Vingegaard and Pogačar locked together after Week Two of the Tour, 10 seconds the difference

In his 21st Grand Tour, Dutch rider Wout Poels took his first triumph on Sunday’s stage of the Tour de France, Bahrain-Victorious’s second. Five teams now have multiple wins after 15 stages. There was little to separate yellow jersey Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar on Sunday’s summit finish, and the 10-second gap established on Saturday is retained going into the final rest day. The top Canadian was breakaway rider Hugo Houle in 13th.

The Course

Sunday’s fare was five categorized climbs over 179 km from Les Gets les Portes du Soleil to the summit finish at Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc. The final climb was a two-part affair. First came the wall of Cat. 2 Côte des Amerands, 2.7 km at 10.1 percent, and then Mont-Blanc, 7.7 km of 7 percent.

Five classified climbs and a summit finish on Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc.

We should be in for a hard and spectacular #TDF2023 stage, with multiple focus points: the stage win, the KOM jersey and the fight for the overall victory. pic.twitter.com/MVK0vbqVrf

— Soudal Quick-Step Pro Cycling Team (@soudalquickstep) July 16, 2023

After a few failed attempts and a large crash in the first hour, an immense breakaway featuring every team except Lotto-Dstny formed. By the foot of the first climb, Cat. 1 Col de la Forclaz de Montmin, Julian Alaphilippe and Alexey Lutsenko were ahead of a 36-strong chase containing Wout Van Aert, Mathieu van der Poel, Wout Poels, Canadians Hugo Houle and Michael Woods, 12th place Guillaume Martin, 14th place Thibaut Pinot, 15th place Mikel Landa and the two top non-Vingegaard-Pogačar guys in the KOM competition, Neilson Powless and Giulio Ciccone. The peloton was 7:30 back.

Loulou being Loulou 😁#TDF2023 pic.twitter.com/v7PajsfWZu

— Soudal Quick-Step Pro Cycling Team (@soudalquickstep) July 16, 2023

Powless and Ciccone flashed out from the chase group to vie for the polka dot points. Ciccone snagged two more points than Powless, but EF Education-Easypost’s American was back in the polka dots for real, not just keeping the jersey warm for Vingegaard. Ciccone was 10 points back of Powless.

Lutsenko and Alaphilippe returned to the flock in the valley between Forclax de Montmin and Cat. 1 Col de la Croix Fry. With the gap at 8:20, it looked good for the breakaway. Bora-Hansgrohe’s Austrian Marco Haller dashed clear of his breakmates. At the beginning of Croix Fry, Rui Costa lit out after him and they…