was just an attack 6 km from the goal, but still better than yesterday.
4. I've heard of Time Trial 'blocking' the race for a couple of days before the TT, but blocking it for a few days after the TT would be a first ;)

Stage 4, Tuesday 7

182 km, D+ 2900 m

After a uselessly long bus transfer, this stage meanders in the Cathar Country, the Pyrenean piedmont, and may offer opportunities for breakaways, as well as sprinters if there isn't too much action.

It was indeed for an all-terrain sprinter, inside a breakaway.

It was a masterclass by Lidl-Trek. The breakaway took a relatively long (but not as much as yesterday) time to form, but then it was very large – a bit over 30 riders –, and included M. Pedersen🇩🇰, Q. Simmons🇺🇸 and Vatsek🇨🇿. Vatsek🇨🇿 could have had his own chance when he quietly left with Tratnik (🇸🇮 Bora) but then his team made it clear that today was only for Pedersen🇩🇰 (and it was rather far from the line).

Movistar did all they could with Castrillo🇪🇸 and R. Garcia P.🇪🇸 attacking countless times until the last mile, but they never could get more than a few yards gaps versus the Lidl-Trek riders.

Grégoire (🇫🇷 FDJ) was in the breakaway, but he has no recovery, is cooked and the opposition is much stronger than Joris Delbove on the National Championship. He was dropped rather early and finished last of the 2^nd^ group... A complete failure.

Pedersen🇩🇰 outclassed all other riders in the first group, and his American teammate even managed to take the 2^nd^ place. This is a 390 UCI points day for the team... (As for teams who need points, Movistar scored an honest 145 points, despite all their earlier efforts; but Groupama scored 0, and Cofidis who had riders at the front for a much longer time than the other French team doesn't get anything either in the end.)

Good old Matthews (🇦🇺 Jayco) won the sprint of the 2^nd^ group, but it was only for the 11^th^ place. The two pure sprinters – Girmay (🇪🇷 NSN) and Philipsen (🇧🇪 Alpecin) – had given up when the longest climb had started, just after the I.S.).

In the peloton, nobody rode against the breakaway. Most teams were in, and Visma and UAE let it go.

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Pedersen🇩🇰 also gets the Green jersey.

Baudin keeps the Mountain jersey, as Molenaar (🇳🇱 Caja Rural) was in the breakaway, but failed to score on the last climb.

Stage 8, Saturday 11

180 km, D+ 1300 m

The second flat stage for sprinters in a row. A grand total of 3 GPM points will have been offered in 2 days…

The breakaway took 2 extra minutes to form because Valsgreen (well, one of them, 🇩🇰 EF) wasn't allowed to join it. It blew up 40 km from the line when Otruba (🇨🇿 Caja Rural) attacked and was countered by Slock (🇧🇪 Lotto). At the same place, there was a bit of action in the peloton with one Valsgreen🇩🇰 attempting to leave again (and failing again). Slock🇧🇪 put up a nice resistance, but blew up with 2 km to go. A sprinter won.

Stage 9, Saturday 11

185 km, D+ 3300 m

After 2 flat stages, there isn't one flat yard today, approaching the Massif Central. This will certainly be one of those stages where 150 riders want to join the breakaway.

Due to the heat, the race will be shortened. It appears that they would cut off the first sort of 'loop' between the start and the Intermediate Sprint, and replace it with a direct shortcut that would remove around 30 km.

The time of the start wouldn't be moved, so the riders should arrive a bit earlier. Damn, are they less stupid than French Championship organisers?

Stage 17, Wednesday 22

175 km D+ 2400 m

This stage will probably be disputed between a breakaway which could leave in the small/medium climbs of the first 60 km, and sprinter teams. Perhaps Pedersen will attempt to go into the breakaway.

I won't comment much on this one, as I only carefully watched the first 2 miles, then was hearing fragments from another room, until I sat lay in front of the telly for the last 50 km in order to reconnect properly with race... and slept through a good 45 of them, although a lot of things were happening.

Veistroffer (🇫🇷 Lotto) was a km-0 attacker, but blew up as soon as the first gentle slope started.

Del Toro (🇲🇽 UAE) was dropped at some point with sprinters. Nobody took advantage of it.

A. Yates (🇬🇧 UAE) got sick or fully depleted his batteries, and was dropped from all groups.

Jegat (🇫🇷 Total) managed to get into the right, big breakaway. As the peloton only came 9 mn behind, that gives him a lot of breathing space to save his final GC rank (top-10: 9^th^ at the moment). He left the territory of those around 25 mn, to get close to the guys ahead of him: L. Martinez (🇫🇷 Bahrain) and Pidcock (🇬🇧 Q36.5), at 13 mn, are now just 1 minute ahead.

