Day four of the 2023 Tour de France concluded with a stopover in the Pyrenean gateway city of Pau and, while it may traditionally be a rest day host, this year the town will instead herald the arrival of the first mountain stages of the race.
The highest peak on Wednesday is at 1,540 metres above sea level and with a flat finish in Laruns, stage 5 of the Tour is far from the queen stage this July. However, after several days of GC attacks to kick things off in the hilly stages of the Basque Country, it looks likely that we’ll see more action among the top favourites on the 8.6% slopes of the Col de Marie Blanque.
The 162.7km stage is the first of a Pyrenean double-header, with Thursday’s stage 6 bringing a summit finish at Cauterets along with the high-mountain test of the Col du Tourmalet. If nothing else is guaranteed in the coming days, then second-placed Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) is primed to go on the attack, at least, having already gained 11 bonus seconds on his maillot jaune rival Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) through the opening four stages.
“We’ll attack in the Pyrenees. The Tour de France is long, but we’ll be a little safer if we can gain seconds here and there,” Pogačar said earlier this week.
What else to expect on the first of the two stages is somewhat up in the air, with his own teammate Adam Yates in the race lead and various members of UAE Team Emirates giving conflicting stories as to whether the duo are co-leaders or not.
Vingegaard will, as he has done so far, be watching Pogačar like a hawk. Jumbo-Visma directeur sportif Merijn Zeeman told Cyclingnews on Tuesday that the team has to stay ready day after day in case the Slovenian two-time winner makes a move.
“He tries to attack everywhere, eh?” he said ahead of the sprint stage 4 to Nogaro. “We have to be ready for that always because he’s an attractive bike racer. He goes for it and it means that we as a team have to always be ready.
“We’ll try to avoid him taking too many bonus seconds, of course,” he added, echoing the point that the Dutch squad have been happy to limit the damage in that regard so far.
Beyond the ‘big two’ and the Yates brothers (Simon is also riding high in third overall level with Pogačar) there is already something of a sense that the battle for the rest – both in the Pyrenees and through the remainder of the Tour – is for third place.
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