Wout Poels claimed his first stage win at the Tour de France at age 35 many years at the service of great leaders.The best personal result of the 2016 Liege-Bastogne-Liege winner was third at Andorra in 2021 until he soloed to victory at Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc.Wout Van Aet and Mathieu Burgaudeau rounded out the podium while Vingegaard and Pogacar arrived together again.
Alaphilippe and Lutsenko Attack
Mathieu van der Poel was the first attacker of the day but the peloton reacted to all initial offensives. A split in the bunch after 10k had Sepp Kuss and Felix Gall caught behind but it was all together again at km 16. Kung, Bettiol, Poelrdd, Dyuyven, O’Connor, Van deer Poel, Izagirre, Dinham, Turgis made a move but were reined in at km26. Politt escaped and was joined by Alaphilippe and Van Aert.
Martin in group of 39
A group of 37 behind the leading group was formed after a crash which ended the chase. The group included VanAert, Soler, Fraile, LeGac, Pinot, Amador, Cort, Powless, Uran, Landa, Poels, Haller, Konrad, Plitt, Ciccone, Skjelmose, Lopez, Peters, Van der Poel, Anderson, Costa, Martin, Izagirre, Aranburu, Hmilton, Woods, Houle, Neilands, Teuns, Craddock, Mezgec, Juul-Jernsen, Barguil, Guglielmi, Johannessen, Traeen, Burgaudeau. With 85k to go it became a lead group of 39 riders.
Poel Alone at Cote des Amerands
Costa overhauled Haller to become lone leader on the ascent to Croix Fry but was caught. Ciccone crested first. Later Soler attacked and then was joined by Van Aert, Poels and Neilands who crashed on the descent. Poels rode away solo up the Amerands with 10.7 to go. Yellow jersey group was reduced to Vingegaard, Adam Yates and Pogacar. Yates soloed ahead. Rodriguez joined them before Pogacar launched his first attack on the last kilometer. Vingegaard stuck to his wheel easily and kept the yellow jersey.
Stage
- Poels 4h40’45
- Van Aert +2’08
- Burgaudeau +3.00
General
- Vingegaard 62h34’17”
- Pogacar +10″
- Rodriguez +3.00
