It was beautiful, it was intense, and it was above all one of those exceptional days that the Tour de France is capable of offering.
On the 151.7 km between Albertville and the Col du Granon, the riders entertained the followers of the Grande Boucle on Wednesday, between long-distance attacks, failures, French on the offensive and the takeover of a new yellow jersey, Dane Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma).
The latter offered himself the stage and overthrew the former leader of the general classification and double holder Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates) at the end of a day of madness.
Here is a summary, with the heroes, those who lived it.
Van der Poel tries, then gives up
He wore the yellow jersey for six days last year, leading his class in the first week of the 2021 Tour before retiring to prepare for the mountain bike event at the Tokyo Olympics.
Raymond Poulidor's grandson, Mathieu van der Poel, has been very far from it this year.
In difficulty since the start of a race in which he had already "thought of throwing in the towel several times", the Dutchman tried to shine one last time by escaping at the start of the stage with his usual big rival. of the classics, the Belgian Wout van Aert.
But VDP was picked up, then dropped by the peloton, before throwing in the towel.
For the second year in a row, but with full frustration this time.
Roglic and Vingegaard try to drop Pogacar in the Galibier
Jumbo-Visma had noted this stage as one of all possibilities.
They kept their promise to harass the leader Pogacar.
From the start of the ascent of the Col de Galibier, Primoz Roglic and Jonas Vingegaard attacked.
But behind, Tadej Pogacar does not let himself go, and remains in the wheel of Vingegaard.
“We had this plan, we realized that it would really be a stage for Jonas during our scouting.
The only way to know what the level of form of Pogacar was was to harden the race from the Galibier ”, explains to France Télévisions the Dutchman from Jumbo Steven Kruijswijk.
A first warning for Pogacar who praises after the race "the good tactics" of Jumbo-Visma, he who was left without teammates in the face of repeated attacks.
"Seeing a Jumbo team discover itself so early, we couldn't have hoped for better.
It was perhaps the only way to destabilize Pogacar and it worked perfectly.
It was absolutely necessary to isolate Pogacar ”, analyzes meanwhile Christophe Riblon, winner at Alpe d’Huez in 2013.
Bardet on the attack
A time left behind by the yellow jersey group because of the infernal pace imposed by Roglic and Vingegaard, Romain Bardet hung on for a long time and remained glued to the leaders of the classification.
5 km from the finish line, the French climber put on a show, placing a formidable attack to outrun Pogacar and seek the podium.
“It was hard, it went flat out from the Télégraphe (1st big climb of the stage).
The legs were responding well so it was a very good day” smiled Romain Bardet after the stage.
Exhausted, the French, already twice on the podium of the Tour in Paris (2nd in 2016 and 3rd in 2017), achieves a huge blow in the general classification.
Here he is second at 2'16' from Vingegaard and 6' ahead of Tadej Pogacar.
An incredible effort from 🇫🇷 @romainbardet An incredible effort from
🇫🇷 @romainbardet #TDF2022 pic.twitter.com/AFRmrI9qiS
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 13, 2022
Vingegaard drops Pogacar in the Col du Granon
Today was his day.
Vingegaard blasted the race and overturned this Tour de France in the last kilometers of the 11th stage, in the ascent of the Col du Granon, perhaps the hardest of the Tour, a "bastard" of 11.3kms at 9.2 Average % that the peloton had not visited since 1986. With 5 km to go, the Dane decides to attack.
Only.
After leaving Tadej Pogacar behind, he quickly caught up with Romain Bardet and Nairo Quintana to go on alone to victory, his first on the Grande Boucle.
🇩🇰 Jonas Vingegaard drops @TamauPogi!
The Yellow Jersey can't follow!
🇩🇰 Jonas Vingegaard loosens up @TamauPogi!
The yellow jersey falters!#TDF2022 pic.twitter.com/sFzeW93Rej
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 13, 2022
But the Dane does not want to be satisfied with this success.
He knows it's time to hurt, to widen the gap against a Tadej Pogacar in distress.
“In the last ascent, it was difficult, I had a less good shot in the Granon.
But the turn is not over!
“, relativizes Pogacar after the race.
In the general classification, he is now 2′22′ behind his main competitor.
For Jonas Vingegaard, it's a more than successful mission: “This morning when I woke up, I wanted to get the yellow jersey.
We had a team plan and it went well.
After a Wednesday that will go down in history, the Tour may have changed...
Gaudu grapples
Behind the race leader, more discreetly, the Frenchman David Gaudu made a superb comeback.
First dropped by the yellow jersey group, the Groupama-FDJ rider was able to accelerate in the Col du Granon to seek fifth place.
“It was a crazy stage from start to finish.
I was a bit stuck at the start of the stage.
I knew how to keep my calm and I was able to rely on an incredible team.
If they are not there, I may be twenty minutes in the general standings tonight,” he slips after the race, paying tribute to his teammates and in particular Valentin Madouas.
“I took over Tadej Pogacar, I took over Adam Yates.
I took back all those I could take back, ”adds the Frenchman, who therefore managed to grab a few seconds from the former leader Pogacar.
He is in 7th place overall.
This Thursday, a new dream program for a peloton that will barely have time to recover from its emotions.
On the program for the 12th stage between Briançon and Alpe d'Huez: the Lautaret, the Galibier, the Télégraphe, the Croix de Fer and the famous climb of the Alpe.
For a remake of the mythical 1986 stage when Hinault and Lemond finished head to head.
What if Vingegaard, Pogacar and Bardet continued to write the legend?
