4 hours ago
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We’re about an hour away from the peloton rolling out of Muret and then it’ll be another 10 minutes to KM0 where the racing will get underway.
A quick reminder of the various standings
General classification
1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 50hrs 40mins 28 secs
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma–Lease a Bike) +4mins 13secs
3. Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe )+7mins 53secs
4. Oscar Onley (Team Picnic–PostNL) + 9mins 18secs
5. Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa–B&B Hotels) +10mins 21secs
6. Primoz Roglic (Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe) +10mins 34secs
7. Felix Gall (Decathlon–AG2R La Mondiale) +12mins
8. Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) + 12mins 33secs
9. Ben Healy (EF Education–EasyPost) +18mins 41secs
10. Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers) +22mins 57secs
Points classification
1. Jonathan Milan (Lidl–Trek) 251
2. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 223
3. Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin–Deceuninck) 190
4. Biniam Girmay (Intermarché–Wanty) 169
5. Tim Merlier (Soudal–Quick-Step) 150
6. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma–Lease a Bike) 135
7. Anthony Turgis (Team TotalEnergies) 130
8. Quinn Simmons (Lidl–Trek) 93
9. Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) 90
10. Oscar Onley (Team Picnic–PostNL) 88
Mountain classification
1. Lenny Martinez (Team Bahrain Victorious) 60
2. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 52
3. Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) 48
4. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma–Lease a Bike) 39
5. Michael Woods (Israel–Premier Tech) 38
6. Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe) 24
7. Ben Healy (EF Education–EasyPost) 20
8. Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal–Quick-Step) 16
9 Bruno Armirail (Decathlon–AG2R La Mondiale) 15
10. Michael Storer (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) 14
Preamble
It was nice of Tadej Pogacar to finally let some of the other riders to have a go yesterday and he still found a way to twist the knife further into the heart of Jonas Vingegaard’s beleaguered hopes of winning the Tour de France. Even the Dane’s most generous fans would struggle to describe him as a yellow jersey rival now. Pogacar’s advantage is 4mins 13secs and he is essentially racing against himself. The Slovenian has 21 stage wins and there is every chance that he will continue his rapid pursuit of Mark Cavendish’s record. Pogacar made it pretty clear after winning stage 13 on Friday that he is not planning to take any days off.
“I’m not here to make enemies,” he said, “but it’s the Tour, you cannot just back off if there’s the opportunity for a stage win. You never know when it’s your last day on the Tour.
“I will say it honestly. The team pays you to win, and there’s a big team behind me that supports me and that works every single day of their career to come to the Tour, to win the Tour. If there is an opportunity, you go for it. You can’t say no to a stage in the Tour.”
Still, UAE Emirates may look at the empty threat to Pogacar’s general classification lead and decide to play this one safe. There are three categorised climbs and a lumpy to descent into Carcassonne to contend with, so maybe there is a bit of hope for the breakaway? Should that be allowed to play out, such is the nature of professional cycling in this constant-go era that a winner for this stage will likely be a familiar name capable on the slopes from the one-day racing pack. Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Wout van Aert (Visma-LAB) are strong contenders, maybe even Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-LAB) or someone with that kind of profile.
For the good of the Tour, a non-Pogacar stage win would be good. Domination can quickly become dull and while there is nothing boring about Pogacar’s style of racing, cycling as a foregone conclusion is not much of a sport.
