This ‘Tour’ is in fact a sort of Brittany → Lake Geneva straight line in 9 stages.
22 teams of 7 riders are engaged, including all top riders I believe.
This ‘Tour’ is in fact a sort of Brittany → Lake Geneva straight line in 9 stages.
22 teams of 7 riders are engaged, including all top riders I believe.
Stage 8 (penultimate) (Saturday 2: 13:45–14:00 → 17:15–17:45)
This summit finish will probably be decisive.
At the other end of the stage, starting directly with a 13 km climb will probably thin the ranks of the peloton even if no strong pace is put there.
I didn’t understand Squiban’s (🇫🇷 UAE) attitude at all. She didn’t dispute the mountain points to Chabbey (🇨🇭 FDJ) and just went for the second place on each of the 2 climbs the breakaway passed ahead. The only reason I can imagine is Chabbey offered her money, because I can’t figure out any sportive reason, and I also fail to see what Chabbey could have exchanged in the sport domain.
For the final win… Let’s sum it up by saying that the favourite Vollering (🇳🇱 FDJ) massively failed one more time. She was beaten hard by Gigante (🇦🇺 AG) and above all Ferrand-Prevost (🇫🇷 Visma). She could have been beaten by Niewadoma (🇵🇱 Canyon) as well, if the latter had got another rider’s help like Vollering behind her got (and the first two riders got too before her).
With only one stage remaining, the biggest team with the biggest favourite, FDJ, has zero stage victory and won’t win the Tour unless Ferrand-Prevot has an accident and Gigante is a bit dropped; even the podium was compromised 1 mile from the line. That’s the result of the “all for Vollering, all for stage #8” plan.