Pello Bilbao has won stage 10 of the Tour de France, from a strongman's breakaway, and immediately dedicated the victory to his Bahrain Victorious team mate Gino Mäder, who was killed in a crash at Tour de Suisse last month. He described his win as "a special one, for Gino".
On the 167.2km stage from Vulcania to Issoire, run off in sweltering heat, Bilbao got the better of Georg Zimmermann (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty) and Ben O'Connor (AG2R Citroën Team) in the final sprint to the line. That trio were among the first section of the large breakaway, which split in half, that closed down Israel Premier-Tech's Krists Neilands with just 5km to go after he attacked the lead group and for a long time look like he may make it all the way solo.
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On what was a lumpy attritional stage, the remains of the bunch finished some 2:53 down on the leaders, with the main contenders all in that reduced peloton. The big mover in the general classification battle was stage winner Bilbao, who had moved up six places overall to 5th.
Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo Visma) still holds the yellow jersey by 17 seconds from Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), with Jai Hindley (Bora-hansgrohe) 3rd at 2:40. Then comes Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers), at 4:22, with Bilbao now 5th and just 12 seconds behind the Spanish rider, or 4:34 off the race lead.
With 100km to go on today's stage, a 14-man breakaway was well established, with the best 10 from that group all surviving to the finish, though six went forward to fight for the stage win. Those six were: Esteban Chaves (EF Education-EasyPost), Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious), Ben O'Connor (AG2R-Citroën), Georg Zimmermann (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty), Krists Neilands (Israel-Premier Tech) and Antonio Pedrero (Movistar).
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In the second section of the breakaway, which finished 27 seconds down on the winner, were: Michał Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers), Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep), Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) and Warren Barguil (Arkéa-Samsic).
A number of others were in the initial breakaway but lost their places and were re-absorbed by the peloton long before the finish, including: Kasper Asgreen (Soudal-QuickStep), Anthony Perez (Cofidis), Nick Schultz (Israel-Premier Tech) and Harold Tejada (Astana Qazaqstan).
Tomorrow's stage 11 takes the riders some 179.8km from Clermont-Ferrand to Moulins and could be one for the sprinters rather than a general classification shake-up day.