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Pedersen (🇩🇰 Lidl-Trek) was extremely active today. Yet at the end of the day, Philipsen (🇧🇪 Alpecin), who spared no effort either, is now at the same level as him in the fight for the Green jersey.

There isn't that much left now / after the Tour of Spain, especially concerning stage races.

You will have in September the Grand Prix of Québec (Sep 11) and of Montréal (Sep 13) which may not be the greatest or most interesting classics but will present the benefit, for you, to take place on the American continent, therefore in daytime. And the World Championship will follow a week later (well, Sep 27 for the men road race), in Canada again. Naturally, the WC is raced by national teams, so it won't help you get acquainted with the commercial teams 🙂

Then as autumn classics, there are many one-day races in Italy. If I were to keep one, it would be the Tour of Emilia (Oct 3), with a scenic climb repeated in a circuit, and an honest startlist.

I didn't pick the Tour of Lombardy because I am not a big fan of mountain classics and Pogatchar always wins in the end, but it is a 'monument' (if you care about that concept) which attracts star climbers. Oct 10.

The day after il Lombardia, there is the lesser prized Paris-Tours in France (Oct 11), which became interesting to watch since they added a few dirt/stone tracks and hills near the final part, even though it got harder to create differences when the weather is good since they 'refurbished' the tracks.

Then we've reached mid-October and the season is basically over.

Ah, there is the European Championship a few days before (Oct 4).

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If we insisted on adding a stage race, for it is easier to get accustomed to teams and riders when you see the same ones several day on a row, what could we add? Hmmm, there are only smaller races left. Let's see...

There is the Tour of Britain but it takes place during the Tour of Spain.

The Tour of Luxembourg is all right. 5 days including a time trial. Sep 16-20.

Ah, before the Vuelta starts, there is the Tour of Limousin in France. 4 days starting this Tuesday. Aug 18-21. It is not a bad race usually (even though it gets harder each year to create gaps on its profiles), but it ranks lower, and most of the top teams do not come. At ton of French and Belgian riders.

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Naturally, I listed races without knowing what you can see: what is actually broadcasted at your place and what is compatible with your time zone and your personal timetable.

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About missing races of not, if you visit PCS' main page at https://www.procyclingstats.com/ , there are a "Next races" and a "Next WorldTour races" inserts.

Usually, I post a thread on this forum, or a comment in this topic, for the races I shall follow; and the main moderator also posts when I don't. But that's not 100% guaranteed and I don't post them much in advance. And we don't follow or post about every races.

Stage 18, Thursday 23

186 km, D+ 3900 m

Many climbs, long and short, but never too steep. There is a finish on top, but it might still be good for breakaways if GC guys wait for the 2 harder stages which follow.

NB: the way the profile is drawn makes it look almost flat, but there is almost 4000 m of total elevation to climb, it is really a medium mountain stage.

No clear breakaway managed to form before the top of the first climb, where V. Paret-Peintre (🇫🇷 Soudal-QS) and Carapaz (🇪🇨 EF) jumped off the peloton to catch and overtake the small new breakaway which already held 2 EF riders. They passed the summit in that order, and their attack brought the peloton back at the front, with Pedersen (🇩🇰 Lidl-Trek) passing this (admittedly overrated) 1^st^ category in ^5th^ position. He doesn't look tired!

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Pedersen🇩🇰 managed to get in a breakaway soon after that, and while there were a lot of reconfigurations within breakaways along the stage, succeeded in reaching the Intermediate Sprint ahead today!

One more time, V. Paret-Peintre🇫🇷 won all GPMs before Carapaz🇪🇨 except the final one, even though he was in the final group of 6. This pair previously had to jump from a breakaway to another at some point in order to be able to pass first in climbs. In the end, this effort must have stayed in the French skeleton's legs, but Carapaz🇪🇨 flew in the final climb, after a long period during which the 6 riders were looking at each other. Well, 5 riders, as R. Garcia P. (🇪🇸 Movistar) was struggling to remain with/near the group.

On a very different type of finish, Schmid (🇨🇭 Jayco) beats Jorgenson (🇺🇸 Visma) for 2^nd^ place. Jorgenson has no sprint at all, and Schmid🇨🇭 made 2^nd^ yesterday already, amidst real sprinters; so, there wasn't much of a chance of a different result 😄

The only survivor from the other breakaways, which included a large number of riders, was another Movistar (Castrillo🇪🇸) who barely managed to stay a few seconds ahead of the peloton. The two Movistar riders finishing 6^th^ and 7^th^ bring 100 UCI points to their team.

