Philipsen prevails in chaotic finish at Bayonne
Stage three report: Jasper Philipsen of Belgium, riding for the Alpecin-Deceuninck team, won the 193.5km third stage of the 2023 Tour de France after a bunch sprint finish in Bayonne.
General Classification: top five after stage three
Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) 13hr 52 min 33sec
Tadej Pogacer (UAE Team Emirates) +06sec
Simon Yates (Jayco–Alula) +06sec
Victor Lafay (Cofidis) +12sec
Wout van Aert +16sec
Stage three: top five finishers
1. Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin–Deceuninck) 4hr 43min 15sec
2. Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious)
3. Caleb Ewan (Lotto–Dstny)
4. Fabio Jakobsen (Soudal-Quick Step)
5. Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma)
💛 @AdamYates7 retains the @MaillotjauneLCL of the race, and @TamauPogi keeps the ⚪ jersey following today's stage!
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 3, 2023
💛@AdamYates7 conserve le @MaillotjauneLCL, et @TamauPogi conserve le maillot ⚪ à l'issue de l'étape d'aujourd'hui ! #TDF2023 pic.twitter.com/FShdRfTTeB
🔥He won the last #TDF2022 sprint, he wins the first #TDF2023 sprint today in Bayonne ! Well done to @JasperPhilipsen 👏
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 3, 2023
🔥Il avait gagné le dernier sprint du #TDF2022, il gagne le premier sprint du #TDF2023. Bravo @JasperPhilipsen 👏 pic.twitter.com/gIef1z9cBi
Jasper Philipsen speaks: He’s naturally delighted with himself but isn’t asked to talk about what happened in the jury room as the interview is conducted by the official Tour TV feed. “I can be really happy with our team performance today, they gave me a great leadout,” he says. “I’m really happy to keep it to the finish line. I tried to take the shortest route to the finish and fortunately I was first over the line.”
Jasper Philipsen is confirmed the winner of stage three!
It’s no disaster for Jasper as he leaves the jury trailer with a big grin on his face that confirms he has won his third Tour de France stage.
Philipsen is summoned to the jury room: Looking grim, he makes his way before the race beaks. On Eurosport, Robbie McEwan says that doesn’t bode well for his chances of keeping the stage.
No word from Jasper Philipsen yet: The stage winner hasn’t been interviewed by Tour TV yet, which suggests he could yet lose it in the stewards’ room. He’s waiting alongside his girlfriend in the hut, watching a replay of the finish on a screen with Tadej Pogacar. He’s looking quite apprehensive.
It’s a little difficult to describe exactly what did for Van Aert in the end – in my completely unbiased opinion, it was a kink in the layout of the barriers that meant he simply couldn’t follow his racing line as long as Philipsen didn’t deviate from his, because he simply ran out of road. If anyone is to blame for Van Aert’s defeat, it’s the race organisers, specifically whoever erected the barriers in such a way that they created a kind of funnel in the closing stages.
Wout van Aert: You can probably expect more angry bidon-flinging from the Belgian, who will see today’s stage as another opportunity lost. He was practically alongside Philipsen with 20 or so metres to go, but the manner in which the barriers were laid out meant that Philipsen only had to keep his racing line to ensure the door was shut on Van Aert, who was forced to sit up. We may have a stewards enquiry, whether or not Jumbo Visma complain, although I don’t think Philipsen did anything wrong. “I would be both surprised and completely dismayed [if Philipsen loses this],” says Robbie McEwan in the Eurosport studio.
Stage three: Jasper Philipsen wins!
After holding off a challenge from Wout van Aeert, who came up his inside but was forced to back off when it became apparent he might end up in the barriers, Philipsen beats Bauhaus and Ewan. He wins by a wheel. Hats off to Mathieu van der Poel, who finished a perfect Alpecin-Deceuninck lead-out by leaving Philipsen in a perfect position to win the stage. Mark Cavendish finished sixth.
Jasper Philipsen wins the stage!!!
Alpecin–Deceuninck give their Belgian rider the perfect lead-out and he wins stage three of this year’s Tour by half a wheel from Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain-Victorious) and Caleb Ewan.
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2km to go: The riders negotiate the hairpin before taking a tricky left-hander. Mark Cavendish is still in the mix on the right-hand side of the road behind several team-mates, with Philipsen and Ewan also well placed.
