There is no rest day to go across France from the Alps to Catalonia. This block of stages will see the first real mountain climbs, starting with with 2 half-Andorran stages. But the block actually opens on Wednesday with a flat Team Time Trial.

Standings after stage 4

General

  1. D. Gaudu 🇫🇷 FDJ
  2. J. Vingegaard 🇩🇰 Visma – s.t.
  3. G. Ciccone 🇮🇹 Lidl-Trek – 8″
  4. E. Bernal 🇨🇴 Ineos – 14″
  5. T. Pidcock and 19 other riders – 16″

Points

  1. M. Pedersen 🇩🇰 Lidl-trek – 78 pts
  2. E. Vernon 🇬🇧 IPT – 76 pts
  3. J. Philipsen 🇧🇪 Alpecin – 75 pts
  4. G. Ciccone 🇮🇹 Lidl-Trek – 67 pts
  5. J. Vingegaard 🇩🇰 Visma – 65 pts
  6. D. Gaudu 🇫🇷 FDJ – 62 pts

Mountain

  1. J. Nicolau 🇪🇸 Caja Rural – 11 pts
  2. S. Quinn 🇺🇸 EF – 9 pts
  3. A. Verre 🇮🇹 Arkéa – 8 pts
  4. L. Vervaeke 🇧🇪 Soudal-QS – 8 pts
  5. J. Vingegaard 🇩🇰 Visma – 5 pts

Teams

  1. Visma 🇳🇱
  2. UAE, Astana and Soudal – 2″

(Except for Visma, I wouldn’t have given those team names if I had been asked; it’s a bit of a surprise.)

  • Deschanel2017OPM
    1·
    1 month ago

    Stage 9: Sunday 31,

    This last stage of the first block, before the rest day on Monday, consists of a hilly course ending with a final climb to a ski ressort in the Sierra de la Demanda (located on the other side of the Ebro, it is not a part of the Pyrenees).

    Perhaps will the GC riders finally attempt something (the next day being off), despite the strange slopes of the final climb: the opposite of a ramp, it starts hard but gradually gets easier, to the point that it finishes as a false-flat.

    • EvilCartyen@feddit.dkM
      2·
      1 month ago

      Funny enough, Vingegaard today said that he hadn’t done his homework and didn’t know he attacked so far out, so when he saw the 10 km sign he was like ‘what did I get myself into?!’. Pretty convincing victory, though!

      • Deschanel2017OPM
        2·
        1 month ago

        Mmmyeah… well, it’s hard to believe he hadn’t viewed any profile; profile indicating that the only hard hard slopes were in the first kilometres of the climb, therefore it was the only place to make a difference in solo.

        Would he have been caught later on, it shouldn’t have been a great problem as he would only have had to stay in the wheels of a group until the finish line. So I don’t even consider it a risky move, as situations were likely to mellow out after the first part.

        It was the one place to attack, and the risk of backslash was very limited. The only concern was to do all that and gain little out of it, which is more or less what happened. Well, “little” over Almeida (and Pidcock) but still a significant gain over Ciccone and others.

      • EvilCartyen@feddit.dkM
        1·
        1 month ago

        Yeah, he’s not in a hurry to work as a domestique for Almeida, as the commentators on Danish HBO Max stated diplomatically.