Can’t stop, won’t stop. The day after Tadej Pogačar seized the yellow jersey, he triumphed on the brutally difficult first summit finish of the 2022 Tour de France: La Super Planche des Belles Filles. The UAE-Emirates ace won his first Tour de France in 2020 by storming up La Planche des Belles Filles in a time trial. The Slovenian now leads second place Jonas Vingegaard by 35 seconds. Michael Woods was the top Canadian in 28th and rose to 34th in the GC.
You can watch the 2022 Tour de France at FloBikes.
The Course
Friday’s parcours offered up the first summit finish of the 109th edition. At the midway point of 176 km came the first of two Cat. 3 ascents, but the day was really about La Super Planche des Belles Filles, 7 km of 8.7 percent, with grades of 20 and 24 percent in the final couple of kilometres. Gravel was the extra spicy ingredient–the Super in La Super Planche des Belles Filles–in the last 850 metres.
Back to Super Blanche des Belles Filles after three years!
Fireworks are expected on this hard #TDF2022 7km climb averaging 8.7%! pic.twitter.com/SQ0PNDHXHb
— Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team (@qst_alphavinyl) July 8, 2022
It was another day with a bonkers start, averaging 53 km/h in the first hour. After a few failed attempts, the biggest breakaway of the 2022 edition got loose and Michael Woods decided to try to bridge to it.
Unfortunately, Woods didn’t make it. Still, he was psyched for the stage, his 100th race day as an Israel-Premier Tech fellow.
Time to finally take on the 🏔🏔🏔here @LeTour . La Planche des Belles Filles awaits us today, and you can catch all the action LIVE on @flobikes .https://t.co/BCxUIwtza3 pic.twitter.com/Fqsfm2SfJD
— Michael Woods (@rusty_woods) July 8, 2022
There were a lot of likely lads in the 11-strong breakaway: Dylan Teuns, Giulio Ciccone, Mads Pederson, Lennard Kämna and Max Schachmann, who was only +2:07 of Pogačar. UAE-Emirates gave it a short tether. On the first Cat. 3, Col de la Grosse Pierre, there was a decanting of the breakaway. By the top of Cat. 3 Col des Croix the gap was just under 3:00.
La Super Planche des Belles Filles
First Tour de France mountain top finish is approaching (18 km to go), always increases hr. Above 100 bpm at the moment. Looks like getting excited. #TDF2022
⛰️ La Super Planche des Belles Filles (6.94 km, 8.82 %, 612 m) pic.twitter.com/yIQIWr8Fj3
— ammattipyöräily…
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