Tour de France race leader Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) has coped with a number of attacks from Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) on stage 16 into Foix today. Showing no ill effects of his crash on Sunday, Vingegaard looked well within his comfort zone as he responded to the attacks going up and down the penultimate climb of the day, the Port de Lers.
And in the finale, Jumbo Visma also looked stronger that UAE Team Emirates, with Sepp Kuss riding very strongly on the front of the select group on the final climb. Wout van Aert also dropped back from the breakaway to bolster the support for Vingegaard in the select group.
Pogačar, who had Rafal Majka for support before the Pole suffered a mechanical later in the stage, put in two attacks on the climb, which blew the select group apart - as it was over eight minutes down on the breakaway. However, both times Vingegaard sprinted after his main rival for overall victory and rode up to his back wheel, with Pogačar looking like he was under more pressure than the race leader.
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When the remains of the select group went over the top of the climb and began descending, Pogačar attacked again, with Vingegaard once again going after him. Riders like Thomas, Romain Bardet (Team DSM) and Adam Yates (Ineos Grenadiers) were all distanced and eventually rode their way back up to the big two.
Up ahead, eventual stage winner Hugo Houle (Israel-Premier Tech) was making his move off the front of the breakaway and rode onto the base of the final climb solo having earlier been dropped by the group on the Port de Lers only to fight his way back. He went onto that final ascent with about 30 or 40 seconds in hand on a small chase group, as the breakaway exploded.
Houle raced over the top of that climb solo and remained 30-40 seconds ahead of a two-man chasing group; his team mate and compatriot Michael Woods and Matteo Jorgensen (Movistar). Woods sat on Jorgensen on the long descent towards the finish but any hope they would catch the lone leader was ended when Jorgensen crashed as he took chances racing downhill.
While the American rider eventually caught Woods and continued his pursuit of Houle, the gap to the lone leader was now more than 40 seconds and gradually growing out. In the latter stages, Jorgensen and Woods were being pursued by the Groupama-FDJ duo of Michael Storer and Valentin Madouas.
Houle took an emotional win - dedicated to his brother who was killed by a drunk driver around the time his pro career was only starting. Behind him, Madouas caught Woods and Jorgensen just before the finish and beat them in the sprint for 2nd place.
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Houle won by 1:10 from Madouas and Woods, with the unfortunate Jorgensen 4th at 1:12 and Storer 5th at 1:25. In total, 12 of the breakaway men survived out front. The last of them - Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) - was some 5:45 down on the stage winner and just 11 seconds up on the select group.
That favourites' group was led in by Van Aert, for 13th place, with the main favourites in that group, though with some exceptions. Adam Yates, Tom Pidcock (both Ineos Grenadiers) and Louis Meintjes (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux) all lost 1:22 to the Vingegaard-Pogačar group.
Romain Bardet (Team DSM), who looked like a final podium contender on Col du Granon on stage 11, was clearly having a bad day after yesterday's break in the action. He was paced in by some of his team mates after being dropped on the penultimate climb and again on the final ascent.
The Frenchman finished way back in 36th, some 3:36 down on the Vingegaard-Pogačar group. As a result, Bardet slips five places to 9th overall. There was no change in the top three ahead of some very hard days in the mountains; Vingegaard leading overall by 2:22 from Pogačar with Thomas 3rd at 2:43.
Nairo Quintana (Arkéa Samsic) and David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) moved up two and three places, respectively, to 4th and 5th while Yates drops one to 6th. Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-hansgrohe), who was in the breakaway but fell behind the riders who attacked from that group in the finale, was the biggest GC winner today.
He finished 6th on the stage, some 1:40 down on winner Houle. And that meant he gained 4:14 on the yellow jersey group and so moves up three places to 8th overall, now 6:13 off the yellow jersey.
