A few days ago, the UAE team posed a little riddle to the rest of the peloton. “Okay, guys, plan C. We jump the tiger. If the crocodiles have to swim, you jump,” radioed the team management to their drivers around the Slovenian captain Tadej Pogacar during a moderately difficult passage. And afterwards the UAE representatives were quite amused by their cryptic code, which nobody understood.
This Friday, however, UAE raised a bit of a mystery again, this time with the tactics the team used to tackle yellow-bearer Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma). With the first of three consecutive mountain stages due to finish at the top of the Grand Colombier, UAE pedaled like predators all day. As soon as a breakaway group was gone a few minutes, the team kept up the pace, first over the many flat kilometers of the day, then also in the steep sections of the 18-kilometer final climb. One jumbo helper after the other fell out of the back of the peloton, at some point Vingegaard had only one companion left, the whole performance of the tigers was terrifying, only the upper tiger did: nothing. Or to put it correctly: almost nothing.
The Slovenian finally started with about 600 meters to go, and he sprinted the last 500 meters as if he weren’t on one of the steepest Tour ramps, but rather on the Berlin velodrome. As with two previous arrivals, Vingegaard was only able to follow with difficulty – but of course there was not much distance left to take time from Vingegaard. Pogacar finished four seconds ahead of the Dane and third place (behind stage winner Michal Kwiatkowski and Maxim van Gils) gets an additional four seconds of time credit, which means he is now just nine seconds behind Vingegaard in the overall standings. (Click here for the result of the stage and the ratings.)
Michal Kwiatkowski from Poland wins the stage.
(Photo: Jasper Jacobs/dpa)
“It was a small victory for us with the seconds. It’s a good start,” said Pogacar, but still didn’t seem completely satisfied. And Vingegaard, for his part, acted as if everything had gone wonderfully: “A couple of guys were able to let go early, I was never alone.” But this mountain finish once again confirmed the impression of the first half of the tour that the two opponents are about equally strong in the fight for the tour victory. Only once has there been a slightly clearer gap, that was on the first Pyrenees stage when Pogacar lost a minute. Since then he has been gnawing away like a tiger second by second of this time.
Pogacar’s restraint on the Colombier had the unusual side effect for the other classification drivers that they were actually able to keep up with the two matadors of this tour until just before the finish line. Australian Bora captain Jai Hindley also finished shortly after Pogacar/Vingegaard and defended his third place overall with a 1:57 lead over Spaniard Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos).
But after this start of the difficult three-mountain block, there are now two stages that are designed differently. On Friday there was a long run-up to a steep finale. On Saturday there are four difficult climbs (including the Col de Joux Plane from the honor category to top it off) on the way to Morzine, on Sunday there are three. It’s quite possible that this is terrain that suits the crocodiles a little better than the tigers.