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Tom Pidcock from the Ineos Grenadiers team in a spectacular cornering position on the mountain
Photo: IMAGO/Nico Vereecken / IMAGO/Panoramic International
It remains a spectacle:
people with horns on their heads run after the riders, colorful smoke wafts around, people shout, fists are clenched - and in the midst of this chaos the 22-year-old Briton drives to Tom Pidcock at the 109th Tour de France his first stage victory - and of all places on the king's stage.
165.1 kilometers from Briançon to Alpe d'Huez, 4750 meters in altitude.
Cross World Champion Pidcock finally won the big showdown in the Alps after a long ride in the leading group.
"A stage win on my first tour, not bad, isn't it?" he said afterwards.
»This is definitely one of my greatest days, one of my greatest experiences.
You won't experience this slalom through the fans and the flags anywhere like here in Alpe d'Huez.«
The result of the day:
On the French national holiday, Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) crossed the finish line in front of South African Louis Meintjes (+48 seconds) and Chris Froome (+2:06).
Pidcock is also the youngest Alpe d'Huez winner and the first mountain bike Olympic champion to win a stage of the Tour.
Four-time champion Froome put on his best performance since more than three years after his nasty crash at the Tour of Dauphiné, impressing as part of a breakaway.
"He's a legend," said the young winner of Froome.
Read the race report here.
The general classification:
Defending champion Tadej Pogačar finished with the same time as Jonas Vingegaard, the two were 3:23 behind Pidcock.
As a result, Vingegaard defended the yellow jersey.
Pogačar, who had slumped the day before, moved up to second overall as Frenchman Romain Bardet lost 19 seconds on both on the final climb.
The famous 21 hairpin bends
: Alpe d'Huez is actually a skiing area, and according to reports it's not necessarily the prettiest either.
But for cycling fans it is a place of longing.
In 1952 there was a mountain finish for the first time on the tour, and the victory of the Italian Fausto Coppi was immediately a spectacle.
The names of the stage winners are on signs in the 21 curves up to the ski resort.
Hundreds of thousands of fans lined the 13.8-kilometer final climb with an average gradient of 8.1 percent - including many Dutch people.
There were eight Dutch stage victories between 1976 and 1989, no nation has been more successful there to date.
The Welshman Geraint Thomas recently won in Alpe d'Huez (2018).
But even before that, the stage was tough.
Because it was so nice:
Right after the start in Briançon, the peloton made acquaintance with the Col du Galibier again, but in contrast to the day before from the other side over the Col du Lautaret.
At 22.8 kilometers, this ascent is a bit longer than the one from the previous day, but a bit more moderate in terms of incline.
The 20 mountain points went to Anthony Perez.
At the top of the pass, the Frenchman and Simon Geschke's teammate had a lead of around 20 seconds over a trio of Giulio Ciccone, Meintjes and Neilson Powless.
Chris Froome crossed the summit in ninth place, 1:33 minutes behind, 15 seconds ahead of the peloton.
Spectacular downhill qualities:
Mountain bike Olympic champion Pidcock showed a rapid riding style on his tour premiere, especially in the curves, and pulled away from the field.
He quickly caught up with Froome.
By the time the peloton made it over the Col du Télégraph, both had caught up with the leading group, leaving nine riders up front.
The peloton was 3:40 minutes behind.
On the descent into the Maurienne valley, Pidcock overtook the entire lead group, according to tour information he reached a top speed of almost 90 kilometers per hour.
The next giant:
During the ascent to the 2,067 meter high Col de la Croix de Fer, the leading group had gained about seven minutes on the field.
Jumbo-Visma, the team of Jonas Vingegaard, who has been overall leader since yesterday, and points leader, Wout van Aert,
initially controlled what was happening at a moderate pace.
When Pidcock had reached the steeper part, he increased the pace at the front, and Jumbo Visma also picked up speed in the peloton.
Several drivers had to let go, including the German Lennard Kämna
and Simon Geschke, wearer of the mountain jersey.
Ciccone secured the 20 points and advanced to second place (35 points) behind Geschke (43) in the mountain classification.
In the peloton, Van Aert took over the pace work.
The lead of the leaders melted to 4:30 minutes.
Casual nature conservation:
Hundreds of thousands of fans, the drivers who stock up on energy: Nature has to endure a lot in Alpe d'Huez.
Plastic bags were hung along the route for waste disposal.
After his downhill qualities, Pidcock also showed throwing talent and threw his garbage into one of the sacks from the saddle.
Wheel to wheel for the yellow jersey:
At the foot of the final climb, everyone watched each other, van Aert controlled the field at the front.
He was followed by Steven Kruijswijk, Vingegaard, Primoz Roglic, Sepp Kuss and Pogačar, who had been inconspicuous in the field given the strength of Jumbo Vismar.
The gap between the peloton and leader Pidcock was around five minutes.
The latter finally attacked and was able to pull away decisively.
Pogačar had also announced attacks.
The first was four and a half kilometers from the finish.
Vingegaard fended off further attacks, drove very attentively and stayed on the rear wheel of the two-time Tour winner, just as he did on his last attempt in the finish sprint at an altitude of 1850 meters.
Pogačar had no helpers left in his team, which had been decimated by Corona, over the last five kilometers.
Geschke in luck and points:
It was "one of the hardest days of my career," Geschke said after yesterday's stage, on which he was able to defend his mountain jersey.
It was not agreed that he would still wear the dotted jersey on Friday.
But he benefited from the course of the stage, in which the points were distributed among different drivers, and held his own just ahead of Meintjes (39).
What's next?
After a total of four Alpine sections, the sprinters want to play the leading role again.
Over 192.6 kilometers from Le Bourg d'Oisans to Saint-Etienne, only two mountains of the third category and one of the second category await on Friday.
Arriving in the industrial city of St. Etienne, there is much to be said for a mass sprint.
Breakaways can also hope for a stage win.
Like in 2019, when the Belgian Thomas De Gendt triumphed single-handedly in Saint-Etienne.
25 years ago in Andorra:
July 15 will also have a special meaning for German tour fans.
25 years ago, the then 23-year-old Jan Ullrich rode in the yellow jersey for the first time in Andorra-Arcalis, later won the tour as the only German to date and triggered a cycling boom whose hype overwhelmed him.
Read here how the exceptional talent broke up due to his rise, doping and the sudden fall from the hero's pedestal
You can read the review of the big ARD documentary about Ullrich here