Two More Days of Extreme Peaks - It's Going To Be A Great Weekend

Happy weekend in the Pyrenees. Since I don't post on Sundays, you get both of the upcoming days in the mountains of Southeastern France in today's post. Lots to look at, lots to discuss. I'm starting with yesterday's Individual Time Trial from Pau to Pau because it was absolutely amazing! As needed, Geraint Thomas rode like possessed by a demon and crushed the times before him, pulling into the lead with a single rider remaining - Julian Alaphillipe, still wearing the Yellow Jersey.

Julian Alaphillipe rode like a man possessed, and turned in an
amazing time trial, moving ahead of 2nd place Geraint Thomas
by 1 min 26 sec at the end of the day. That's a lot of time to
make up in the next week of riding. If Alaphillipe can keep
his focus and his body can take the punishment, he may be wearing
Yellow in Paris next Sunday. 

It's well known that the Yellow Jersey confers special powers onto he who wears it, and those powers were evident as Alaphillipe rode like the Devil himself, pulling ahead of Thomas by a total of 14 seconds and winning the Stage. This puts Alaphillipe ahead of Thomas by 1 minute, 26 seconds, and that may prove to be an insurmountable gap. The French may have a fellow countryman on the top step of the podium in Paris, we may be watching a truly historic Tour that will be remembered and analyzed for years to come. 

Today we climb, and then climb one of the most beloved and
storied peaks on Le Tour - the Tourmalet. Just look at the
profile for today's stage. OUCH! It's killer, and it's gong to
be such fun! 

That said, let's move on to today - mountains, mountains and a finish on the Tourmalet. True joy and happiness for this Tour fangirl. Here's the official blurb for today's stage.

It’s the third stage finish atop the gruelling Tourmalet, the most visited climb of the Tour de France. The winner up there, at the altitude of 2115 metres, will succeed to Jean-Pierre Danguillaume in 1974 and Andy Schleck in 2010. This is the first big battle of the Pyrenees following the confirmation of Julian Alaphilippe as the race leader after his amazing victory against the clock in Pau. Three riders who lost a significant amount of time in the crosswinds on stage 11 rode a very strong time trial: Rigoberto Uran (4th), Richie Porte (5th) and Thibaut Pinot (7th). They’re hungry for more and the high mountains are their favourite terrain. Three Colombians are in the top 10 overall: Egan Bernal who is now clearly the second option of Team Ineos as he’s 1’26’’ behind Geraint Thomas, Uran and Nairo Quintana. They’re expected to fire up the first hilltop finish of the 106th Tour de France.

As we enter today, the big question (besides times and chances to win/place/even get over the mountains to come) is what the heck is up with Dennis Rohan? He, quite literally, gave up his ride on Thursday, coming to a halt at the feeding station on Stage 12 and refusing to participate in Le Tour any further. The gossip has it that an argument with his team management had him quit and "walk" off the job, but nobody seems able to get confirmation or details. It's the big mystery of this year's Tour. 

Sunday's peaks aren't quite as high, but it's still a very impressive
route laid out for the boys to suffer through and over. Legs of iron, that's
what these riders have to have. The really BIG mountains come
next week - the Alps are still to come and the race will come to an
amazing climax on Thursday, Friday and Saturday next week. 

So today we end on Tourmalet, and tomorrow, well, tomorrow is much longer, 185 km, ending at Prat d'Albis. The rest day on Monday will be very well deserved. One disappointment from yesterday's time trial was the crash and withdrawal of Wout Van Aert (Team Jumbo-Visma) who had shown such promise in the Tour to this point. His foot caught one of the side barriers and he went down hard. I'm going to be remembering his name, though. He might well be on the Podium one of these days - a young rider with great promise. 

So that's a lot packed into today's post, and I didn't even mention "The Open", where Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, and most disappointing of all, Rory McIlroy didn't make the cut, so won't be playing over the next two days. McIlroy came close - so close - after a disastrous first day, but it was not to be. On that note, I'm wrapping this very long post up and calling it a day. Time to head out to the gym and try to increase my fast-walking pace. Have a wonderful weekend and I'll be back on Monday for analysis and commentary on the final Rest Day of this year's Tour.