On the final Tour de France GC day Felix Gall continued to perform well, with an impressive performance on the final climb, Col du Platzerwasel, while Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard sat in his slipstream.

The final mountain stage in the 2023 Tour was not straightforward at all. Many riders wanted to get into the breakaway for the last chance to win a mountain stage. But it was not a day for attackers like Thibaut Pinot who is retiring after this season, despite an incredibly strong performance from the Groupama-FDJ legend. There are no gifts in the peloton, particularly not in the Tour de France, and UAE-Emirates were controlling everything for a Tadej Pogačar victory. The last 7 kilometres of false flat suited the Slovenian as a reduced bunch sprint was very likely to happen after two difficult 20-25 minute climbs.

Col du Platzerwasel was the decisive final climb. Despite losing loads of time on Col de la Loze in Stage 17, Pogačar recovered well, in a similar fashion to his recovery after the breakdown on Col du Granon in 2022. Pogačar attacked but Vingegaard could easily follow him and was riding passively today, despite having a 7 minute lead over Pogačar in the GC. Vingegaard did not try to attack or make moves which made both riders completely stop before Felix Gall caught them and continued to ride his tempo.

Pogačar and Vingegaard enjoyed the draft behind the Austrian on Col du Platzerwasel. Gall did the climb in 19:20 minutes, pushing 6.83 ᵉW/Kg. Adam and Simon Yates lost only 12 seconds on the climb and caught the leading trio on the way to the finish.

It was Gall's career performance on the 20th stage of a very hard Grand Tour. The Austrian lost a lot of time in the early stages in the Basque Country but performed well after that, winning the Col de la Loze Queen stage and climbing up to 8th position in his Tour debut. Gall has performed consistently throughout the 2023 season, finish Top 10 in Tour de Suisse, Basque Country and Tour of the Alps but he stepped up his level during the Tour.

As expected Pogačar won the bunch sprint against Gall, Vingegaard and the Yates brothers. Vingegaard attempted to get the jump on Pogačar in the sprint but has the much larger consolation of the second Tour de France title in the bag.

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Due to crashes several riders lost their position in the GC. Carlos Rodriguez lost 4th position to Simon Yates, while Sepp Kuss finished 20 minutes behind the winner with a bloodied face and dropped from 9th to 12th place.

The third consecutive mountain day for an exhausted Tour de France peloton which meant another Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar battle on the final climb. Despite UAE and Pogačar’s effort on Le Bettex nothing in GC changed amongst the two top guns.

This time Jumbo-Visma did not ride full gas for the whole day and a big breakaway with nearly 40 riders got a chance to fight for a stage win. The final climb, Le Bettex (7.7 km, 6.9%) suited Pogačar more than Vingegaard. Right before Le Bettex and the short descent, there was the steep Côte des Amerands wall (2.72 km, 9.96%). A 14 man GC group did that ‘warm-up’ climb at 6.53 ᵉW/Kg for 8:32 min.

Earlier in the stage there was a big crash in the peloton that might have influenced some of the riders, including Sepp Kuss who was knocked down by a spectator. This time it was UAE-Emirates who paced the whole climb hard and tested Jonas Vingegaard before the time trial on Tuesday. When there were three riders left in the GC group, Tadej Pogačar let go of Adam Yates’ wheel and was left alone with Vingegaard. Both started to go slow and were caught by Carlos Rodriguez. Pogačar was probably hoping for Vingegaard to attack and counter his move across to his satellite riders ahead of Yates and Marc Soler from the breakaway. Yates also is fighting for the podium as Jai Hindley is losing time in the mountains and Carlos Rodriguez in the 3rd position is not far away and is weaker than Yates in the Alpes so far.

Pogačar attacked Vingegaard but the Dane looked strong and did not struggle to respond to his rival’s attempts. They both did the climb in 18:25 min with 6.60 ᵉW/Kg. A strong effort considering it was not paced for the whole time and right before Le Bettex they did a hard effort on Côte des Amerands. They broke the climbing record which was previously owned by Chris Froome. In 2015 he did the climb in 19:09 min. Even Carlos Rodriguez was a second faster today than peak Froome.

