There was little chill in Tuesday’s tenth stage of the Tour de France following the first rest day. There was action all day long, with the end result breakaway Pello Bilbao taking his first Tour victory. In doing so Bilbao jumped from 11th to 5th to threaten the podium. He dedicated his triumph to fallen teammate Gino Mader. Jonas Vingegaard kept the yellow jersey. The top Canadian was Michael Woods in 99th.
The Course
Tuesday’s profile resembled a piranha’s jawbone. It was up and down all day with five categorized climbs over 168 km from Vulcania to Issoire. The final climb was Cat. 3 Côte de la Chapelle-Marcousse cresting 28 km from the finish line. It was another hot day at the Tour.
Following a well deserved rest day, #TDF2023 resumes with a stage for the baroudeurs, between Vulcania and Issoire.
Five classified climbs and many others unranked should make for an exciting day. pic.twitter.com/qI8t2fJlyT
— Soudal Quick-Step Pro Cycling Team (@soudalquickstep) July 11, 2023
A route that this was sure to elicit a breakaway, but it took a while for a proper one to form, after all sorts of frenetic activity right from the gun. A few moves fizzled. The GC men were involved in the skirmishing–Tadej Pogačar not a believer in transition stages–and a few missed out. The situation after two of the five climbs and 50 km ridden was a breakaway septet, a chase septet 30 seconds behind, the yellow jersey group 45 seconds in arrears, and a group containing Wout Van Aert, Mathieu van der Poel, and the highest-positioned Frenchmen, David Gaudu and Romain Bardet, 2:30 back.
Col de la Croix Saint-Robert was the only Cat. 2 climb sandwiched among Cat. 3’s. At 6 km of 6.4 percent, it was likely to change the situation of the four groups. For one thing, the yellow jersey gang and the Gaudu-Bardet bunch reunited at its foot. From this newly-swelled company, 17th-place Guillaume Martin tried to bridge over to the septets out front. Ben O’Connor, fourth in the 2021 edition but down in 18th overnight, sailed over from the closest chase group to make an octet in the lead.
Warren Barguil accelerated and took the maximum KOM points. On the Croix Saint-Robert’s descent the chase containing Julian Alaphilippe finally linked up to create a squad of 14. The peloton was still +2:30. Esteban Chaves didn’t like the new breakaway arrangement, so he bounced and tipped…
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