4km to go: The riders negotiate a gentle left-handed turn with another roundabout to negotiate. Uno X-Pro, the team of Alexander Kristoff, are lined up on the right side of ther road.
6km to go: Wout van Aert, Caleb Ewan, Mark Cavendish and Jasper Philipsen are all in good positions but there’s a long way to go.
7km to go: All the big-hitters look well placed with several roundabouts to come. Jasper Philipsen, one of the favourites for today’s stage, gets squeezed after finding himself on the wrong side of the road on his way into one of them and loses several places. Mark Cavendish is on Philipsen’s wheel.
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11km to go: The riders of Jumbo Visma are hogging the right-hand side of the wide road, where six different teams can be spotted lined up near the front of the bunch.
14km to go: It’s not looking good for Team Lotto Dstny, as Caleb Ewan’s leadout man Jasper De Buyst is at the back of the bunch struggling, clearly suffering the after effects of a crash yesterday.
16km to go: On assorted team radios, assorted team directors are giving assorted riders the same instruction: “Get to the front and make a bubble”, to help surround and protect their sprinters. There isn’t room up there for all of them, hence the “washing machine” effect.
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20km to go: That downhill negotiated, the speed is more sedate 36km per hour. Mark Cavendish is up there among the first 30 riders, surrounded by Astana teammates.
21km to go: Inside the final five kilometres of this stage, the riders will have to tackle three roundabouts, a nightmarish hairpin bend and a bridge before they hit the finish line. They’re currently travelling at 70km per hour. .
25km to go: The bunch continues on its way to Bayonne with the end-of-stage “washing machine” winding up towards it’s spin cycle as riders try to get to the front, get pushed backwards by other riders trying to get to the front etc, and so on.
36km to go: At the end of a largely uneventful day, we’re getting towards the business end of the stage. The bunch is compact, speeding along with the benefit of a tailwind and the teams of assorted sprinting heavyweights trying to hold position at the front. Towards the end of the stage, at the two-kilometre mark, they’ll have to negotiate a hairpin bend that could ruin the chances of many competitors.
38km to go: Laurent Pichon is nothing if not stubborn and continues to give it his all, jaw set in a grimace and knees pumping furiously. He’s about to be swallowed up by the bunch follwing a fine solo effort. Chapeau Lauent! Somewhere in heaven your little piglets are looking down with pride … and possibly a little resentment.
An email: “A pedant writes,” says Dan Levy. “The Tour isn’t leaving the Basque Country today. Part of the Basque country is in France and part in Spain. You will still see signs written in Basque on the way into the Basque city of Bayonne. And I expect the camera will pick out pelota courts on French side of the border too.”
45km to go: The gap is into 38 seconds and Laurent Pichon’s lead is not long for this world. After a long but ultimately doomed day in the spotlight, one suspects he’ll consider it an act of mercy when he is inevitably reeled in by the bunch.
52km to go: Laurent Pichon’s lead is whittled down to a little over one minute as he continues to plough his lone furrow. If he doesn’t win today’s combativity prize and the place on the podium that goes with it, it will be a complete travesty of justice. The official rules say the prize rewards “the rider who gives the biggest effort and shows the best sportsmanship”. It is awarded by a jury chaired by the race director and an online poll. The fact that he is a Frenchman won’t do Laurent’s chances any harm.
❤️ Best team radio ever 🎙
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 3, 2023
🇫🇷 @lauPichon - @Arkea_Samsic va tout donner !#TDF2023 pic.twitter.com/v5imUyXr5P
61km to go: Another dispatch from the team Arkea Samsic race radio and this one is specifically for Laurent Pichon. We don’t know who it is but it’s a woman’s voice and I suspect it might be from his wife.
“I’m so proud of you, you’re a warrior,” she says. “You give us so much great emotion! Enjoy! Enjoy! Enjoy! I love you very much!” Pichon is abojut to leave the Basque country and if he achieves nothing else today, Pichon gets the honour of leading this year’s race into France.
64km to go: Having been left to his own devices by Neilson Powless, Laurent Pichon continues his lonely solo effort with the gap at 2min 11sec. On the subject of yesterday’s sabotage, French Intermarché–Circus–Wanty rider Lilian Calmejane posted this footage of the damage inflicted upon one of his tyres by roadside vandals.
His tweet reads: ““Thank you for this kind of human bullshit. I don’t think I was the only victim of a puncture in the end … know that you can fall and get really hurt with your bullshit you morons.”
