Ineos Grenadiers have four riders in the top ten at the Tour de France but admit they’re baffled by the strength of Wout van Aert and Tadej Pogačar, as the race heads to La Planche des Belles Filles for Friday’s first mountain top finish.
Adam Yates is fourth overall, 39 seconds down on Pogačar, Tom Pidcock is fifth at 40 seconds, Geraint Thomas is sixth at 46 seconds and Dani Martinez is eighth at 1:00.
They all moved up the general classification after the hilly roads to Longwy shook out the peloton, with Pidcock finishing fourth, not fast behind stage winner Pogačar.
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Van Aert lost the yellow jersey after going on the attack virtually all stage but left his mark on the day and on his rivals. The Belgian was hoping to go away in a big group and so attacked time and time again. He eventually got away with Jakob Fuglsang (Israel-Premier Tech) and Quinn Simmons (Trek-Segafredo) and even tried to stay away alone.
He was eventually caught and distanced but left the peloton and the Ineos Grenadiers riders in awe.
“It was incredible what he was trying to do,” Thomas said after his usual warm-down at the team bus beyond the finish line.
“It was insane, the power he had and what he was doing, he was just splitting the group on his own on the front. Too much power, I don’t know what else to say. That was impressive. Pogačar and Wout van Aert are just a level above everyone at the minute, but you never know what’s around the corner.”
Pidcock’s opinion on van Aert was a little more blunt but perhaps laced with admiration, the Yorkshireman saying: "He’s playing with our balls, isn’t he? I don’t know what to say, really. He’s taking the piss, isn’t he?”
Yates was also sarcastic.
“He was just trying to win, he doesn’t win that many, does he?” Yates said. “We’re lucky he wasn’t there in the finale.”
Thomas has impressed so far in the Tour de France, despite riding the opening time trial with a gilet over his skinsuit and losing 18 seconds to Pogačar.
However, he lost a further five seconds on the intense, hilly finish to Longwy, losing contact with Neilson Powless, as the American fought to hang on the hope of taking the yellow jersey.
“It was a fast old day there. I thought it was on the limit, so it is what it is. You could obviously feel it at the end, but you just crack on it with,” Thomas explained.
“I don’t want to use excuses or anything. On that penultimate climb, I just tried to just let the gap go and let other people do it, so I could save a bit for the end, because I could feel it.
“Then in the final it was just a case of trying to hold the wheel out of the corner but then Powless was slowly creeping away from me.”
Martinez finished in the same as Pogačar and indicated his legs were good as the talk of the finish turned to Friday’s La Planche des Belles Filles mountain finish.
“Pogačar was superior in the sprint but I am thinking about the stages to come,” the Colombian climber made clear.
“My legs are good, but it was a bit complicated and it was very fast, and so the key was to be there in the right place. Thanks to the help from the teammates we are there.
“Tomorrow is our first contact with the mountains. We have four riders there in the top 20, so we are very motivated. The sensations are good so far, but the mountains we will see how the legs truly are.”
The climb to La Planche des Belles Filles lasts seven kilometres and it has again be called the Super Planche des Belles Filles because it extends beyond the original finishline and includes an unpaved road, including a 24% ramp, just before the new finish.
The mountain finish will reveal the true ability of the overall contenders in this year’s Tour de France and if anyone can match and take on Pogačar.
If should also expose the true form and real chances of Yates, Thomas, Pidcock and Martinez.
“It won’t decide the leadership of the team,” Martinez claimed with diplomacy.
“The most important thing is the race, and whoever it might be, the idea is to win it.”
