Stage report: Yates clings on to yellow as Pinot falters
Jeremy Whittle: On an awful day for the injured Thibaut Pinot, Adam Yates clung on to the overall lead despite struggling to hang on to the group of favourites on the final climb.
Thibaut Pinot update: Clearly still suffering from the back injury he suffered in the opening stage of the Tour, the Frenchman finished 25min 23sec behind the stage winner Nans Peters today. He is now 30th on GC, 18min 56sec behind Adam Yates, the race leader.
Today’s main talking points ...
- Nans Peters wins today’s stage for AG2R La Mondiale
- Adam Yates fought bravely to keep the yellow jersey
- Tadej Pogacar has taken back 40 seconds he lost yesterday and is ninth overall
- Romain Bardet has shown signs of life
- Thibaut Pinot has blown any chance he had of winning this year’s Tour
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Yates keeps yellow: Pogacar crosses the line, hoping to get his white jersey back from Egan Bernal. Romain Bardet is unsuccessful in his bid to wrest the yellow jersey from Adam Yates, whohas put in an excellent shift today.
The race for yellow: Romain Bardet attacks off the front of the yellow jersey group, hoping to make up a 14-second deficit to make a late bid for the garment currently occupied by Adam Yates.
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Peters wins by 47 seconds from Tom Skujins in second and Carlos Verona in fourth. Ilner Zakarin finishes fourth.
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Nans Peters wins the stage ...
The young Frenchman adds a Tour de France stage win to the Giro equivalent he won last year. After an incredibly aggressive ride from the gun, he wins in a time of 4hr 02min 12sec.
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2km to go: His tongue sticking out, Nans Peters is inside the final two kilometres.
3km to go: Primoz Roglic and Nairo Quintana go over the summit of Col de Petresourde, with Adam Yates fighting heroically to stay in touch with them.
4km to go: Nans Peters continues his descent with a stage victory almost guaranteed unless he crashes or suffers a hideously unlucky mechanical.
5.9km to go: Cofidis rider Guillaume Martin attacks and moves into virtual yellow on the road. Adam Yates has no answer for him.
8km to go: Nans Peters is whizzing down the long descent to the finish line, with Ilnur Zakarin in luke warm pursuit.
11km to go: Nans Peters goes over the top of the Col de Peyresourde with just the descent to the finish line between him and the biggest win of his career. Zakarin is next over, while in third place and still on the ascent, the young Slovenian Pogacar has put 30 seconds between him and the yellow jersey group.
12km to go: Peters has one kilomtre to go to the summit, with Zakarin 10 seconds behind him. Barring a crash, the AG2R rider should have this stage in the bag. The yellow jersey group is 7min 56sec behind the leader.
12km to go: Pogacar attacks off the front of the yellow jersey group again. At the front of the race, Nans Peters continues his ascent of the Col de Peyresourde.
13km to go: Adam Yates had been dropped but has rejoined Primoz Roglic, Nairo Quintana and others GC contenders.
14km to go: Tom Dumoulin’s race is run for today and Primoz Roglic rides about 20 metres clear of the yellow jersey group with his Slovenian compatriot Tadej Pogacar and Nairo Quintana.
15km to go: Back in the yellow jersey group, Tom Dumoulin has taken over at the front for Jumbo-Visma. Julian Alaphilippe attacks off the front, but is reeled in. The increase in pace is too much for Jumbo-Visma rider George Bennett, who is dropped. Alaphilippe’s surge of effort looks to have been ill-advised - he’s been dropped too. Richie Porte, whose wife gave birth to their second child yesterday, is also struggling.
16km to go: With five kilometres to go to the top of the Col de Peyresourde, Ilnur Zakarin is gaining on Nans Peters. Given his inability to go downhill at speed, the CCC rider will surely need a big lead at the summit if he is to have any chance of winning today’s stage at the end of a technical descent.
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Correction: Diego Rosa is the fourth rider to abandon today. Lilian Calmejane from Total Direct Energie was struggling badly on the first climb and also given up the ghost.