Wout Poels won his first Grand Tour stage at age 35. The Dutch climber was exceptionally fast up Le Bettex and beat his closest breakaway rival Wout van Aert by over 2 minutes. Poels did Le Bettex in 19:40 min with 6.23 ᵉW/Kg, which is faster than many of the GC riders. The next stage will be a hilly time-trial where the leader's jersey might change if Pogačar is on fire.

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Jumbo-Visma went all out in the Tour de France Stage 14, trying to test Tadej Pogačar after an intensive, kilojoule packed stage in hot conditions.

It was an extremely hard climbing day and Jumbo-Visma took advantage of the route and paced hard all day, never letting the breakaway get any advantage. Thomas Pidcock who was the 3rd fastest climber from the GC group on Puy de Dome and Galibier even got distanced on the Col de la Ramaz more than 50 kilometres from the finish. The Dutch team clearly intended to test Pogačar, hoping the Slovene might break after an intensive climbing day with multiple mountain passes.

Col de Joux Plane is a legendary climb, often used in the Tour de France and Criterium du Dauphiné. With a tailwind today up Joux Plane, Jumbo-Visma used all their resources to keep the tempo as high as possible. Even Wout van Aert was still in the group and was productive for a few minutes, overtaking Rafal Majka after initially being dropped. As usual, Sepp Kuss was at a very high level, probably having the best season a mountain domestique has ever had in the history of cycling, after aiding Roglic to his Giro victory in May. The American decimated the group to only a few riders, even dropping Felix Gall, Jai Hindley and Carlos Rodriguez.

After Kuss job was done Adam Yates set up an attack for Tadej Pogačar. Pogačar again attacked Vingegaard and got a small gap but the Dane was not far from him the whole time. The steep gradients suited Vingegaard and despite Pogačar’s burst being stronger the Dane came back and they both stopped trying.

Marco Pantani’s 1997 record on Joux Plane has been untouchable for many years. The Italian did the climb in 32:50 min with 6,65 ᵉW/Kg. The fastest rider in the last 20 years until today was Mark Padun, who did Joux Plane in the 2021 Dauhpiné breakaway in 34:53 min with 6,22 ᵉW/Kg, dropping Vingegaard who was preparing for his Tour de France debut (where he eventually came second).

Both Pogačar and Vingegaard had the chance to break the old Pantani record despite a very hard stage. But after Vingegaard caught Pogačar, the gladiators surplaced and did the final 5 minutes and 30 seconds at 4.90 ᵉW/Kg. Despite the tactics, they both still did the fastest Joux Plane since 1997, setting a time of 33:52 min, pushing 6.24 ᵉW/Kg. After Vingegaard caught PogačarBefore they did 6.49 ᵉW/Kg for 28:22 min. If the tempo had remained the same until the top, the climbing time would be 32:37 min and even if they had only slowed down a little bit the Pantani 32:50 min time could have still been broken.

But no one cares about climbing records as the Tour de France win is on the line and the maillot jaune is what really matter. Vingegaard beat Pogačar in the sprint for bonus seconds at the top of the climb after a motorbike stopped Pogačar's customary attack from 500 metres. As both stars slowed down, Adam Yates and Carlos Rodriguez were able to return on the plateau before the descent to Morzine. The young Spaniard astutely attacked just before the descent and was flying, opening up a small gap over the GC leaders to win his first Grand Tour stage.

Rodriguez also overtook Jai Hindley in the GC and now is in 3rd place with Hindley and Adam Yates not that far away. With Rodriguez potentially transfering to Movistar after the season and Pidcock losing 8:40 min, it is not looking too good for the INEOS GC future. Pogačar despite losing a single bonus second to Vingegaard,must be happy with the outcome, as the Dutch team did everything to expose a potential weakness but the Slovene was too strong.

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Tadej Pogačar is in the best shape of his career once again dropped Jonas Vingegaard, this time on a climb that suited the Dane perfectly. The UAE Team Emirates superstar is flying and the battle for the yellow jersey will be very exciting in the coming two weeks.

