The appetite comes with eating it seems and it is certainly not the Cofidis team who will claim the opposite. After having waited fifteen long years to taste victory in the Tour de France, the team managed by Cédric Vasseur has just had two successes in the space of nine days. The French flash Victor Lafay had led the way on July 4 in the sunny bay of La Concha in San Sebastian. Ion Izagirre doubled the bet for the red and whites in Belleville-en-Beaujolais after a hair-raising day, once again punctuated by all-out attacks.
The peloton once again did not have the opportunity to breathe much before the indigestible menu of the next few days in the Alps. The perilous alpine challenge will begin Friday with the arrival at altitude at the Grand Colombier and its 17.4 km ascent at an average of 7.1%. This Thursday, we had to wait an hour and a half after the start from Roanne and the regrouping of about fifteen riders at the front to see a little more clearly in this hilly stage and cut out for backpackers with five climbs (from 2nd and 3rd categories).
Among the fugitives, we found in particular Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-Quick Step) and Thibaut Pinot (Groupama FdJ) or Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), reinvigorated after his cold dragged on Wednesday. The first quickly let go while the second, long ideally placed, showed his limits on the last climb of the day, towards the Col de la Croix Rosier, a terrain which should have been favorable to him, after having swallowed van der Poel left alone too soon.
The Basque veteran Ion Izagirre, complete runner and good climber, succeeded where Pinot failed by dropping off his breakaway companions about thirty kilometers from the finish, even widening the gap alone in the descent and the final to go pick up his second victory in the Grande Boucle, seven years after that obtained in Morzine where the Tour will go precisely on Saturday in one of the flagship stages of the 2023 edition.
CLASSEMENT 12e étape: 1. Izagirre (Esp/COF) 3 h 51 min 42 ; 2. Burgaudeau (woman/TEN) à 58”; 3. Jorgenson (E-U/MOV) 58”; 4. Benoot (Bel/TJV) 1’06; 5. Johannessen (Nor/UXT) 1’11; 6. Pinot (woman/GFC) 1’13; 7. Martin (Woman/COF) 1’13..
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION: 1. Vingegaard (Dan/TJV) 50 h 30′ 23; 2. Pogacar (Slo/UAD) at 17”; 3. Hindley (Aus/BOH) 2’40; 4. Rodríguez (Esp/IGD) 4’22; 5. Bilbao (Esp/TBV) 4’34… 9. Gaudu (Fra/GFC) 6’01…
13th stage, this Friday: Châtillon-sur-Chalaronne – Grand Colombier (137.8 km).