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The peloton did nothing at all.

When the gap with the breakaway went over 8 minutes, Total and Q36.5 started pulling, because Carapaz🇪🇨 was getting a bit too close to Jegat🇫🇷 and Pidcock🇬🇧 (and of course, it was Carapaz, not a sprinter who would have died in the final climb but a climber more or less as good as they are).

No one tried anything at any time, despite seeing how UAE was losing men.

The final climb was a long procession. The peloton was reduced to barely more than top leaders, yet nobody tried anything at any point, not even in the last mile or half-mile.

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In spite of the presence of Ze Elect (🇫🇷 Decathlon) on the race, we are getting closer to witnessing a Tour de France without a single French🇫🇷 stage victory.

It would be the first one since '99, I reckon. And in '99, they had an excuse, as all hadn't removed the handcuffs they got in '98 🤣

Before that, the only time it happened is exactly one century ago, in 1926... 😱

Stage 19, Friday 24

128 km, D+ 3600 m

The first Alpe d'Huez stage presents climbs in the beginning and in the end, with smaller and smoother hills in the centre part. It is short. A breakaway might succeed if Pogatchar doesn't want the stage (who else would ride for it after the withdrawals of Vingegaard and Lipowitz?).

Standings before the first Alpe d'Huez stage:

General classification

1. Tadej Pogatchar 🇸🇮 UAE
2. Remco Evenepoel 🇧🇪 Bora: +4′32″
3. Isaac Del Toro 🇲🇽 UAE +6′51″
4. Paul Seixas 🇫🇷 Decathlon: +7′11″
5. Juan Ayuso 🇪🇸 Lidl-Trek: +9′22″
6. Mattias Skjelmose 🇩🇰 Lidl-Trek: +10′14″
7. Lenny Martinez 🇫🇷 Bahrain: +12′50″
8. Thomas Pidcock 🇬🇧 Q36.5: +12′58″
9. Jordan Jegat 🇫🇷 Total : +14′04″
10. Richard Carapaz 🇪🇨 EF: +21′00″

Points classification (Green jersey):

1. Mads Pedersen 🇩🇰 Lidl-Trek: 477 pts (+60)
2. jasper Philipsen 🇧🇪 Alpecin: 445 (+54)
3. Biniam Girmay 🇪🇷 NSN: 361 (0)
4. Max Kanter 🇩🇪 Astana: 271 (0)
5. Olav Kooij 🇳🇱 Decathlon 230 (+20)

Mountain (Polka Dots jersey)

1. Tadej Pogatchar 🇸🇮 UAE: 70 pts (+3)
2. Valentin Paret-Peintre 🇫🇷 Soudal-QS: 69 (+24)
3. Richard Carapaz 🇪🇨 EF: 63 (+24)
4. Remco Evenepoel 🇧🇪 Bora: 36 (+5)
5. Paul Seixas 🇫🇷 Decathlon: 34 (0)
6. Isaac Del Toro 🇲🇽 UAE: 30 (0)

In the last mountain stage on Saturday (stage #20), they will be as many points to grab (70) as the Mountain classification leader possesses presently after 18 stages 🙄

We’re in Normandy

I see... returning to the scene of the crime, 1200 years later. Did you find something left to pillage or burn? 🤣

Yesterday we had some rain

Rain? I can't remember what that is. 🙂 I even have to water 40 years old trees so that they don't die. While there is available water. I has rained once in 5 weeks, and there is no forecast of rain for the next week or 2, so water usage will be restricted soon (I am surprised it is not yet). Before the drought, simply due to the heat, the leaves of many vegetables, shrubs and even creepers have 'burned', berries have cooked and rotten standing (well, except the redcurrant shrubs which bore nothing because it developed too early because of the hot winter...). Most apples have fallen, and the rest doesn't reach 2 inches in diameter and the surface is burned on the side facing south.

Looking at the weather forecast for the place where you are, I see a consistant 10 °C lower than here every day. 😭

I am happy we’re not further south, though.

Yeah, but those last weeks have been equality hot all over the territory (except coast lines). Though it doesn't help, in general, that I live more south than 99% of metropolitan France (contrarily to popular belief, including the belief of the people who live there, the french Riviera is not the Southernmost part of France).

And when I say coast lines... The Atlantic coast below Brittany doesn't seem protected much any more, which came as a surprise. The Gulf of Gascony / Bay of Bascony seem not to play its buffering role any more, or even reversed it to heat up the Western coast of France and the Northern coast of Spain.

