The headlines belong to Van der Poel for now, but the overarching narrative of this race is developing just behind him. Pogacar lies third at 13 seconds, one second and one place ahead of his fellow Slovenian Roglic. In the overall standings, Van der Poel carries the yellow jersey into stage 3 with a lead of 8 seconds on Alaphilippe. Geraint Thomas (Ineos), well placed throughout the run-in, was unable to follow the pace on that tumultuous final climb, and he conceded 23 seconds to Van der Poel, as did Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana Premier Tech), while Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos) lost a further 3:48. Yellow jersey Julian Alaphilippe was unable to repeat his sparkling display of 24 hours earlier, coming home 5th at eight seconds at the head of a group of 20 or so riders. Behind, the group fragmented in the closing metres, with Pogacar, Roglic and Wilco Kelderman (Bora-Hansgrohe) detaching themselves from the rest and contesting second place – and the time bonuses – 6 seconds down on Van der Poel. He ripped clear of the shrinking front group with 800 metres remaining, never to be caught again. Van der Poel swiftly shut down that move and he also snuffed out an effort from Italian champion Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain Victorious) before deciding to test the waters himself. Richie Porte led on the lower slopes, pegging back an acceleration from Davide Formolo (UAE Team Emirates), but the race ignited when Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic) attacked with 1.2km to go. The normal rules, of course, don’t seem to apply to Van der Poel, who seemed just as fresh on the final ascent up the climb.īy then, Ineos has taken over at the head of the peloton, and they set a relentless pace on the approach to the finishing climb.
Although Van der Poel picked up the 8 bonus seconds on offer there – while Pogacar outsprinted Roglic, Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) and Richard Carapaz (Ineos) for second – it appeared as though he had erred in showing his hand so early.
0 kommentar(er)