After Tadej Pogačar beat Jonas Vingegaard on Stage 6, neither Jumbo nor UAE Team Emirates were willing to control the breakaway as both teams probably were not sure if their leader would win. Vingegaard was the favourite as the last 4.2 kilometres of the climb were at 11.92% gradient, which is perfect for lightweight climbers.

The pace in the peloton was not high throughout the day. Emanuel Buchmann spent 3,067 kilojoules in 4:02h, which is 12.84 kj/kg/h – perfect for high watt performances. Jumbo-Visma did not change their tactics and set the climb at a hard pace. Wout van Aert, Wilco Kelderman and Sepp Kuss shredded the GC group until the strongest climbers were left. After the American Eagle finished his job, Vingegaard did not attack immediately – it was not a surprise to see him being more defensive after what happened on Stage 6. The pace on the shallow part was quite high – 6.20 ᵉW/Kg for 20:21 minutes thanks the Kelderman and Van Aert.

Sensing weakness in Vingegaard, Pogačar attacked hard on 12% gradient against a lightweight Dane and it worked. Vingegaard slowly lost contact to Pogačar’s back wheel but the gap was not big. However if the Slovenian can drop the maillot jaune on steep ramps then he should theoretically be even more comfortable on shallower gradients against Vingegaard.

It was Pogačar’s career best pure ᵉW/Kg performance. The Slovenian finally broke the red generational trendline and is in his career best shape as shown at the end of the Tourmalet on Thursday. 6.50 ᵉW/Kg for 35:11 min on the full Puy de Dome is very impressive. On the steep part Pogačar did 7.00 ᵉW/Kg for 14:50 min, which was after 6.20ᵉW/Kg for 20:21. If the UAE superstar keeps this form it will be almost impossible for Vingegaard to do anything against him on any terrain. If the climb would be paced more evenly (impossible with the asymmetrical gradients), the average ᵉW/Kg would have been even more impressive.

As expected, the record by José Patrocinio Jiménez set in a 1983 time-trial, was beaten - Pogačar improving on the old record by 58 seconds. The Slovenian could have gone even faster as the final 4 minutes were extremely fast and there was a slowing in the group when Kuss pulled off. Pogačar attacked 3 minutes and 55 seconds from the finish and in this short period of time put 51 seconds into Simon Yates and Tom Pidcock who were both together in the leading group.

Vingegaard still remains the GC leader but his lead now is only 17 seconds. Pogačar has improved since his disappointment on Marie Blanque. The battle for the maillot jaune will be a close one and the time-trial on stage 16 might decide the Tour. The stage was won by Michael Woods from a breakaway after he caught Matteo Jorgenson in the final kilometre who attacked early and struggled on the steep gradients at the end. Woods saved his energy for the steep part and did it in 16:57 min with 6.14 ᵉW/Kg. A second slower than Thibaut Pinot, Louis Meintjes and David Gaudu from the GC group.

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After a hard day on Marie Blanque yesterday, Tadej Pogačar recovered and did a remarkable performance on Col du Tourmalet, following Jonas Vingegaard, and later dropping the Dane on the steep part of the Cote de Cauterets climb.

After dominating on Marie Blanque, the question was if Jonas Vingegaard would finish off his rivals on the mighty Col du Tourmalet (17.0 km, 7.4%) in just the sixth stage of this year’s Tour de France. With Bora-Hansgrohe defending Jai Hindley’s yellow jersey, Jumbo-Visma sent Wout van Aert in the breakaway as a potential satellite rider, clearly stating their intentions for the stage.

Jumbo-Visma made sure that the breakaway and Van Aert would not be caught before the crest of the Tourmalet, as had happened on the previous stage, which meant that the first part of Tourmalet was paced quite slow. Van Aert even set his own tempo in the breakaway group and dropped riders one by one.

In the last 15 minutes of the climb, Jumbo-Visma came to the front like on Marie Blanque and decimated the GC group with Wilco Kelderman and Sepp Kuss, doing their best to drop almost everyone. Soon enough only Vingegaard, Pogačar and Hindley was left in the group, however the yellow jersey wearer Hindley soon dropped and paid for his efforts, losing a lot of time.

