Wout van Aert has ridden this Tour de France with scant consideration for preserving energy, and he continued in the same vein on the road to Hautacam on stage 18, attacking at the very moment the peloton hit kilometre zero just outside Lourdes. Another day, another outlandish feat of strength.
A little under four hours later, Van Aert was still at the front. He led the remnants of the day’s breakaway over the Col des Spandelles and onto the lower slopes of the final haul to Hautacam, where, remarkably, he dropped Thibaut Pinot with a rasping acceleration.
An even more incongruous moment was to follow on the upper ramps of the climb, when maillot jaune Jonas Vingegaard bridged across in the company of their Jumbo-Visma teammate Sepp Kuss and his closest challenger Tadej Pogačar. Kuss soon swung off, his work done, and then Van Aert took over.
After a day on the attack and an entire Tour spent toggling between contesting sprints and attacking from the gun, one might have anticipated little more than a symbolic show of support from Van Aert. Instead, Van Aert produced the mile or so of mountain pace-making that effectively sealed the Tour for Vingegaard.
4.4km from the summit, Pogačar finally realised he could go no further. The man who has won the past two Tours de France was somehow dropped on an hors categorie climb by a rider who has won two bunch sprints on this one.
Van Aert persisted for another 500m or so, pulling Vingegaard ever further clear of Pogačar, before he eventually relented. Pogačar would come past him again a little further up the climb, but even a soft-pedalling Van Aert was fresh enough to stay clear of the rest. The green jersey of the Tour punched the air as he came home third on the stage, 2:10 down on Vingegaard.
“We wanted to take time and we succeeded. I am also surprised that it went so smoothly. In the end, I was able to pull myself completely apart for Jonas,” Van Aert said in the mixed zone afterwards.
On Wednesday, Van Aert had mathematically sealed victory in the points classification and Vingegaard, who now has a lead of 3:26 over Pogačar, has more or less done likewise in the general classification. On Sunday, Jumbo-Visma will become the first team to ride into Paris with the yellow and green jerseys since Telekom did so with Jan Ullrich and Erik Zabel in 1997. For good measure, Vingegaard’s victory atop Hautacam has also given him the polka dot jersey.
I know that I can be very strong on one day in the mountains when I…
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