Friday’s stage of the Tour de France was yet another bunch sprint, and Jasper Philipsen took his second victory in four days. He’s the second rider in the 111th edition to win multiple stages. Wout van Aert was runner-up for the second consecutive day. Tadej Pogačar stayed safe in yellow before this weekend’s big Pyrenean throwdowns. Derek Gee was the top Canadian in 32nd, and he moved up to ninth on GC due to abandonment of other riders.
The Course
With even fewer climbs than Thursday on an even flatter, shorter route, Friday’s fare looked that it was for the sprinters.
We are travelling to Pau today at the #TDF2024, for what will be the sprinters’ last opportunity of the week. pic.twitter.com/ZcALcfycBr
— Soudal Quick-Step Pro Cycling Team (@soudalquickstep) July 12, 2024
The 111th Tour de France carried on without poor, crash-harried Primož Roglič. It was soon without ninth-place Juan Ayuso too due to illness.
❌ Sadly @juann_ayuso has had to abandon the race on his @LeTour debut. #TDF2024
Get well soon Juan 🙏 #WeAreUAE pic.twitter.com/Kcq53MtCDQ
— @UAE-TeamEmirates (@TeamEmiratesUAE) July 12, 2024
Ayuso’s eighth place teammate Adam Yates was part of a huge breakaway, as was Hugo Houle. Arkea-B&B Hotels, Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale, Soudal-Quick Step, Jayco-AlUla and Ineos Grenadiers all pulled in the peloton, and with 139 km remaining, echelons formed. Visma-Lease a Bike temporarily isolated Pogačar in the crosswinds.
Ineos might have felt conflicted about its work in the peloton. Up ahead, its man Michal Kwiatkowski and three others split off from the breakaway and crossed the day’s intermediate sprint a minute over the Yates-Houle group, which was soon reabsorbed by the field.
More crosswinds with 60 km remaining led to Visma, UAE-Emirates and Remco Evenepoel to drill it at the front, creating splits. All the Canadians were accounted for in the 34-strong yellow jersey group. Tadej Pogačar accelerated at its pointy end.
With the Kwiatkowski group absorbed, Yates found himself a minute behind his Slovenian leader, but the Brit’s group latched back on before the first Cat. 4 climb.
Richard Carapaz and Tobias Halland Johannessen attacked on the first categorized climb, loped over both of them, but were brought back with 23 km to go. This touched off several attacks and counterattacks.
But it would…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Canadian Cycling Magazine…