Amidst all the drama on the stage 11 finisher of the Col de Granon, only rider in the top 70 of the Tour de France‘s general classification stayed where he was upon leaving Albertville in the morning.
The yellow jersey swapped hands with Jonas Vingegaard wresting it from the cracked Tadej Pogačar, while the likes of Romain Bardet and Nairo Quintana leapt up into the top five with strong riders on the steep summit finish.
In between the now-former yellow jersey holder and the Colombian, Ineos Grenadiers co-leader Geraint Thomas stayed firm in fourth overall. The Welshman raced to fourth on the day, 1:38 behind Vingegaard and 1:13 up on Pogačar, and, though he now lies further away from yellow than he had in the morning, he’s now just 10 seconds off second-placed Bardet.
Speaking after the stage, Thomas evaluated the day’s racing and his own results in his typically understated way, calling it a “solid day” for himself.
“It was a solid day, a hard effort there, and it all came on that last climb,” he said. “It was just basically get up it as quickly as you could basically. I didn’t expect Pogačar to crack like he did but a decent day out really for us.
“I think Vingegaard has got a clear advantage now,” he added, referring to the Dane’s 2:16 GC lead. “But obviously 10 seconds off Bardet, Pogačar is still there right in amongst it with Quintana. [Adam] Yatesy is still there. It’s all to play for.
“Obviously Vingegaard and Jumbo are super strong but as we saw with Pogačar, nobody expected that today, so you never know with Vingegaard. We’ve just got to keep in the mix and see how it goes.”
While the events of the final climb will take the headlines of the day, the race had blown up far earlier as Jumbo-Visma attacked hard with Primož Roglič and Jonas Vingegaard with 60km to go on the Col du Galibier.
Ineos Grenadiers initially had three in the main selection caused by the moves, with Thomas accompanied by Yates and Tom Pidcock. The latter duo would drop, but Yates recovered to finish sixth after passing Pogačar on the final climb, while Thomas doggedly stuck at the front throughout the chaos.
“We kind of expected it to go off a bit and it really did. Jumbo-Visma were super strong, and they had a clear plan. I expected it to be tough on the Télégraphe and Galibier but didn’t quite expect it to turn out how it was, with four of us doing 30-30s at the bottom of the Galibier.
“I was feeling alright, just trying to let them play around themselves. I would’ve…
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