Stage 10 provided plenty of fireworks between the 7 climbs. As Jonas Vingegaard defeated Tadej Pogacar at today’s final climb, the Col de Font de Cère just two years ago, Pogacar had revenge on his mind.
With just under 4,000 meters of elevation, today’s 166.6 km from Aurillac to Le Lioran was bound to break apart the peloton.
Right away, the breakaway was formed, attacking the pack to see who could get over the first few climbs the fastest.
A photo finish across the first set of intermediate sprint points proved beneficial for Mads Pedersen who has dominated the green jersey throughout this year’s tour.
For a time, a 31 man breakaway even seemed possible. Once again, the super humans from UAE Emirates-XRG shut down the break, and began slowly pulling the breakaway in like a tractor beam from Star Wars.
As the breakaway began to fizzle, the Ecuadorian legend, Richard Carapaz of EF Education-EasyPost took the solo lead. Carapaz showcased his world class summit skills to stretch his lead out over a minute from the peloton.
Just when the chatter of Pogacar having an off day began to become prevalent, BOOM ! Superman takes off. No one is capable of matching the watts this man produces. He surges past Carapaz, and does not look back as Pogacar collects his 24th Tour de France victory.
Pogacar’s breakout teammate Isaac del Toro falls behind in the standings after helping his other teammates. Remco Evenepoel, who is widely accepted as the third best in the world, gets a moral victory over his 19 year old wonderkid teammate, Florian Lipowitz. That story will be interesting throughout the rest of the tour.
Was this the nail in the coffin for this year’s Tour ? Will a hidden talent emerge that will steal the Tour from Pocacar like how he stole the Tour from Primoz Roglic in 2020 ? The Tour is full of fun surprises worth watching to find out.
