Last Chance Corral
Bora Hansgrohe’s Patrick Konrad seized perhaps the last chance available for the baroudeurs – or stage chasers- with his solo win yesterday on the 169-kilometer stage from Pas de las Case to Saint Gaudens, a stage designated as ‘middle mountains’. The Austrian Champion, who attacked his breakaway companions with 36-k to go was the fourth long distance solo win this Tour -Bauke Mollema (42.7 km to go), Wout van Aert (33-k), Nils Politt (12-k) and Ben O’Connor (17-k) - a Tour that has rewarded breakaway efforts to our spectating delight. There’s always something exciting and rewarding about seeing a solitary rider, fighting against the odds with everything they’ve got, holding off a larger group of chasers.
The race was furious for the first 100-k until the break was finally established and the Yellow Jersey contenders, with an eye on today’s crucial mountaintop finish, sat up and let a 12-minute gap open. Tadej Pogačar’s UAE Emirates team had a relaxed second half of the race until right at the end when Wout van Aert decided to flex his considerable muscles, turning on the turbo. It was truly amazing to see the scramble behind the Belgian, his pure force putting the best racers in the world – only the top-10 of the GC could follow him - into the ‘red’ as he did. It came to nothing in the end, with Carapaz and Pogačar sprinting, for some reason, like mad for 13th on the stage in efforts of ego more than sense.
Today is a crucial one with the finish, after two warmup Category 1 mountains, atop the dreaded Col du Portet, 16-kilometers long at an average of 8.7% and with four sections about 9%. All efforts will make sense there and we’ll see if the Yellow Jersey is as completely dominant as he’s appeared to be so far. The weather, cool and raining, is in his favor, coming from Slovenia as he does, but his team remains the question. Pogačar insists they are the best team in the race, everyone else is not so sure. His main climbing aid, the Pole Rafal Majka, is still recovering from that terrible high-speed, group crash on the road to Nîmes, and the true strength of the rest of his squad remains to be seen. Are Davide Formolo, Brandon McNulty and Marc Hirschi up to the task? Any and everything will be thrown at them today, they’ll be alone against the peloton.
Interesting to watch today will be the attitude of the riders currently sitting in the top 10 of the GC. Is it better to ride defensively to hold a 7th overall or is it better to risk all and go on the attack for the fantastic benefits of a stage victory? The peloton is exhausted, that much is certain. Julian Alaphilippe is counting the days to Paris, others are cracking as well.
Remember, we all thought the Tour was finished last year, right up till the final moments of that famed time trial. Nothing in cycling is carved in stone, these are men racing, not robots, and even the strongest, as we saw with Primoz Roglič are human.