Martin Lange with AFP / Photo credit: ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT / AFP
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7:41 p.m., July 11, 2023
The Basque Pello Bilbao brought Spain its first Tour de France stage victory in five years by winning in sweltering heat on Tuesday in Issoire where he dedicated his victory to Gino Mäder. The rider from Bahrain settled a small group of breakaways in a sprint to win ahead of the German Georg Zimmermann and the Australian Ben O’Connor. Twelfth overall on the morning of the stage, he moved up to fifth place, 4:34 behind the yellow jersey Jonas Vingegaard, who finished with all the favorites in the peloton, nearly three minutes behind the winner. The last Spanish victory dates back to 2018 with the success of Omar Fraile in Mende.
It is, at 33, Bilbao’s first victory on the Tour. And she has a special taste, a month after the death of her teammate Gino Mäder in a fall on the Tour de Suisse. “This victory is for Gino. I wanted to do something for him in this Tour. I wanted to do it from the first week which was also very important for me with the departure from the Basque Country. It didn’t work. But I worked for this moment,” he said. The Basque had announced at the start of the Tour that he would donate one euro to an environmental association for each rider finishing behind him at each stage, following the example of Gino Mäder who had taken this initiative at the Tour of Spain in 2021.
Start of the 10th stage, Auvergne for adventurers
After a day of rest, the Tour de France restarted on Tuesday at 1:20 p.m. for a particularly rugged stage between Vulcania and Issoire in Auvergne, where the overall favorites Pogacar and Vingegaard should not take any risks. With five second and third category climbs on the menu, this 10th stage presents a profile that is primarily aimed at backpackers and eliminates a priori all sprinters. It remains to be seen who will take the right breakaway. After having measured themselves in the Pyrenees then at the Puy de Dôme, the Danish yellow jersey Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) and his Slovenian dolphin Tadej Pogacar (UAE), only 17 seconds away, will perhaps drop a tone of here on Friday and the Grand Colombier.
It restarts strongly in Auvergne for the 10th stage
The day after the rest day, the riders of the Tour de France will restart with a stage for particularly rugged adventurers on Tuesday between Vulcania and Issoire. With five second and third category climbs on the menu, this 10th stage presents a profile that automatically eliminates all sprinters. “It’s a very difficult restart. There is almost no flatness. It’s going to play leapfrog with the hills and even the small passes all day. It’s really reserved for backpackers”, underlines to AFP the technical director Thierry Gouvenou.
The route of the 10th stage
Credit: official Tour de France website
“I don’t see the riders in the general standings committing themselves to this terrain. But riders like Julian Alaphilippe really have what it takes to get a stage victory,” he adds. .
An unprecedented start at Vulcania
Fairly compact (167.2 km), the route will, after an unprecedented departure from the Vulcania European Volcanism Park, pass over the Cézallier plateau, one of the favorite places of Romain Bardet, one of the regionals of the stage. “These are roads a bit from another time. We don’t meet anyone, there are old centers of cross-country skiing. The roads are not wide. We see landscapes that are a bit like steppes. We are going to show magnificent facets of Auvergne”, underlines the climber of the DSM team who evaluates at 80% the chances for a breakaway to go to the end.
“The fighters will be motivated. I know one who will be particularly motivated and it’s Rémi (Cavagna). They are runners, when they set off on the flat, you have to tighten the toe clips” , he adds. Departure from Vulcania at 1.05 p.m. (launched at 1.20 p.m.), arrival in Issoire at 5.31 p.m. (timetable calculated on an average of 40 km/h)