The Tour de France sprinters’ teams missed the boat this Thursday with the return to the plains, leaving breakaways to compete for victory that ultimately went to the daring Dane Kasper Asgreen. They bitterly regretted their tactics since this Friday, the profile of the 172.8km stage between Moirans-en-Montagne and Poligny traced entirely in the Jura suited the adventurers better. And it was Slovenian Matej Mohoric who won just ahead of Kasper Asgreen, who narrowly missed the double.
As often since the start of this Tour, the battle to take the breakaway of the day was tough. After 56km of racing, a breakaway of 9 riders opened the way and benefited from the backing of the peloton under the impetus of Nils Politt (Bora). At the front, we find in particular the French Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal Quick-Step) and Warren Barguil (Arkéa Samsic) with the winner of the Limoges stage Mads Pedersen (Trek-Lidl). Unfortunately, the German rider Nils Politt suffered a mechanical incident. The Bora rider broke his chain and his chances of victory at Poligny. The eight survivors then gradually lost their lead. 65km from the finish, Jasper Philipsen settled the intermediate sprint of the peloton and did not get up. Quickly the green jersey brought back a group of 24 riders on the runaways of the day, bringing the breakaway to 32 riders.
Alongside the Belgian were his sprint sidekick Mathieu Van der Poel (Alpecin Deceuninck) and sprinters still in their legs (Jordi Meeus (Bora), Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco AlUla) and Christophe Laporte (Jumbo-Visma)). If the combative of the day before Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Dstny) had ants in the legs, the Belgian rider spent more than 30 kilometers at the front with Simon Clarke. In vain.
In the Ivory Coast, the last difficulty of the day with 2.3 km at 5.9% average, the strongest of the breakaway are gone. The winner of the day before Kasper Asgreen launched hostilities, well followed by Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious) and Ben O’Connor (AG2R Citroën). The three men quickly returned to the man who will wear the combative bib for a second consecutive day. Just before the summit Campenaerts no longer held the wheels. The chase was lively, the green jersey Philipsen and Christophe Laporte did everything to get into the top three but without succeeding.
In the atypical final, 8km straight, the three leading men lost nothing and were able to play for victory in the sprint. Slower Ben O’Connor launched from a distance but was quickly overtaken by Kasper Asgreen. The Dane, faster than his companions of the day, missed the double by nothing. Matej Mohoric on the bike throw won with a gut on the line. Third stage victory for Bahrain Victorious on this Grande Boucle after that of Pello Bilbao and Wout Poels. The Slovenian achieves the third success of his career on the Tour de France after his two stage victories in 2021.
In general, no change. Vingegaard still has a ‘7.35” lead over Pogacar and ‘10.45” over Adam Yates who widened the gap with Carlos Rodriguez. The first Frenchman is David Gaudu 10th. Tomorrow, the final mountain stage on Saturday with 135.5 km between Belfort and Markstein-Fellering.