After Kuss ended his powerful pull, Vingegaard launched but, to his surprise, Pogačar this time could hold on his wheel. The 8-9% gradients of the Tourmalet suit Pogačar better than the Marie Blanque steep section but this was still not expected after Vingegaard danced away seemingly with ease in the first day in the Pyrenees. This was a good sign for the race and viewers as Vingegaard was not able to do what Pogačar did in the 2021 Tour on Col de Romme stage – practically winning the Tour in the first week.

It was a straight tailwind on Tourmalet, which only suited attackers as the draft benefit was not as huge if there was a headwind.

Despite the most of Tourmalet being paced very slow, in the end Jonas Vingegaard did it in 45:11 min at 6.01 ᵉW/Kg, beating Tony Rominger and Zenon Jaskuła’s 1993 record of 45:48. For such a high altitude climb this is a very good performance, close to Pogačar’s best level, but before Kelderman’s blistering pace the peloton did only 5.5-5.6 ᵉW/Kg.

In the final 4.81 kilometres of the climb both Vingegaard and Pogačar did their career best performances, considering the altitude. Vingegaard for 13:27 min pushed 6.91 ᵉW/Kg, while Pogačar in the draft did 6.83 ᵉW/Kg. The most impressive part about this that they both did the previous 30 minutes at around 5.5-5.6 ᵉW/Kg and went supersonic at high altitude. The average altitude at this segment is 1,897 metres above sea level. With normalising the ᵉW/Kg to sea level, Vingegaard did 7.46 ᵉW/Kg for 13:27 min, which is his career best performance, even better than Marie Blanque the day before - the same with Pogačar. No wonder the Dane was surprised to see Pogačar on his wheel after dropping him on stage 5. Most of the GC riders on this short segment lost around two minutes. Egan Bernal before this segment spent 2,229 kilojoules for 2:35 h, which is high pace per hour, at 15.03 kj/kg/h, but not a high amount of kilojoules overall.

With Van Aert pacing the descent, valley and the shallow part of Cauterets-Cambasque, Pogačar and Vingegaard could recharge their legs.

The two kilometre section at 10% gradient was a good moment for Jonas to drop his rival but even Michal Kwiatkowski from the breakaway was able to hold on for some time when he attacked, which was a sign that the tempo is not that high. Pogačar responded with a blistering attack and dropped Vingegaard, soloing to his 10th Tour de France victory.

The full Cote de Cauterets climb was slow. 34:40 min and 5.91 ᵉW/Kg for Pogačar whilst Bjarne Riis in 1995 was 37 seconds faster. But isolating the steep part on its own tells more of a story, as the Slovenian did it in 12:58 min with 6.75 ᵉW/Kg after a super hard day. On the steep part Pogačar lost 17 seconds to Zulle and Indurain's 1995 time.

Despite Vingegaard losing the stage and time to Pogačar, he became the new race leader. Jai Hindley, Carlos Rodriguez and Simon Yates were the fastest from the other GC riders who will very likely battle out for the remaining spot on the podium. On Sunday Vingegaard and Pogačar will have another chance to test their legs on the steep section on Puy de Dôme.

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Jonas Vingegaard annihilated his competition on the steep gradienst of the Marie Blanque climb, putting over a minute into his closest rival before the race, Tadej Pogačar. Jai Hindley won the stage from the breakaway and earnt the leader’s jersey, with a masterclass from Bora-Hansgrohe.

The first real mountain test did not disappoint, with a lot of action throughout the stage. A 36 rider breakaway formed that was full of strong GC riders like Jai Hindley, Giulio Ciccone and Emanuel Buchmann, all of whom had not lost much time in the hilly Basque stages. Hindley was especially dangerous, as he won the Giro d’Italia last year and performed strongly in the 2023 Dauphiné mountain stages.