Merci pour ce genre de connerie humaine … je pense ne pas avoir été le seul victime de crevaison dans le final … sachez qu’on peut tomber et se faire très mal avec vos conneries bande d’abrutis … 🤬 pic.twitter.com/IoTMolFKgO
— Lilian Calmejane (@L_Calmejane) July 2, 2023
74km to go: Neilson Powless is swallowed up by the peloton as Astana rider Alexey Lutsenko punctures and stops to get a replacement back wheel. With a couple of spectators peering on out of curiosity, he points out the offending tack which seems to have been thrown on the road in scenes reminiscent of yesterday, when up to 30 riders punctured after somebody scattered tacks on the road. Apparently some of the locals are unhappy with the road closures prompted by the Tour.
79km to go: Neils Powless and Laurent Pichon continue to motor along, milking the applause of the crowds as they pedal through the streets of San Sebastian. Powless is having the time of his life, waving to the crowd and blowing them kisses.
He decides he’s had enough of being out in front in the breakaway, bumps fists with his French companion, then sits up and waits for his team car to pull alongside him. One of its occupants hands him a musette which he slings over his shoulder before stuffing his pockets with its contents. Laurent Pinchon is now out in front on his own with almost 80 kilometres to go and a lead of 2min 11sec.
🔴⚪️ @NPowless 🇺🇸 gets all mountain points of today' stage!
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 3, 2023
🗻 Neilson Powless remporte tous les points de la montagne du jour !#TDF2023 | @maillotapois pic.twitter.com/D2FWu1HpQh
90km to go: The road is narrow and the climb steep as Neilson Powless moves ahead of Laurent Pichon to take another KOM point, the final one up for grabs today. This time he punches the air repeatedly for the benefit of the cheering crowds and gets a pat on the back from Pichon. Let’s see what happens, now that Powless has nothing left to ride for today. There are still 90 kilometres to go but the Eurosport commentary team have exhausted so many avenues of conversation that they are now completely bogged down in a long and very boring debate about the merits of various cycling shoes.
93km to go: With the leaders well on their way up the final climb, Wout van Aert drops out of the bunch to have running repairs done on one of his cleats. He remounts, pedals back on his way, takes a drink from his bidon and chucks in the direction of a few kids standing on the side of the road with nowhere near the force he angrily hurled one of its predecessors to the floor upon being beaten in yesterday’s stage finish.
96km to go: There is one categorised climb remaining in today’s stage, the Category 3 Côte d’Orioko Benta. Neilson Powless is almost certain to take the two points on offer again and it will be interesting to see what he does once he’s crossed the line. The gap from he and his fellow escapee Laurent Pichon back to the peloton is two minutes and neither of the two leaders has a snowball’s chance in hell of winning the stage. Do they soldier on together in an exercise in total futility? Does Powless leave Pichon to his own devices and sit up to conserve energy for the challenges ahead? Or do both riders allow the peloton to catch them?
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An email: “The death of Scarponi was a sickener,” writes Francis Barbuti. “He was run over by a friend of his father’s and left two very small children. Life can be very cruel sometimes. He was also one of the good guys of the peloton and a good rider.”
109km to go: I say he’s more or less guaranteed himself another day in the green jersey tomorrow, but I may have spoken too soon. As many as eight different riders could be wearing it tomorrow. With 50 points available to the winner of today’s stage, here are the standings for the points classification.
Victor Lafay (Cofidis): 80 points
Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates): 42
Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma): 36
Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost): 32
Michael Woods (Israel-PremierTech): 31
Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek): 31
Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck): 30
Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates): 30
123km to go: Having more or less guaranteed himself another day in the green jersey through the employment of some shrewd tactics, Victor Lafay has sat up and allowed himself to be sucked back into the peloton as they approach the Col d’Itziar, the penultimate categorised climb of the day. At the front of the race, Laurent Pichon allows Neilson Powless to take another two uncontested KOM points and the American waves to the crowd as he passes under the banner.
