A sort of mountainous stage, but mostly flat roads. The breakaway has a good chance and someone might be able to take the yellow jersey today and keep it for a while as long as the UAE and Visma-LAB agree to it.
Catalan cream of the harvest: Alex Molenaar (Caja Rural), Frank van den Broek (Picnic-PostNL) and Felix Engelhardt (Jayco) stayed on the sidelines to compete for the intermediate sprint and collect the King of the Mountain points available on the track.
It was surprising that other teams didn’t try to intervene, but the result was that local rider Molenaar got the polka dot jersey and Caja Rural achieved something that, although modest, may be more than what other teams manage.
Isaac del Toro might have thought it wasn’t his day when, 60km into the race, he had a mechanic and was left standing on the road as the UAE team’s lead car passed him. The team’s second car then did the same, only to slam on the brakes and send the mechanic back onto the track for the Mexican, who appeared to have received assistance from the Visma and Ineos cars, which is prohibited by the rules (#2.3.029), but no one noticed, or the interference of the rival teams was not significant, and he avoided a huge time penalty.
After waiting two minutes, Del Toro chased after him and returned with plenty of time. Unlike Paul Seixas, who later suffered a puncture and after taking a teammate’s bike, stopped to get a replacement and returned to the group as they entered the final route and had to move up the field on the first ascent of Montjuïc, but he took it in his stride.
At the Montjuic circuit, Brandon McNulty made a huge turn, dragging the peloton down for two laps as many riders were dropped. We arrived for the last time, there were no attacks, but there were few riders left. Richard Carapaz and Matthias Skjelmos tried to escape on the descent, but Isaac del Toro pursued them and carved the final corner to escape. The likes of Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel marked Tadej Pogačar, allowing Del Toro to consolidate his lead before the sprint even began. Pogačar swerved in the road, trying to divert the chase so that Del Toro could win. It was a gift wrapped with a ribbon on top, as Pogačar could clearly win by flying around while his opponents raced at full speed. Perhaps so used to winning that outwardly the offer of victory seemed to please Pogačar more than when he won Milan-San Remo in March.
The intensity of the Montjuic climbs made this a GC day. The front group of 16 riders stretched out by 10 seconds at the finish, for a total of ten riders over the course of a minute. Another 11 riders within two minutes, and then in 38th place was Matthias Vacek, more than five minutes behind.
Route: 196 km and 3850 m of vertical ascent, making it a mountain stage.
- Forest fires are raging in the Eastern Pyrenees department, including one about 50 km from the highway. There is no danger to the race, but it does require a lot of local resources, especially firefighters and local government officials who would normally be deployed to provide race safety and crowd control. The decision, made last night, says the race will go ahead as planned, but without the promotional caravan and spectators for the final 40km when the race reaches France.
The distinctive feature of today’s climbs is that they are all gradual and take place on large roads. From the start the path is uphill, with a noticeable climb beyond Sant Feliu leading to two real mountain passes: Creu del Serra and Can Tollo.
The Collada de Toses is a long, gradual climb for most of the route, but after Toses the gradient becomes 7-10% for the last 5km on the “old” side road. After the summit comes Via La Molina, a ski resort that often appears in March in the Volta of Catalunya.
After crossing into France, the Col du Calvère is no Golgotha.
Finish: This is the town of Les Angles, and then a sharp turn, which is 1.7 km away. This means a climb to the finish that is generally around 7% through a series of hairpins to the finish. red flame and then forward and up to the line.
Contenders: today the breakaway has a great chance of success. Many riders are already well behind the GC – only 50 riders are within 10 minutes – and those who pose no threat to the likes of UAE and Visma-LAB may be given a pass for the day. So there are a lot of applicants, but not many frequent winners. It’s only the third round, but today it’s open to many, including the bonus of the yellow jersey, a huge opportunity for both riders and teams, so we should get off to a crazy start.
The winner will have to climb uphill along the way and then climb the final 1.7km to the finish line unless they have broken away and gained an advantage by then.
Ben Healy (EF) is an archetypal pick, he hasn’t shown any form lately but maybe he and his team like it that way; teammate Alex Boden is going very well. In fact, the team seems made for such mountain days, see below. Georg Steinhauser And Michael Walgren too much.
If Quinn Simmons (Liddle Trek) has his hair tied in a bun so be careful, but today is a hilly area for him. Raul Garcia Pierna (Movistar) is in good shape, but a win from him and the team is rare.
More than seven minutes down Luke Plapp and ten minutes for Ben O’Connor means Jayco won’t be on the GC, and Plapp is suited to the scene and, like many Andorran and Girona residents, knows today’s roads plus Mauro Schmid It’s comfortable on hilly days too.
Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) is in good form but is likely to be stage-focused and this option is less suitable. Ewan Costiu might try this instead. Marco Frigo (NSN), Georg Zimmermann (Loto-Intermarche) and Anton Charming (Uno-X) also fits the bill as it doesn’t require a GC and doesn’t have to defend a GC leader, but by now we’ve encountered the rare winners for whom a Tour stage is just a dream. Perhaps Red Bull will allow Maxim Van Gils spend the day on the road.
If Ineos don’t race in GC, what can they do? An obvious coincidence would be Kevin Vauquelin. He kicked twice so he lost time, but his form is also questionable, especially at the end of the stage, but if he was 100%, he will be worth watching.
If the lead can’t hold then Tadej Pogačar (UAE) is the obvious candidate, he has already given victory, but if he does it again Isaac Del Toro it then frees him from the yellow jersey and the daily responsibilities that come with it.
 | – |
 | Van Gils, Healy, Boden, Plapp |
 | Garcia Pierna, Schmid, Del Toro, Pogačar |
Weather: 30°C, sunny, southeast wind 30 km/h keeps crowds moving most of the day.
- A note about upcoming weather. Météo-France, the government weather agency, says the hot weather will last as long as forecast but will not reach the peak of the recent heatwave at the end of June. Yellow and orange weather warnings are in effect in some departments, including the Eastern Pyrenees where the finish takes place. But no red warnings, which mean an absolute risk to public health and are accompanied by restrictions, including the cancellation of stages to protect spectators and staff (rider management is a separate issue).
TV: KM0 at 12:20 and the finish is forecast at 17:10 Central European Summer Time.. This is a likely breakaway stage, most riders are fresh and so there should be a big battle to try and clear while teams like UAE and Visma-LAB try to filter out those allowed on the road, so watch from KM0 if you can.