Brutal Bastille Day battle on stage 10 - Domestique Debrief

Unusually, the riders raced for a second Monday in a row. This is odd in the Tour de France but there is always an exception. That being the French national holiday of Bastille Day. This is the first time the race has done this since 2014 when the holiday fell on a Monday yet again. 

With nine days of racing in the legs the peloton would have been feeling the fatigue already so a visit to the Massif Central probably wasn’t what riders had in mind. That said, the attacks were constant throughout the race both in the break and the peloton.

From just one look at the stage profile today you would have said it had a breakaway victory written all over it. And while the break did make it, the peloton didn’t make it easy for them to begin with. There was a plethora of early moves but eventually a large group of very strong multi-talented riders got away including previous stage winner Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost), Giro d’Italia winner Simon Yates (Visma | Lease a Bike), US champion Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek), French star Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious), Ben O’Connor (Jayco-AlUla), Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) and many more besides.

Simmons was probably the most active as he tried to whittle the group down to a more manageable size. However, he would later suffer for these multiple moves and finish over 17 minutes down. 

The main focus has to be on two men. Healy gave his heart and soul on the bike with the help of his three teammates, Harry Sweeny, Neilson Powless and Alex Baudin. They managed to drag the gap out to over six minutes, seeing the Irishman comfortably in the virtual yellow jersey. It was a superb ride by EF but also shone a light on the potential frailties of UAE Team Emirates as they struggled to control the time gap as well as more major GC riders at the same time. 

Healy, solo with about 30 kilometres to go, then just rode flat out on the front of the break. Not once asking for a turn from his breakaway companions who were struggling to hold onto the wheel. In the end, just two riders managed to drop him and take the top two spots on the stage. Healy took third just 31” down and took yellow by just 29” over Pogačar. 

The first hints of what’s to come in this race came today as the team of Jonas Vingegaard, Visma | Lease a Bike, began using their old attack overload tactic on Tadej Pogačar and his UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad. 

Saying that, it was a bit pared back. Whether that was because Vingegaard wasn’t feeling it or it was more just to see where their rivals were at, I’m not sure. But the lack of attack from Vingegaard was very noticeable. Matteo Jorgenson and Sepp Kuss went on multiple attacks. The former attracted a lot more attention than his countryman, as Kuss came into the stage more than 18 minutes down. 

And, to an extent, it did work. Pogačar was left with just Adam Yates and Jhonatan Narváez until the penultimate climb when the Visma | Lease a Bike pace left the yellow jersey isolated at points. This won’t have been helped by the loss of João Almeida following a crash and an illness for Pavel Sivakov. 

Other teams eventually joined in with Oscar Onley (Picnic-PostNL), Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) and even Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) all having digs. 

This didn't deter the race leader, though. No, Pogačar floated serenely through the group, marking only the most dangerous riders. He didn’t even bother marking the half-hearted move by the double Olympic champion, Evenepoel. The fact that he left the white jersey to go seemed to surprise Evenepoel and he immediately sat up despite having a gap. 

In the end, it was more of the same. Pogačar launched with Vingegaard locked onto the wheel, the Dane losing the wheel only briefly following the yellow jersey’s peak acceleration, but staying in touch as they left their rivals far behind. They took just a few seconds on their rivals at the finish as they completely sat up. 

The tactics used by Visma | Lease a Bike may hint at some exciting mountain stages to come. That being said, Pogačar is still very much the top dog, even when isolated. 

There were so many valiant efforts on this stage but one definitely stood out. It wasn’t a stage win of a yellow jersey but it was something for the French crowd to cheer about on their big day. Lenny Martinez made it into the breakaway and immediately got to work sweeping up all the KOM points available. 

The stage had more points than all of the previous nine combined and the young French climber saw his chance to take a jersey for France on Bastille Day. He also was attempting something that his grandfather, Mariano Martínez, achieved, taking the win on Bastille Day. 

While he wasn’t able to hold onto the front group, he gave his all to get back to the front and achieve the best result possible, giving himself a nasty nosebleed on the way. He managed to finish in 8th place, leading in Pogačar and Vingegaard as well as taking the polka-dot jersey into the rest day. He leads that competition by 11 points over new yellow and white jersey holder Healy with 27 points to the Irishman’s 16.

While it isn’t quite the same as what Pogačar pulled off last year, winning the GC prize in both the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France in the same season, Simon Yates added more success to his first season with Visma | Lease a Bike as he took the 10th stage of the Tour de France - his first victory at the race in six years. 

Despite describing himself as “rusty”, Yates managed to get into the day’s breakaway and then made the final selection of riders, where he made just one major move off the front. That tactical nous saw the rider from Greater Manchester storm to victory, looking rather smooth as he did so. 

However, he was pushed all the way to the line by a flying Dutchman in the shape of Thymen Arensman. The INEOS Grenadiers man gave his all to try and take his first Tour stage win but just came 9” short of the win. His form appears to be improving, though and there are plenty of stages to come that will suit him. 

But Yates can be happy with his stage win as he turns his focus to fully supporting Vingegaard. He revealed in his post-race interview that the idea was that he would be a satellite rider for his leader along with Victor Campenaerts. The gap grew far too large for Yates to play that role so he was given carte blanche on the stage while Campenaerts dropped back and gave his all for Vingegaard.

Yates’ involvement up to now has been a bit below par with him definitely matching his self-review of being rusty. Maybe this controlled climbing performance will help him kick on into weeks two and three and be a real key man for Vingegaard and, of course, Jorgenson. 

Spare a thought to the riders, team staff (especially the mechanics) and the race staff as they all travel over 350km from Mont-Dore to Toulouse for the first rest day. 

Healy and the other leader’s jersey wearers Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) and Lenny Martinez would have also had to stay a bit longer for all the duties they have to perform such as podiums, jersey signing, interviews and anti-doping tests. They will arrive much later than all their fellow riders. 

The mechanics, who often work long into the night anyway and often miss out on the meals made by the team due to them working so hard, will be working even later tonight and probably won’t see their bed until the small hours of Tuesday morning. And even though it is a rest day, they will have to be up and ready once again for the riders who will want to spin the legs and go for some efforts or maybe a café ride.

This is why you can occasionally see the mechanics asleep in the back of the team cars during the quieter points of the race as it is their one chance to rest. 

The logistics of a bike race are exhausting and having done a fair bit of driving across France and various other nations for teams, I can fully appreciate how tough a job it is. That said, I loved every second of doing it and I’m sure they’re exactly the same. Sure, the transfer to Toulouse is a bit ridiculous, but there will be some room to breathe on the rest day before the intensity begins again for stage 11.