Tadej Pogačar won on Hautacam, put considerable time into his rivals, snapped up the yellow jersey from Ben Healy and rode into the lead of the KOM on Thursday’s first Tour de France day in the Pyrenees. Remco Evenepoel had a tough day but held on to the final podium spot. Michael Woods was active in the day’s breakaway, earning more KOM points and leading the race at one point.
The GC Situation Overnight
Would Pogačar’s Stage 11 crash have any bearing on his minute’s gap over Evenepoel and 1:17 over Vingegaard? Could Vauquelin claw back time on Jorgenson?
1) Ben Healy (Ireland/EF Education-Easypost) 41:01:13
2) Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia/UAE-Emirates) +0:29
3) Remco Evenepoel (Belgium/Soudal-QuickStep) +1:29
4) Jonas Vingegaard (Denmark/Visma-Lease a Bike) +1:46
5) Matteo Jorgenson (USA/Visma-Lease a Bike) +2:06
6) Kévin Vauquelin (France/Arkea-B&B Hotels) +2:26
The Course
It was time for the Pyrenees. The day ended atop legendary HC-rated Hautacam, a 13.5-km beast of 7.9 average percent. Preceding climbs Col du Soulor and Col des Bordères would be good places to lay an ambush. It was a hot day.
The breakaway was enormous, with 52 riders including Woods and Mathieu van der Poel springing free. The big GC riders all had teammates in the mob. Twelfth place Carlos Rodriguez was the best placed. There were a lot of passengers. By the time it hit Cat. 4 Côte de Labatmale in the middle of the 180-km route, its lead was 1:40.
Col du Soulor
Soulor is a sharp Cat. 1 at 11.8 km of 7.6 percent. On the approach, on a moderately uphill grade, the breakaway revved it up, dropping van der Poel and others. Rider after rider was shelled out the back, and after a couple of kilometres, the escape group was halved.
Visma-Lease a bike pulled the peloton onto the Cat. 1. Evenepoel lost contact.
Several things happened in quick succession: Matthias Skjelmose attacked from the peloton with Woods and a few others joining in. Healy was dropped, Jorgenson soon to fade as well. The latter situation forced Visma to ease up.
Woods countered a thrust from Michael Storer and led the race for a kilometre before his company returned. The Canadian made another move with 1.5 km to climb and soloed over the top, now at 21 KOM points to…
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