At one point, less than 20 kilometers away, Van der Poel, Bettiol and Trentin came together to chase Asgreen, Mohoric and O'Connor, who had a lead of twenty seconds. Four of the six are monument winners. Trentin, no, has two Paris-Tours and stages in the three big ones. O'Connor, a climber, is missing one in the Vuelta.
The example is enough to calibrate the type of journey through the Jura Massif that was experienced in the Tour and the level of the cyclists who were fighting at the head of the race. They were all powerful cyclists, excellent rollers, accustomed to the heights and the walls and even to the cobblestones of the North. They usually meet in spring, in the classics, but they met in July on the Tour.
There were also two world champions like Pedersen and Alaphilippe, as well as Pidcock, Laporte and even Ion Izagirre. Only Wout van Aert was missing, but the Belgian from the Jumbo dropped out and arrived on Thursday in time for the birth of his second child, Jerome. "It was like being in a one-day classic," reflected the Australian O'Connor, almost a pipiolo in these fights, and who paid for the hazing with third place.
The stage of the classics was crowned by the Slovenian Matej Mohoric, from Bahrain, who he defeated at the finish line thanks to the last kidney blow to Asgreen by a tubular. The Dane, winner the day before, was very close to repeating, while the winner of Milan-Sanremo in 2022 could not hold back his tears.
The Bahrain cyclists race with their minds set on trying to dedicate a good performance to Gino Mäder, the Swiss cyclist who died in June. The organization even vacated number 61 in his honor. And Bahrain is being one of the best teams in the peloton. Mohoric's is the third stage they have collected.
And that was the one who was their leader, Mikel Landa, on the mountain, failing with a bang. Far from his level, the Basque is more than an hour behind Vingegaard. But Bahrain-Victorious has managed to reinvent itself on the Tour. With three stage victories only Alpecin, with Philipsen's four, has climbed the podium more times to hang the Continental medal.
Three stages in 11 days. First Pello Bilbao won in Issoire, then Poels was the strongest on the climb to Saint Gervais Mont-Blanc and now Mohoric. In addition to a Bilbao that he is sixth overall, after being fourth in the time trial and third in Courchevel.