Intermediate sprint
1. Laurent Pichon (20 pts)
2. Neilson Powless (17)
At 1min 35sec
3. Victor Lafay (15)
At 2min 30sec
4. Mads Pedersen (13)
5. Jordi Meeus (11)
6. Biniam Girmay (10)
7. Jasper Philipsen (9)
8. Mark Cavendish (8)
9. Caleb Ewan (7)
10. Bryan Coquard (6)
11. Mathieu van der Poel (5)
12. Dylan Groenewegen (4)
13. Peter Sagan (3)
14. Alex Kirsch (2)
15. Fabio Jakobsen (1)
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Intermediate sprint: The Danish rider Mads Pedersen (Trek–Segafredo) wins the bunch sprint for the line to take 13 points towards the green jersey. The peloton is 2min 28sec behind our two leaders with 125km to go.
Intermediate sprint: Laurent Pichon is first over the line to take 20 points, followed in close order by Nielson Powless in second. Victor Lafay is third, while the rest of the bunch will duke it out for the remaining points.
📸 CHEESE ! #TDF2023 pic.twitter.com/LO69RHwHiR
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 3, 2023
An email: “If you ask me, more cycling races should offer livestock as prizes,” writes Joe Hoeffner. “It’d take care of the doping issue straight away, if nothing else. Would you inject a whole pharmaceutical cabinet into your veins for a milk-giving goat and a half-dozen Orpington hens?”
134km to go: Having already had to stop to get a spare wheel after getting a puncture, Tadej Pogacar is at the back of the bunch again after stopping to spend a penny aqt the roadside. He’s all smiles as one of the race cameramen pulls alongside him. In the green jersey, yesterday’s stage winner, Victor Lafay, has asttacked off the front of the bunch to give himself a head start in the race for the intermediate sprint, which is coming up in a few kilometres. The peloton seem happy to let him go.
141km to go: “I have a theory these long, flat, stages where little and seldom happens exist not just to put wear and tear into the peleton’s legs, but to steadily sap the reserves of commentators small talk,” writes David Alderton. “This will then get them to buy guide books of the region so they can fill all that airtime, and the local economy advances. I hope Pichon took the pigs out with him on rides, like the late Scarponi and his parrot. That would be quite the sight.”
The Italian Astana rider Michele Scarponi died in 2017 in a road traffic accident while out on a training ride near his home in Filottrano. It was not uncommon for him to be accompanied by a parrot named “Frankje”, who used to fly alongside (or perched upon) him while he was out training on his bike.
145km to go: Neilson Powless (EF Eductation-Easypost) and Laurent Pichon (Arkea–Samsic) continue out in front, their lead down to 2min 31sec. With two categorised climbs left today and just one on tomorrow’s route, Neilson Powless is seven points clear in the KOTM category and has at the very least guaranteed himself the polka-dot jersey until the end of stage five in the Pyrenees.
154km to go: Unchallenged by Laurent Pichon, Neilson Powells was first over the Category 4 Côte de Milloi to add another point to his KOTM collection. On this occasion he celebrated by giving the crowd a double thumbs aloft salute. The gap is out to 3min 19sec, although Mark Cavendish is in a group that is a further 1min 09sec behind.
161km to go: “I’d say to Ben Parker that suggesting a 50km flat stage instead of a 200km one would be like starting a marathon on mile 18,” writes Tom Atkins. “What makes the Tour overall such a brutal and gruelling race is all the kilometres that are already in the riders’ legs when they get to the dramatic bits.
“Maybe it’s not entirely riveting for the TV viewer but you can either adjust yourself to the pace of the day and enjoy things you might not otherwise notice, or simply switch on with an hour or so to go to the expected finish time when hopefully there’ll be more action.”
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163km to go: Laurent Pichon rides for team Arkea Samsic and his directeur sportif has been in touch with his teammates on the race radio. “So those who are in the peloton, we take advantage of this kind of stage to save energy, we take off gears, we save as much energy as possible,” he tells them.
“That will be a real morale-breaker [for Pichon],” says Sean Kelly on Eurosport. “The morale would not be good here when you’re out in this position, just three minutes clear after you’ve been riding for so many kilometres. There’s nothing here to help your morale and when you’re hearing that from the DS would completely break it.”
Bah humbug: “I love the optimism around Cavendish, but nationality, legacy and possible records aside I doubt he’d be featuring in the discussion at all,” writes BFS. “On Eurosport Robbie McEwen gives him a “1%” chance of winning. Procyclingstats has Cavendish as the 36th best sprinter in the world right now, and the 15th ranked sprinter at the Tour. The same site ranks Astana as 20th out of the 22 participating teams, with only Cees Bol as a recognized leadout man.
