Omne trium perfectum. Everything that comes in threes is perfect, or so ASO wished when they designed the 2023 Tour de France route. Their dreams seem to be coming true.
The second week slog from Clermont-Ferrand to Saint Gervais was presented as three stages for those not concerned by the overall victory and three in the mountains for those that were.
Quite straightforward, really, if you were in the latter category, as all you had to do was stay out the wind as much as possible, not be involved in any kind of crash and not get caught in a split as tiredness crept into the legs of everyone. Fairly simple tactics if you were at Jumbo-Visma and UAE Team Emirates, as they sat back and watched the squabbling for stages and occasionally took temporary control of proceedings if circumstances called for full attention.
A number of things have become quite clear as the Tour de France has reached the second rest day. Firstly, Jasper Philipsen has, barring accident, got the points jersey pretty much sewn up. Alpecin-Deceuninck are looking after him perfectly and he’s climbing well enough to make the time cuts.
The king of the mountains jersey and the team classification are far from decided with Neilson Powless replaced by a perky Giulio Ciccone now that the ascents are longer, while Jumbo-Visma back in charge of the yellow helmets after a brief hiatus from Bahrain Victorious and Ineos Grenadiers.
Things were looking complicated for both teams, but now they have stage wins by Pello Bilbao and Wout Poels and from Michal Kwiatokowski and Carlos Rodriguez, respectively, and they have way less pressure heading into the final week.
Vingegaard and Pogačar: a battle of bonus seconds
Who pulls on the winner’s yellow jersey will be a battle between Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar. Anyone else who looked like they could have been involved has been swept aside, as the big two trade blows at each strategic moment.
They are so closely matched it’s a battle of bonus seconds. The mountain-top finish of Grand Colombier on stage 13 set the tone as UAE Team Emirates rode all day in an effort to set up Pogačar for the win and he did gain eight seconds, but Jumbo-Visma took notes about their rivals and didn’t panic.
They rested Van Aert & Co for a revenge assault the following day when the steep slopes of Col de Joux Plane looked more suited to the yellow jersey…
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