TOUR DE FRANCE Long stage leads to standings shake-up
2020 runner-up Roglic drifts out of contention
On the eve of the Tour de France’s first Alpine stage, the standings were given a serious shakeup.
After the longest stage on the Tour in 21 years on Friday, 2020 runner-up Primoz Roglic was out of contention.
Slovenian countryman Tadej Pogacar, the defending champion, lost a big chunk of the time he gained earlier this week in the individual time trial.
And Belgian star Wout van Aert positioned himself as Pogacar’s most dangerous rival.
With its hilly profile, the 155mile Stage 7 from Vierzon to Le Creusot produced a Tour de France classic as another Slovenian, Matej Mohoric, earned his first stage win on the Tour following a long breakaway. Mohoric was part of a group that formed more than 120 miles before the finish line. He went solo in the finale, using a tough climb to drop his remaining breakaway companions and reach the finish line alone.
Mathieu van der Poel looked exhausted when he crossed 1 minute, 40 seconds behind but he kept the yellow jersey with a 30-second advantage over Van Aert.
“It was 250 kilometers full gas,” Van der Poel said. “It went really fast and we managed to break away with a really strong group, it was really hard. I went to the limit to keep this jersey, which is really special.”
Pogacar could not get into the breakaway and rode at the back with other top contenders after his team reacted too late and could not bridge the gap. Pogacar lost more than five minutes and dropped to fifth overall, 3:43 off the pace.
“We tried to close really fast … but they were pulling like crazy from the beginning,” Pogacar said.
Despite big efforts deployed throughout the day by his teammates to limit the damage, Pogacar remained confident they will recover in time for Saturday’s first Alpine stage to Le Grand-bornand.