Jumbo-Visma had Christophe Laporte, Wout van Aert and Tiesj Benoot in the front group who could have been satellite riders for Jonas Vingegaard on or after Col de Marie Blanque. UAE-Emirates elected to control the breakaway despite Marc Soler and Felix Großschartner being in it and later dropping back on Col du Soudet.

Wout van Aert was aggressive during the stage and attacked successfully the before Col du Soudet (15.2 km, 7.0%) with Victor Campenaerts, Mads Pedersen and Bryan Coquard as the sprinters were interested in the green jersey points and Jumbo-Visma were presumably concerned with the presence of Jai Hindley in the breakaway. Van Aert was caught on the Col du Soudet by the strongest climbers from the breakaway and later got distanced, having to catch up on the descent.

The Marie Blanque climb features a 4.8 kilometre 10.5% gradient second half, which was well suited to lightweight climbers like Hindley, Buchmann and Ciccone. That was the reason why Krists Neilands attacked in the valley and later was joined by Julian Alaphilippe and Van Aert, trying to gain time before inevitably being distanced by the specialists. The gap between Hindley and the peloton was around three minutes before Marie Blanque which meant that the Australian was a real chance to win the stage and take the maillot jaune.

As expected, Hindley was the strongest from the front group and the last one to drop from his wheel was the Tour de Suisse sensation Felix Gall. Van Aert was dropped early on Marie Blanque and after that waited for his Jumbo-Visma teammate’s as the yellow train was going full gas up the climb, two minutes behind.

Michael Woods in the peloton before the climb spent 2,991 kilojoules for 3:35h. The difficulty was moderate with 13.80 kj/kg/h. There was a tailwind up the climb, which would help attackers such as Hindley. Van Aert was not able to help too much on Marie Blanque when he took over from Kuss, as he pulled for a short time on a very steep section. Sepp Kuss was flying on the climb as he reduced the GC group to only Vingegaard and Pogačar, dropping riders such as Adam Yates, Simon Yates and Carlos Rodriguez.

When Vingegaard launched, it was game over for Pogačar. The Slovenian was distanced immediately as Kuss’ tempo was already very high and helped to cook Pogačar’s legs. Vingegaard was flying up the steep gradients, trying hard to overtake breakaway riders as the crowd was blocking the road.

Jonas Vingegaard destroyed the previous Marie Blanque record. Pogačar and Roglič did the full climb 92 seconds slower in the 2020 Tour (this includes the shallower section at the bottom). Vingegaard climbed it in 20:58 min, pushing 6.92 ᵉW/Kg. Pogačar also beat his previous time and did huge ᵉW/Kg but it was not enough compared to the flying Dane. Pogačar and Kuss lost 37 seconds on the climb, also beating the 2020 Tour times by a long mile. Jai Hindley also put up a strong performance as he spent more energy in the breakaway than if he had sat in the GC group all day, doing Marie Blanque in 22:42 min, pushing 6.36 ᵉW/Kg. He was 22 seconds slower than O’Connor, Pidcock, Woods and Pinot but did not have as much draft and had to close his own gaps on several occasions when there was no cooperation in the breakaway.

Jonas was not far from the all time Top 30 trend-line. No one since Alberto Contador's Verbier performance in the 2009 Tour has been close to the pink trend-line. If the Marie Blanque performance is adjusted for altitude, then this is Vingegaard's best pure climbing performance in his career. Pogačar's level today also was high but even without the Liege Bastogne Liege crash he would have needed to find better legs than in 2022 and perform at a level he has never performed at before the hold the wheel of Vingegaard. There was some criticism of the validity of performance assessment via ᵉW/Kg calculations, especially after Pogačar beat Vingegaard in Paris-Nice 2023, however those very calculations showed in the French race that the Dane massively underperformed compared to his peak level, for whatever reason. When Vingegaard performs at his peak level, as established in O Gran Camino, Itzulia Basque Country or today, it is clear that Pogačar cannot follow Vingegaard on steep climbs when it is full gas.

