Massacre
The “hornets”, as the press calls the black and yellow clad Visma - Lease a Bike team, tried to out muscle Tadej Pogačar over the first nine stages of this Tour, stages that were in effect a series of northern, one-day classic races. Newly muscled and “explosive” Jonas Vingegaard and team were constantly aggressive, most entertaining it should be said, trying to…and this is where the questions arise, exhaust Pogačar and his team over the opening days? There seems to have been one major overlooked issue in this approach, being that the Slovenian they were trying to dethrone on classics terrain is a two-time winner of the greatest classic of all, the Tour of Flanders, and was second in his first attempt at Paris-Roubaix. Vingegaard, muscles or not, has not ridden a classic since 2022 and a DNF at Leige-Bastogne-Liege.
The hornets brought a bit of a nasty edge to their approach, boasting of “hassling” Pogačar during the races, constantly creating little annoyances for the Slovenian such as blocking him in the the feed zones, throwing up echelons at every opportunity (this one of course fine), and all the things we can never see in the peloton but enough that there developed a real animosity between the two teams.
Their strategy completely fell apart on the first true mountain stage, the Pyrenees living up to their well earned reputation as the most perilous mountain chain of the Tour. The Visma went at it on the Col du Soulor with 60-k to the finish, lighting up the action at the front on the 11.8-k, 7.6% climb before collectively falling apart. Yank Matteo Jorgensen, Vingegaard’s crucial right hand was the first to collapse, suddenly dropping on the climb putting the hornets into confusion: continue the effort or not? Well it didn’t matter because Pogačar’s UAE boys, who’d been waiting for the moment, took over the front, set up Pogačar and that was pretty much that. The Slovenian flew up the final, 13.5-km, 7.8% climb to Hautacam, almost contemptuously dropping Vingegaard, putting 2’:10” into the Dane by the top, extending his lead in the overall GC to 3’:31”.
Behind, carnage. Remco Evenepoel lost 3’:35” and is now racing for third. Jorgensen, who had an exemplary Tour in 2024, 8th overall and third in the Youth classification, lost 10’:25” finishing 15th on the day, devastated as his TV interview showed. Sepp Kuss too was way off losing 13’:30”. It wasn’t just the Visma - Lease a Bike who took it on the chin either. Movistar’s Enric Mas lost a full 16-minutes, Ineos’s Spanish hope Carlos Rodriguez lost 12’:31”, with Ben O’Connor 10’:43”down. Pogačar killed the Tour on the first mountain stage.
The next day’s mountain time trial, shortest TT in Tour history, 8.1-k at a 7.6% gradient, was a terrifying prospect for many after the previous day’s massacre, so much so that the Tour decided, with 10-minutes to the start, to extend the time limit for the stage to 40%, up from the normal 33% allowed for time trial races. This to the justifiable fury of Wout van Aert, a man who sprints and can make it over a mountain, who rightly saw this as a gift to Tim Merlier, the double sprint stage winner. As it was, Merlier, who rode as hard as he could, made it in under the extended limit, but not by much. We will see how it goes for him today with its four major mountain passes.
Tadej Pogačar dancing on the corpse of the Tour, crushed all opposition. He took the start on a “normal” bicycle (not a time trial specialized machine) one without handlebar tape, nor paint, nor power meter, and with no radio in his ear for time splits. The simplest, lightest possible approach, just Tadej and his warrior spirit flying up a mountain. A resurgent Vingegaard came in second “only” :36” behind in what he termed the “best performance of his life”, while TT specialist Remco Evenepoel lost 2’:39” in what was possibly the worst TT performance of his career, putting his podium hopes in jeopardy.
Pogačar, with eight stages to go, has 4’:07” over Vingegaard and 7’:24” over Evenepoel in third, which now shifts focus to the remaining places, or rather, third place as the first two, barring incident, are a lock. Florian Lipowitz, the rising Red Bull - Bora Hansgrohe star is now only 6” behind Evenepoel, followed in the GC by Scot Oscar Onley, Kèvin Vauquelin, the excellent Frenchman who is flying the flag this year, and a “where did he come from and why isn’t he wearing any socks?” Primoz Roglič, in seventh, all within 1’:20” of Evenepoel. Matteo Jorgensen, showing his character and class, too had a good day in the TT and is hanging on to a top 10 placing.
Today is the last day in the Pyrenees, and it’s an historic doozy. The Tourmalet - 18.9-k at 7.4%, going up to 2110 meters, the highest point of this Tour, Col d’Aspin, Col de Peyresourde, and the final 12.6-k, 7.5% climb up to Luchon-Superbagnères. The peloton is demoralized and exhausted, the opening 10-days raced at warp speed have taken their toll, and the Alps are yet to come. Look for more dramatic collapses and watch the fight for the remaining podium spot. It will be most interesting to see how the UAE manage all of that.