Watching the way Pinot flexed his back at top of Bales I suspect the big bruise from the crash in Nice did for him
— William Fotheringham (@willfoth) September 5, 2020
17km to go: Arkea Samsic rider Diego Rosa crashes and becomes the third rider of the day to abandon this year’s Tour.
17km to go: Nans Peters continues his long ascent of the Peyresourde, while the yellow jersey group continue their descent of Port de Bales 9min 24sec behind him.
20km to go: Nans Peters begins the 9.7km ascent of the Category 1 Col de Peyresourde with a lead of about 30 seconds from Ilnur Zakarin.
22km to go: Kasper Asgreen has hit 97.1km per hour on the descent of Port de Bales. That’s 60mph in old money and there are almost certainly other riders going quicker.
25km to go: AG2R rider Nans Peters continues his lone descent of Port des Bales, leading the stage after leaving Ilnur Zakarin behind him. More than 30 seconds separate the pair.
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27km to go: With two stage wins under his belt, Woet van Aert is now doing a turn on the front of the yellow jersey group, leading it over the summit of Port de Bales. He is an incredible rider. Thibaut Pinot has already lost six minutes today.
30km to go: The big news of the day so far is that French favourite Thibaut Pinot has cracked, is haemorrhaging time and currently looking very fed up with life in the saddle.
32km to go: Ilner Zakarin is struggling badly on the big descent, taking the corners very cautiously. It’s a dry day and the road isn’t slippery, he’s just not very good on the downhill.
34km to go: Having put in an epic shift towing the peloton more than halfway up the Port de Bales, Jumbo Visma rider Robert Gesink has made way for the next pacemaker and is going backwards.
36km to go: Peters leads Zakarin over the summit of Port de Bales, with Messrs Powless, Skujins, Verona and Kragh Andersen 36 seconds behind them and a long descent ahead of them.
38km to go: Zakarin and Peters are less than two kilometres from the summit of the Hors Categorie Port de Bales. Zakarin takes a bidon and a gel from a soigneur standing at the side of the road. He puts the bidon in its cage and then accidentally drops the sachet of energy gel. Ouch!
38km to go: Surrounded by team-mates who are trying to nurse him up the mountain, Thibaut Pinot is really suffering after being shelled out the back of the yellow jersey group
39min: The yellow jersey group is being led by seven Jumbo Visma riders linedup in single file. I’m guessing Tony Martin is the only absentee, having done his shift at the front earlier in the stage.
39km to go: Peters and Zakarin continue to lead the charge up Port de Bales, with a lead of 19 seconds over their nearest rivals. The two leaders are 10 minutes clear of the yellow jersey group.
40km to go: Jumbo Visma rider Robert Gesink is leading the peloton up the climb, while Thibaut Pinot looks to be in all sorts of bother. He’s been dropped by the peloton, sat up briefly on his saddle to clutch his lower back with both hands and almost fell off his bike.
40km to go: In other Groupama-FDJ news, Thibaut Pinot has been dropped from the peloton.
40km to go: Groupama-FDJ rider William Bonnet is out of the race. He abandons.
42km to go: Jerome Cousin has been caught and the current stage leaders are Nans Peters (AG2R La Mondiale) and Ilnur Zakarin (CCC). The gap back to the peloton is just over 11 seconds.
45km to go: With Benoit Cosnefroy suffering in the polka-dot jersey, his AG2R La Mondiale team-mate Nans Peters leaves him behind and pedals up Port de Bales trying to catch Zakarin, Powless and Quentin Pacher. They still have a long way to go to the summit.
46km to go: Jerome Cousin remains out in front, while the original breakaway group behind him has fragmented. Kevin Reza and Michael Morkov have been dropped under pressure from Ilner Zakarin, Neilson Powless and three others. The gap between Cousin and the peloton is just shy of 12 minutes.
48km to go: Back in the peloton, Primoz Roglic’s Jumbo Visma team-mates are at the front of the bunch, putting the hammer down and making a scorching pace. Tony Martin is at the front, his face a mask of concentration.