Hindley won the stage and became the new leader, taking 18 bonus seconds (8 on Marie Blanque and 10 at the finish), which could have been Vingegaard's if the gap to the breakaway was closer. Vingegaard finished with Ciccone, Gall and Buchmann and did all the work in the group after the climb, increasing the gap to the chaser with his aero position. Pogačar finished in a large group with Adam Yates and lost more than a minute to the Dane. There are many climbs left in the Tour, many of which are longer and harder like Col de la Loze, so this is not a good omen for the others being able to follow Vingegaard up long and steep climbs.

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Annemiek van Vleuten is on her way to win another Grand Tour this season, with consistently high level performances throughout the 2023 Giro d’Italia Donne mountain stages too much for a field missing Demi Vollering.

Stage 2

The Dutch superstar torched everyone on the first mountain test on Stage 2, riding away from her rivals on Passo Della Colla (9.9 km, 5.8%). Despite it being a shallow descent finish, she won the stage with a 45 second gap, doing one of the best pure climbing performances ever.

It was the first fully raced stage of this Giro Donne as the time-trial was cancelled due to weather. Due to the ease of the stage before the sole climb, Van Vleuten practically did a full gas 20 minute FTP test up Passo Della Colla, pushing 5.62 ᵉW/Kg for 20 minutes and 17 seconds. Marta Cavalli lost 32 seconds on the climb, doing 5.31 ᵉW/Kg but was later joined by Gaia Realini and then caught by a bigger group. Van Vleuten has not been as dominant in 2023 as in previous years but her performance on stage 2 was promising for the upcoming Tour where she will compete against Vollering. The World Champion plans to retire after the season but it would not be a surprise if she would continue for one more year as the 2024 Paris Olympic Games road race route (announced today) is going to be hilly and a good chance to complete her palmares.

Stage 5

Stage 5 was the first hard day of the Giro with multiple hard climbs throughout the 106 kilometre stage. The race ended for most of the riders after the first climb of the day, the Passo del Lupo, where Van Vleuten again destroyed everyone, with only Gaia Realini staying on her wheel. Steep gradients suit Realini well so it is not a surprise she could challenge Van Vleuten despite being dropped on the shallower climb on Stage 2. Despite facing gearing issues, the Italian beat Van Vleuten on the mighty Lagos de Covadonga finish in La Vuelta earlier this year, losing only to Demi Vollering.

Unsurprisingly, the riders were spread out after Passo del Lupo where Van Vleuten did 5.15 ᵉW/Kg for 34:23 minutes. Due to drafting, Realini did 0.05 ᵉW/Kg less. The next riders where Longo Borghini and Fisher-Black (lost +0:36), Cavalli, Persico, Niedermaier and Santesteban (+1:21), Ludwig and Garcia (+1:58).

After a long descent and shallow climb, a lead group of the strongest nine riders was formed. Van Vleuten was not that active in chasing attacks made by numerous riders, already having a comfortable lead in GC. In the end it was Niedermaier whose attack was successful and she went solo, while Van Vleuten was riding defensively and saving her legs for the mighty Sant'Ignazio climb (4.1 km, 8.2%) with 15 kilmoetres remaining.

On the Sant'Ignazio climb Van Vleuten made her move and at the top the gap was only 14 seconds, according to the TV. Longo Borghini was the only one who could initially follow her but the Italian champion was distanced by Van Vleuten at the top of the climb. After that followed a steep, narrow and technical descent. As there was a possibility to win a stage, many riders took big risks. Longo Borghini went too fast in a tricky corner and crashed hard, fortunately being able to finish the stage but losing more than 7 minutes to the winner.

Van Vleuten did not crash hard but needed to stop after she also missed a blind corner which doubled back on itself. The 20 year-old Niedermaier also was taking risks and managed to stay on a bike and with mistakes from her closest followers she could take a big victory for Canyon-Sram.

Niedermaier beat Van Vleuten by only nine seconds. The gaps were huge as Greta Marturano who finished 22nd, lost more than 13 minutes. Thanks to a consistent performance across the GC stages, Van Vleuten leads the GC by 2 minutes and 7 seconds over second placed Niedermaier. There four stages left in the Giro Donne but none of the remaining days will be a hard mountain top finish or even a mountain day, compared to Stages 2 and 5.

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