“The pedigree of the sprinters at the Tour is far higher than the Giro, where Cavendish only looked like winning on that final stage, when Ineos assisted (replaced?) the woeful Astana leadout train. The results in the ZLM Tour, where the Manxman finished well behind (highest position 14th) riders whose teams aren’t even good enough to ride the Tour might be a better guide to the form of Bol and Cavendish than Rome in May, I fear.”
Astana have brought in Mark Renshaw, Cavendish’s former leadout man, as a consultant for this year’s Tour but unfortunately the Australian can only advise, rather than pedal like a demon and leave Cav in a good position 250 metres from the finish line of the eight stages he might hope to win.
167km to go: It’s as you were with Neilson Powless and the Breton piglet-murderer out in front, 2min 43sec clear of a bunch being led by the riders of Tadej Pogacar’s UAE team who are more than happy to leave them to their own devices.
Laurent Pichon: A 36-year-old from Brittany who is riding in his first Tour for five years, Pichon has finished as the highest place Breton in his local Tro-Bro Léonbike race staged annually in Finistère. On each occasion, he has been rewarded with the prize of a live piglet, donated by a local farm.
“I take the little piglet with me in the car in a wooden box and drive it straight to [a friend’s] farm,” he told Cycling Weekly earlier this year. “One time, it came with me to my house. I even have let it out into the garden for a little run around, but my friend came quickly and collected it.”
So far, so cute … eh?
Asked if he still visits his little piggies as they journey through the exuberance of porcine youth into mature adulthood, Pichon dropped the following bombshell. “They’ve since been turned into sausages.”
The gap is out to 2min 46sec.
179km to go: Neilson Powless hoovers up two more KOTM points at the first categorised climb of the day, the Category 3 hillock, the Côte de Trabakua. With plenty of Basque cycling nuts lining both side of the wide road to cheer him on, he smiles broadly, raises a hand and flashes a peace sign. Well, that or he was flicking a backwards eff-off v-sign at his riding partner Laurent Pichon. I’m going for the former.
180km to go: The gap is out to 2min 14sec. “Is there any point in staging these long 200k sprint stages, if the various smaller budget teams aren’t interested in legitimising them by sending their riders up the road to wilt in the sun for 150km, before the action starts?” asks Ben Parker.
“Why not just cut straight to the action by starting the race 50k from the finish line? I appreciate the Tour makes money by charging charming French villages for the pleasure of a cycle-past and the chance to put out yellow bunting for the day, but (without meaning to sound cynical) TV revenues must also be important to them ... what we have in store for us for most of this afternoon is unlikely to have people glued to their sets.”
Well, you say that Ben, but I have nothing better to do and quite enjoy these long stages where nothing really happens for four hours until assorted teams start getting their ducks in a row about 30 kilometres from home.
186km to go: Powless and Pichon have opened the gap to 1min 26sec and it’s getting bigger with each turn of the pedals. Having lost their race leader Richard Carapaz to a fractured kneecap following a crash in the opening stage of the Tour, any slim GC hopes EF Education–EasyPost’s might have had are already in tatters, so they’ll be hoping for stage wins and to keep Neilson Powless in the polka-dot jersey for as long as possible.
“If I miss one breakaway in the mountains my lead might be gone,” said Powless of his chances of keeping the famous jersey, after snaffling more points in a three-man breakaway yesterday. “It’s a long way to Paris - I have a big fight ahead of me but that would be very nice. I’m already in love with [the polka dot jersey] it’s just a matter of whether I can hold onto it.”
An email: “Mark Cavendish makes a habit of defying predictions and doubts, doesn’t he?” writes Simon Wicks. “The four stages back in 2021 didn’t surprise me as much as others - you could see his form simmering in the spring and when he’s on he’s really on. I thought this year was a season too far, though, even for him - then he got that Giro final stage. Can he pull it off one more time? Can he? Really? Head says absolutely not. Heart? Maybe, just maybe ... every sprint stage is going to be agony until he wins.”
