Tour de France verdict: Jumbo-Visma look incredibly strong across the board, their dominance has shades of Team Sky
What a difference a day makes. On Wednesday and Thursday, as the general classification contenders kept their powder dry in anticipation of bigger tests to come this weekend, the 107th Tour de France was in danger of being written off as a snooze-fest.
No one who watched Friday's wind-ravaged stage to Lavaur will quickly forget the sight of the peloton being splintered into so many pieces. Britain’s Adam Yates survived the gusts, holding on to the yellow jersey he won in such strange circumstances two days ago. But a number of his rivals were not so lucky.
The infamous vent d’Autan - the wind which blows through the southwest region of France and which is known locally as the “vent qui rend fou,” the wind that drives one crazy - caused major splits on the run-in to Lavaur, the small town in the Tarn last used as a finish in 2011 when Mark Cavendish won a rain-soaked sprint.
There were flashbacks of last year’s stage to nearby Albi, when France’s Thibaut Pinot lost 1min40sec to his rivals in the crosswinds.
This time Pinot and his Groupama-FDJ stayed safe. But Tadej Pogacar [UAE Team Emirates], Mikel Landa [Bahrain-McLaren], Richie Porte [Trek-Segafredo] and Richard Carapaz [Ineos Grenadiers] were all caught out as the race fractured, losing 80 seconds.
It was a frantic day right from KM0, with Peter Sagan’s Bora-Hansgrohe team putting the hammer down immediately from the start in Millau in an ultimately successful attempt to wrest the green jersey back from Irishman Sam Bennett [Deceuninck-QuickStep]. It was timely, too, given the criticism the Tour faced on Wednesday and Thursday, when the racing was relatively sedate.
Wout van Aert [Jumbo-Visma] eventually won a reduced bunch sprint, underlining his status as the dominant rider in the peloton right now. The Belgian, who also won Wednesday’s stage to Privas, is being used primarily as a domestique at this race, working for Jumbo's leaders Primoz Roglic and Tom Dumoulin. But when he is not pulling them along or collecting water bottles for team mates he looks unbeatable. This win was High Aert, though he preferred to focus on others afterwards. “Today I think especially we have to mention Sepp Kuss and George Bennett, they are 60kgs or less and [in the run-in] they were pulling at 60kph,” he noted.
It is true that Jumbo-Visma look incredibly strong across the board right now. Their dominance has shades of Team Sky at their peak. Perhaps even more dominant than Sky, given they have the Milan-San Remo and Strade Bianche winner on bottle duty, winning sprint stages at will. Everyone just waiting for the Dutch team to rip the race to pieces and put Roglic in yellow. The Slovenian lies three seconds behind Yates as the race heads to the Pyrenees on Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday’s stage, from Cazeres to Loudenvieille, looks particularly brutish, with three enormous climbs including the Hors Categorie Port de Bales. If Jumbo decide to ride, we will very quickly find out what Yates’s legs are really like. But there are also a lot of wounded GC contenders now looking to win back some time.
“The next two days should be pretty tough,” Yates noted, adding that it had not been the most relaxing prelude. “I think everyone today was expecting an easy day but Bora obviously had other ideas.”