There's always something heroic about a long breakaway, especially in the mountains @bglendenning. I rarely want to see it fail, partly because of how great an unexpected winner feels, and the slightly sadistic spectacle of the group splintering on the final climbs. Allez Cousin!
— Guy Hornsby (@GuyHornsby) September 5, 2020
How things stands: On what’s been been n understandably quiet, cagey and boring day after yesterday’s windy chaos, Jerome Cousin leads the stage, having attacked off the front of a 13-man breakaway group.
He’s put about a minute between he and his former escapees as they begin the long climb to Port de Bales, the second of three big climbs today. All the main GVC contenders are in the peloton, which is nearly 13 minutes behind Cousin.
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59km to go: Total Direct Énergie rider Jerome Cousin has had enough with all the bickering that’s going on in the breakaway group and set off on his own, his shirt unzipped and flapping in the breeze, while his long hair sticks out of the back of his helmet.
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62km to go: Specifically Benoit Cosnefroy’s share of the workload. He’s attempting to conserve energy without doing his bit on the front of the group with two big climbs to come.
63km to go: In the breakaway, Movistar rider Carlos Verona and current King of the Mountains Benoit Cosnefrey appear to have had some sort of argument. I have no idea what that was all about, but after what appeared to be a frank exchange of views, Cosenfrey waves his hand in exasperation and pedals away in irritation. My guess is it was over distribution of work load.
68km to go: The peloton have tackled the summit of the Col de Mente and are on the descent. the gap between them and the breakaway is 11min 52sec.
74km to go: Having shed quite a few riders, the peloton make their way towards the summit of the Col de Mente while the breakaway group whizz down the other side. At the back of the peloton, Roman Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) has crashed, gets a new wheel and sets off in pursuit of the bunch with blood dripping from a cut on his elbow.
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80km to go: Movistar rider JJ Rojas comes down in the middle of the peloton and has to wait at the side of the road for mechanical assistance. In the polka dot jersey, Benoit Cosnefroy is first over the Col de Mente to win himself another 10 King of the Mountains points. He begins a very long descent.
81km to go: It seems Giacomo Nizzolo, who has been having a good season and won the European Continental Championships one day race last month, abandoned because of a knee injury.
82km to go: The breakaway group passes the banner telling them there’s just one kilomtre between them and the summit of the Col de Mente.
82km to go: The camera cuts to NTT rider Giacomo Nizzolo, who is riding the wrong way down the course towards a parked team car. He abandons.
84km to go: The breakaway riders are four kilometres from the top of the Col de Mente, with a lead of 14 minutes over the peloton.
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86km to go: At the back of the breakaway group, Michael Morkov has a long chat with Ilnur Zakarin, his former team-mate. As Zakarin pedals away, Morkov turns to the motorbike cameraman riding alongside him, smiles, waves and gives a thumbs-up.
87km to go: The 13 gentlemen in the breakaway are steadily making their way up the Col de Menthe, with the peloton 13min 44sec behind them just beginning their ascent.
88km to go: Sam Bennett and Bryan Coquard were first and second from the peloton to cross the line at the intermediate sprint, taking the only remaining points. Peter Sagan missed out.
91km to go: The riders are on their way uphill, pedalling towards the Category 1 Col de Menthe, which is 1,349m high, 6.9km in length with a gradient of 8%. The gap between the breakaway and the rest of the field is 12min 32sec.
93km to go: Mitchelton Scott continue to lead the peloton, which is now 11min 47sec behind the breakaway. This will suit Adam yates just fine, as the bonus time available on the top of the Port de Bales and Col de Peyresourde will be neutralised if those in the breakaway are first over the two climbs.
96km to go: Jerome Cousin (Total Direct Energie) is first over the line at the intermediate sprint. Michael Morkov gets out of the saddle to come from the back, where he’s been loitering, and roll over the line in second place, in a move that is likely to further antagonise his fellow cyclists in the breakaway. He slinks back to the back of the lead bunch, getting evils from his fellow riders as he does so.
