Once again at the Tour de France, the race bore witness to overall leader Tadej Pogačar sprinting to the line with his rival, second-placed Jonas Vingegaard, in his wake.
At the altiport overlooking the high-end Alpine ski resort of Megève, the mini-battles to the peaks of La Super Planche des Belles Filles and Châtel was replayed once again, though this time for a lowly 20th and 21st place behind the breakaway of the day.
Nine minutes earlier, EF Education-EasyPost's Magnus Cort had added a stage win to his collection of polka dot jerseys. 22 seconds after the Dane, Bora-Hansgrohe climber Lennard Kämna rolled home, awaiting the news on whether he had made up 8:43 on Pogačar to jump up 20 places in the GC and grab a yellow jersey that looked unlikely to leave the Slovenian's shoulders before Paris.
In the end, the German would only move up 19 spots, with Pogačar's sprint to the line seeing him hold the maillot jaune by 11 seconds. The dash to the line was something of an odd choice, given his UAE Team Emirates squad has been weakened with the losses of Vegard Stake Laengen and George Bennett to COVID-19, but Pogačar explained the thinking behind the move later – well, sort of.
"At first we didn't want to lose it, then we were going to lose it kind of," the 23-year-old said after the stage. "But, in the end, it all worked out like it did and I'm happy I'm still in the yellow jersey.
"The pace again was not necessary [to go] full hard. I knew this climb and it was nothing special, so we dropped the pace, but in the end, we keep the jersey for a few seconds which is also good."
As the race delves deeper into the Alps in the coming days, Pogačar must now face the summit finishes of the Col du Granon – "the final climb is brutal. I'm looking forward to the stage", he said – and Alpe d'Huez without a key lieutenant in Bennett, while perhaps his strongest mountain domestique, Rafał Majka, is only racing following a positive COVID-19 test and further analysis which found he carries a low viral load.
The team will continue to monitor the Pole, who is racing on under the same rules applied to Bob Jungels before the Grand Départ. Pogačar gave his reaction to the positive cases and subsequent departures of his two teammates while also detailing how his team is working to keep riders and staff safe in France.
"It's really bad here - we got another one who had to leave," he said. "Both George and Vegard were high risk – they never had COVID before so I hope that the other guys will be OK.
"We are isolating all the time. It's just unlucky that we race amongst so many people in a big bunch with crowds alongside on the climbs. We are in close contact to many people when we're riding on the road. I think in our team we take really good precautions.
"We keep hygiene really high and we're alone in the rooms. We try to be as much as possible alone. To get one positive in your own bubble, it's just worrying, stress and I hope we survive until the finish."
UAE Team Emirates are "testing every day or every other day" at the Tour, according to team doctor Adriano Rotunno, and so the five remaining men around Pogačar battle on for another day.
Despite some rivals saying UAE may not be as strong as they look, they coped fine with reduced numbers on the road to Megève, and Pogačar was certainly in no mood to save his energy on the final ramp to the line.
Other than that last-minute dash, which saw the main GC contenders all classified at the same time, the stage passed with little incident for the big names at the top of the standings.
There was, however, a halt to the racing towards the end of the day as climate protestors blocked the road with 35km to go. With the group chained together, glued to the road, and setting off red flares, the break and peloton were forced to stop, while then-leader Alberto Bettiol narrowly missed them as he continued his attack.
Pogačar, riding in the peloton minutes behind, was pictured standing on the grass at the side of the road during the stoppage, smiling at the camera as he waited. He gave his reaction to the incident at the post-race press conference.
"I don't know. We just stopped," he said when questioned on his thoughts about the protest by Cyclingnews. "On the radio, we heard we have a bunch of people standing in the street. We had to stop, and we did that.
"We saw police taking a few guys. It was a funny moment. But we'll forget about it, and I really don't know exactly what it was about. So, nothing special."
