Thibaut Pinot’s hopes of challenging for the yellow jersey at the Tour de France went up in smoke during today’s stage 8 when the French hope, of Groupama-FDJ, conceded huge time.
And while Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) and race leader
Adam Yates (Mitchelton Scott) lost no time to their biggest general
classification rivals, both looked vulnerable on the final climb today.
It was a tough day for the Irish as Nicolas Roche (Team
Sunweb) and Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) finished in 88th and
89th at 25:23. Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-QuickStep) was 164th at 32:39.
The stage was dominated, and won, by an early breakaway; Nans Peters (AG2R La Mondiale) riding clear of the escape with Ilnur Zakarin (CCC Team) on the Port de Balès with 35km remaining.
However, when they came down off that climb Zakarin’s
awful descending saw Peters ride away from him with ease; the Frenchman then
scaling the 11km Col de Peyresourde before descending into the finish at Loudenviell
for a brilliant solo victory.
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Toms Skujiņš (Trek-Segafredo)
finished 2nd at 47 seconds with Carlos Verona (Movistar) for company followed by Zakarin in 4th at 1:09.
On a day when the breakaway men took the first eight
placings on the stage, the fight for the general classification behind them was
a fascinating one.
Tadej Pogačar (UAE
Team Emirates) gave the general classification group the slip on the last climb
and showed the kind of form that means he can’t be ruled out for yellow
despite losing 1:21 yesterday.
He put 40 seconds in his general classification rivals
today, finishing in 9th place with Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) next, some
38 seconds back and two seconds ahead of the favourites’ group.
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Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma) was in that group alongside Bernal, Yates, Miguel Ángel López (Astana), Mikel Landa (Bahrain-McLaren), Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), Nairo Quintana (Arkéa Samsic), Rigoberto Urán (EF Pro Cycling) and Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo).
But the fact they all finished on the same time does not
tell the story of the stage; Pogačar looking the strongest and most aggressive
and Roglic and Quintana looking most able to match him while Yates and Bernal
appeared to be hanging on at times.
While Roglic and Quintana initially moved with Pogačar
only to let him ride away from the group later, the same duo attacked the
yellow jersey group on the final climb again.
And though they were caught on the descent into the
finish, Bernal’s vulnerability was clear as he was weaker than them and also
had no team mates.
The result means there is no real change in the overall;
Yates still leading from Roglic, Martin, a resurgent Bardet, Bernal, Quintana,
Lopez and Uran with just 13 seconds covering those riders.
Pogačar clawed back half the time he lost yesterday and
he has now underlined his status as a major threat - if he holds his shape and
hasn’t overdone things in over the past two stages.
Bauke Mollema (Trek Segafredo) and Richard Carapaz (Ineos
Grenadiers) both lost 38 seconds to the yellow jersey group today.
Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) and Pinot both gave up their GC aspirations;
losing 13½ minutes and almost 19 minutes respectively to the yellow jersey
group.
With more major mountains tomorrow on the 153km road between Pau and Laruns, but with no summit finish, the stalemate between the top riders may not be broken until after Monday’s rest day.
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