@bglendenning From the bottom of the Col de Menté to the top of the Port de Balès, there's 30km of uphill that only gets steeper! I hope this stage is a showcase for GC form, and the last downhill could catch Pinot out, so he'll need buffer at the top of the final climb..
— MaliciousA (@MaliciousA) September 5, 2020
103km to go: In the breakaway group, which has opened a gap of almost 10 minutes, Michael Morkov (Deceuninck-Quick Step) is sitting three or four bike-lengths off the back, refusing to take his turn at the front as pacemaker and getting grief from some of his fellow escapees.
He’s clearly following orders from his team manager and on ITV, David Millar says the rest of the riders should just ignore him and not let him get inside their heads. He is, presumably, there to help Julian Alaphilippe should the French,an try to bridge the gap between peloton and breakaway group as they hit the mountains.
110km to go: Adam Yates is ensconced in the middle of the peloton, which is being led by his team-mate Jack Bauer.
113km to go: The gap is over seven minutes now. The 13-man breakaway leads by 7min 21sec. The first summit of note today is at the 59.5km mark but they’ll have to negotiate the intermediate sprint first. Once our 13 breakaway riders have hoovered up the points they don’t particularly want or need, there’s be just two and one left for Peter Sagan and the other sprinters to fight over.
118km to go: The gap is now 6min 03sec and rising after about 26 kilometres of today’s stage. Back in the bunch, the riders of Adam Yates’s Mitchelton Scott team are making the pace at the front.
122km to go: The gap between the escape party and the peloton is 4min 38sec and rising.
124km to go: Introducing today’s breakaway: Benoît Cosnefroy and Nans Peters (AG2R-La Mondiale), Ilnur Zakarin (CCC), Kevin Reza and Quentin Pacher (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept), Michael Morkov (Deceuninck-Quick Step), Neilson Powless (EF), Fabien Grellier and Jérôme Cousin (Total Direct Energie), Carlos Verona (Movistar), Toms Skujins (Trek-Segrafredo), Soren Kragh Andersen (Sunweb) and Ben Hermans (Israel Start-Up Nation) are the 13 riders in the lead.
Stage eight is under way: We’re off and racing in stage eight, where an eight-man breakaway has opened a gap of more than two minutes on the peloton, who didn’t react. Ilnur Zakarin from Team CCC is the highest placed rider on GC in 44th and none of those in contention for the green jersey is in the group.
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Mitchelton-Scott’s Stage seven diary
Race leader Adam Scott rides for Mitchelton-Scott, whose daily tour diary is invariably worth the price of admission for the soundtrack alone. Caveat: there isn’t actually a price of admission.
Race director Christian Prudhomme on today’s stage: “The first Pyrenees stage was designed on a course that will be both dynamic and demanding,” he explains. “In less than 100 kilometres, the riders will have to reach the Col de Menté followed by the Port de Balès and the Col de Peyresourde. A fine downhiller could then have the opportunity to make a difference on a descent of around ten kilometres to the finish.”
The main jersey-wearers ...
- Yellow: Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott)
- Green: Peter Sagan (Bora Hansgrohe)
- Polka-dot: Benoit Cosnefroy (AG2R La Mondiale)
- White: Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers)
The top 10 on General Classification
British rider Adam Yates remains in the maillot jaune, but enjoys a lead of just three seconds over the Slovenian race favourite Primoz Roglic.
Stage 7 recap: Van Aert wins as Yates stays in yellow
Wout van Aert took his second stage victory in this year’s Tour as Jumbo-Visma again emphasised their collective superiority over the peloton, writes Jeremy Whittle.
Stage 8: Cazères-sur-Garonne to Loudenvielle (141km)
From William Fotheringham’s stage-by-stage guide: A classic Pyrenean stage: two first-category mountains and the super-category Port de Balès. There should be a pattern to the racing now and a strong team such as Jumbo or Ineos should control the pace. It’s a tricky downhill to the finish so while the overall contenders test each other, the stage will suit a climber with descending skills such as the Slovenian Matej Mohoric.