They’re racing in stage three: Wearing the polka-dot jersey for King of the Mountains, it’s no surprise to see Neilson Powless attack off the front of the bunch as soon as the signal to begin racing is semaphored by Christian Prudhomme. It looks like Powless will have the French rider Laurent Pichon (Arkea–Samsic) for company as the bunch seem content to let the duo go. The gap is already 35 seconds. It could be a long afternoon…
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Fight! Fight! Fight! It seems there are thoroughly unfounded and possibly completely fictitious rumours of the beginning of an early race rift between reigning champion Jonas Vingegaard and his team-mate Wout van Aert following yesterday’s stage. Van Aert finished a well beaten second behind Victor Lafay and made no bones of his anger at losing, plucking his water bottle from its cage and flinging it to the ground as he crossed the line.
Reports suggest – and it is only a suggestion – that he was angry at the lack of of support he got from his teammates in the closing stages of yesterday’s race and seem to be based on no evidence more substantial than his visible bristling at being asked to sacrifice his own chances of a stage win in favour of the greater good during an episode of Tour de France Unchained, the Netflix documentary which followed last year’s Tour. “We have different goals but we’re all super- disapppointed, me as well,” said Vingegaard in the wake of yesterday’s stage. “We really wanted Wout to win today.”
Stage three is under way ...
Led by Adam Yates (yellow jersey), Neilson Powells (polka-dot), Victor Lafay (green) and Tadej Pogacar (white), the peloton rolls out for its procession through the neutral zone, which is just shy of seven kilometres in length.
Today’s start: Amorebieta-Etxano The commune of the province of Vizcaya is located within the sphere of influence of its large neighbour, Bilbao, explains the Tour handbook. When it comes to sport, the locals are particularly proud of their football club, which was founded almost a century ago and climbed into
Liga 2 for the 2021-2022 season. The SD Amorebieta produced one of the town’s sporting sons, Camelo Cedrun, who was the goalkeeper for Athletic Bilbao and the national team during the 1950s. The former Euskaltel and Movistar rider Beñat Intxausti is also a native of the city.
Amorebieta-Etxano also organises a one-day race, with a roll of honour that features the top names in Spanish cycling, as well as Frenchmen Laurent Jalabert (1995) and, more recently, Jonathan Hivert (2011).
Tour de France 2023: the jerseys
Yellow: Adam Yates (UAE)
Green: Victor Lafay (Cofidis)
Polka-dot: Neilson Powless (EF Education-Easypost)
White: Tadej Pogacar (UAE)
William Fotheringham on stage three: Finally, something resembling a normal stage for the Tour’s opening week. There are several nasty little Basque Country climbs but they come early in the stage and the run-out is downhill. So it’s bunch sprint time, which means British eyes will be on Mark Cavendish, although the chances are it will be last year’s sprint star, Fabio Jakobsen, in the spotlight.
Stage two report: Lafay wins as Yates remains in yellow
Adam Yates held on to his overall lead in the Tour de France after he safely negotiated a tense second stage, the longest of the 2023 Tour, from Vitoria-Gasteiz to San Sebastián, won by the French Cofidis rider Victor Lafay. Jeremy Whittle reports …
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Stage three: Amorebieta-Etxano to Bayonne (187.4km)
Tour de France: After a pair of extremely testing opening stages, the peloton gets something of a breather today during a spin that boasts four categorised climbs in the first 102 kilometres. Riders will have to tackle more of the lumpy stuff with 40 kilometres to go before the stage levels out 15 from home.
Any breakaway that tries its luck is unlikely to succeed and we’re almost certain to be treated to the first bunch sprint of this year’s race. It should be fraught, nervy and downright dangerous affair in which the likes of Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-Al Ula), Fabio Jakobsen (Soudal-Quickstep), Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Dstny) and Mark Cavendish (Astana) will fancy their chances, although the stiffish climbs earlier and later in the stage may do for a few of them before the race reaches its conclusion in Bayonne.
Riding in his final Tour de France before hanging up his cleats after a stellar career, today marks the first of several decent opportunities Cavendish will have to break the great Eddy Merckx’s longstanding record of 34 career stage wins in the Grande Boucle.
At 38 years old, the Manx Missile’s velocity has been eclipsed by that of some of the peloton’s younger thunder-thighed whelps in recent years but he will set off full of confidence having arrowed first past the winning post in the final stage of the Giro d’Italia in Rome.
Should he fail to prevail today, better opportunities lie ahead. It is to be hoped he can at least avoid trouble before stages with terrain more suited to his particular skill-set. Tomorrow’s pancake-flat profile could well have been designed with a man of his talents in mind. Today’s stage rolls out at noon BST.
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