I don’t deal with the heat well, being from the lower part of the High North.

You will unfortunately have to get accustomed to it for the next decades, because it is coming up north fast. The other guy got his book all wrong: the fearsome sentence should have been "Summer is coming", not "Winter is coming" 🤣

Stage 14, Saturday 18

155 km, D+ 3900 m

This Alsatian mountain stage is a loop in the Vosges.

The race started under an heavy shower. The first 12 km were controlled by sprinters teams as the I.S. was that early. The rain was over by then.

A couple of miles later, the climbs started and so did the attacks to form a breakaway.

Long story short: for a long time, there were 2 groups of breakaways, with Visma riders in the second. At the front, a group of 6 formed: the Uno-X twins (Johanessen(s)🇳🇴), the EF twins (Healy🇮🇪 and Carapaz🇪🇨), as well as V. Paret-Peintre (🇫🇷 Soudal-QS) and Rubio (🇨🇴 Movistar); Arensman (🇳🇱 Ineos) should have joined when Rubio🇨🇴 did but he got the 2368^th^ puncture of the Tour at Ineos. Carapaz🇪🇨 and V. Paret-Peintre were fighting for Mountain points, but the Frenchman won all GPM sprints.

While the second group oscillated between 30 seconds and 1 minute ahead of the peloton, the front group got up to 3 minutes.

Healy🇮🇪 and Anders Johanessen🇳🇴 sacrificed for their brothers. Then Tobias J.🇳🇴 attacked and was only followed by Carapaz🇪🇨 who counter-attacked a bit farther. The Ecuadorian rider started the last climb about 1 minute only ahead of the peloton (or what was left of it).

In the peloton, in the last climb, the two guys who had made a big jump into GC yesterday thanks to their breakaway, Jegat (🇫🇷 Total) and Pidcock (🇬🇧 Q36.5), cracked early. The Englishman, who had been in the breakaway today again, managed to limit the damage; the Frenchman not so much.

Yates (🇬🇧 UAE) couldn't work for his leaders, he was dropped before he could.

Voisard (🇫🇷 Tudor) stayed a long time with the top guys, but overheated and blew up rather severely.

The breakawaymen Carapaz🇪🇨 and Johanessen🇳🇴 managed to stick with leaders surprisingly long, considering the fact that they had given a lot more than the other guys and that it was going fast when they were caught up.

Back to the leaders: there was one attack by Lipowitz (🇩🇪 Bora), it didn't last long.

Evenepoel (🇧🇪 Bora) cracked first. Like the other day, Vingegaard (🇳🇴 Visma) pulled alone, without getting any help from Seixas (🇫🇷 Decathlon) and others. As a result, Evenepoel🇧🇪 would have come back like the other day, if Pogatchar (🇸🇮 UAE) hadn't attacked, with only 1.5 km to the summit. Then every individual was chasing every other individual, full gas.

There was 6 km of plateau after the pass, before the line. Again, Seixas🇫🇷 didn't collaborate well with Vingegaard🇳🇴, especially after Del Toro (🇲🇽 UAE) caught them – the Mexican would of course not relay, as his leader was 20-30 seconds ahead. So, this trio got slower; slower than the lone Pogatchar🇸🇮 ahead, and also slower than Evenpoel🇧🇪 who had regrouped with his teammate Lipowitz🇩🇪 and with Ayuso (🇪🇸 Lidl-Trek), and they almost got caught again. Of course, in the end, for 2^nd^ place, Del Toro🇲🇽 beat Seixas🇫🇷 and the worn out Vingegaard🇳🇴 who didn't really take part in the sprint.

L. Martinez (🇫🇷 Bahrain) produced a good performance. I didn't speak of him because I can't remember when he was dropped.

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Seixas🇫🇷 takes the White jersey off Ayuso🇪🇸's shoulders thanks to the time bonus for 3^rd^place.

V. Paret-Peintre🇫🇷 doesn't get the Polka Dots jersey, as Pogatchar🇸🇮 passed in first position on the last climb. And, weirdly, there was no point for the Hundruck pass.

Kanter (🇩🇪 Astana) still competes for the Green jersey, despite being a bit far behind and only ranking 5^th^. I imagine that he hopes 1 or 2 of the guys before him will withdraw at some point, to make it into the first 3 places.

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Fun facts:

• the 1^st^ FDJ rider is 2 hours behind Pogatchar in GC; that's worse than Caja Rural;
• the 1^st^ Picnic rider is 1 hour behind the 1^st^ FDJ rider in GC!