6 hours ago
2
Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature
Is the race for the yellow jersey over? Not according to Jonas Vingegaard, the two-time winner promising to go for broke.
“We have to try to do something,” he said, and insisted that he was willing to risk everything to win. “There needs to be a weakness somewhere on Tadej’s part. For now, we haven’t found it, but we’ll keep trying. I’m willing to sacrifice second place to go for first.”
William Fotheringham on the legend of Ventoux.
Tempora mutantur, but not the Ventoux. That, partly, reflects one of the key features of the Tour; the way it constantly revisits and rewrites its past in places that have barely changed since the first visit. Go round the partly banked corner at Saint-Estève and on to the virtually straight haul through the oak-wooded lower slopes, and it’s essentially the same brutal experience that the stars of the 50s, 60s and 70s might have undergone, perhaps with better tarmac as you go up with barely a hairpin to break the gradient until the final haul across the scree slopes to the top.
Preamble
Here then, is the Alpine stage that rivals only Alpe d’Huez for its place in folklore of Le Tour. And unlike L’Alpe, visits are far rarer. As the riders head towards the summit finish, they will visit terrain that bears closes resemblance to the surface of the Moon rather than the sweeping greenery of le belle campagne. It was last the finish of a stage in 2016, won by Thomas de Gendt, but memorable for Chris Froome running up that hill. The man in the frame today is Tadej Pogacar, and he seeks to emulate the greats in winning on Ventoux, which he climbed up – and twice – in 2021, smashing the field as he did. Poulidor, Merckx and Pantani all raised their arms in victory in that rarified air so can he?
The neutralised start is 11.10 UK time. Join us.
English (US)