Tadej Pogačar (UAE-Team Emirates) may not have won today’s stage 8 at the Tour de France but after just one stage in the Alps he has both hands on the winner’s trophy.
The Slovenian and his UAE Team Emirates let a very large group go up the road early in what was a frantic start to the race. And while the escapees rode away to enjoy a huge gap, Pogačar steam rolled everyone – but one – into the ground in the last 30km of racing.
He is now in the yellow jersey. And with the challenge of many of the pre-race favourites well and truly ended on the 150.8km road from Oyonnax to Le Grand-Bornand today, the Tour is now Pogačar’s to lose.
After the early group had gone clear, Davide Formolo put in a very good shift on the front of the peloton, which he whittled down to a select group. His team leader Pogačar sat second wheel, waiting to pounce.
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Formolo’s facial expressions became more pained and it was clear he was fading on the penultimate of the three cat 1 climbs in the last quarter of the stage. Pogačar then attacked on that penultimate climb, with just over 30km to go.
By that point of the stage riders like yellow jersey Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin Fenix) and Wout van Aert (Jumbo Visma) had been distanced by the remains of the peloton.
Much earlier in the day, a large number of riders had been distanced almost from the gun. They formed the grupetto, which included Mark Cavendish (Deceuninck-QuickStep). Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers), Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma) and Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) were also among top riders out the back very early.
Ireland’s Martin appeared to have been caught out by his positioning on a stage that should have suited him and after he said he was waiting for the Alps to try for a victory.
He found himself on the wrong side of splits in the strung out peloton on an early descent during a fast and furious opening phase of the stage. And once he was distanced, he never saw the main group again.
Pogačar attacked from the remains of the peloton with just over 30km to go on the cat 1 Col de Romme. Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) was the only one willing – indeed able – to follow him.
Carapaz initially sat in Pogačar’s wheel and ignored his rival’s elbow flicking out encouraging him to work.
When just a couple of those elbow flicks were ignored, Pogačar
went again. He distanced Carapaz and was on his own less than 1km after
attacking the group.
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And from that point, with about 32km to go, Pogačar set about trying to catch all of the 13 riders between him and the head of the race, which was over six minutes up the road.
When Pogačar attacked and went away on his own, Michael
Woods (Israel Start-Up Nation) was leading the race solo after he had dropped
all of those he was in the early breakaway with.
Pogačar simply mowed everyone down and by the top of the
last climb, the Col de la Colombiere, he had caught and passed everyone in the
early breakaway, except for Dylan Teuns (Bahrain Victorious).
Pogačar caught and passed Woods and Ion Izagirre (Astana-Premier Tech) just before the top of the last climb and they would come together as a three-man group on the long descent to the finish.
Up front, Teuns put in a fantastic descent and extended his lead on the chasing trio to take victory. Just 44 seconds after he celebrated his success, Izagirre took the sprint for 2nd from Woods and Pogačar.
And then began the countdown to the rest of the men with designs on the overall. Those riders were led home, in a 10-man group, by Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), though he took a heavy fall today.
They were 3:20
down on Pogačar and those riders
with Vingegaard were: Enric Mas (Movistar), Rigoberto Uran (EF Education
Nippo), Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers), Alexey Lutsenko (Astana-Premier Tech), Wilco Kelderman (Bora-hansgrohe) and David Gaudu (Groupama FDJ), among others.
In the end Dan
Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) caught and passed a large number of riders,
though he was still 56th on the stage, and in a group 28:41 down.
The result means Pogačar goes into yellow and now leads overall by 1:48 from Van Aert – who was 21st today at 5:45. After that, the gaps are now much bigger. Lutsenko is now 3rd at 4:38. Uran is 4th at 4:48, Vingegaard 5th at 5:00, Carapaz 6th at 5:01.
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