After the second rest day, the Tour de France resumed its course through the Alps on Tuesday. On the tarmac of the Megève’s altiport, the breakaway fought for victory and Magnus Cort proved successful. The GC contenders finished all together inside the yellow jersey group and David Gaudu now sits sixth place overall, after Lennard Kämna almost took the lead, before the two major stages in the Alps.
On Tuesday, stage 10 of the Tour de France was a kind of appetizer before the main course including the Galibier, the Granon, the Croix de Fer and the Alpe d’Huez the following two days. Yet, the stage was still extremely intense for more than an hour from the start in Morzine. With a course of just 148 kilometres featuring 2700 meters of elevation gain, the breakaway surely had a shot, and many wanted therefore to be up there. Thibaut Pinot, Valentin Madouas and even Stefan Küng tried to follow some moves, but a group of around twenty men eventually went away. “The start was really, really fast, it went flat out for more than sixty kilometres before the right group could go, and I think it still left a mark in the legs”, introduced Philippe Mauduit. The peloton very quickly lost interest in the leading men and let them go fight for the stage victory. The race, however, experienced an unexpected event when a protest on the road led to a temporary neutralization, about thirty kilometres from the goal.
“We had chosen to ride a bit more conservatively”, Philippe Mauduit
In the ascent to the heliport of Megève, the breakaway fought for the stage victory and Magnus Cort then outsprinted his rivals. Within the yellow jersey peloton, which finished nearly nine minutes later, no moves were to report and the GC contenders arrived all together. David Gaudu secured his place alongside Tadej Pogacar and now sits sixth overall, as a result of Kämna’s breakaway. “It was a pretty surprising stage with Pogacar who seemed ready to let his jersey go before sprinting to the line, and then this stop after halfway”, said Philippe. “All this gave a special atmosphere to the stage. As far as we’re concerned, we had chosen to ride a bit more conservatively, because tough alpine stages await us. We needed to go through this day in a good way, without spending too much energy today. Even though we saved a little, it is still something”. “The peloton fought for an hour and a half”, recalled David. “We rode hard at the start of the stage. It wasn’t such an easy race, and there was also the heat. The pace wasn’t very fast on the last climb, except for the last 500 metres, but we expected it. The most important stages are tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. I already had these stages in mind today”.
The first great mountain stage of this 2022 edition will take the riders to the summit of the little-known Col du Granon on Wednesday, after the prior ascents of the Col du Télégraphe and the Col du Galibier. With 4000 meters of elevation gain on the program, pure climbers will certainly be on their terrain.
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