Tour de France: Wout van Aert wins stage 10

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Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) claimed his maiden individual Tour de France win on stage 10, and on a day of racing that saw the overall standings change after a number of contenders lost significant time in the crosswinds.

Van Aert – making his Grand Tour debut – won ahead of Elia Viviani (Deceuninck-QuickStep) and Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) in Albi, but the stage was dominated by the splits caused with 30km to go as Team Ineos and several allies tore the peloton apart during a section of crosswinds.

The effort succeeded, with Thibaut Pinot (Groupama FDJ), Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo), Rigoberto Uran (EF Education First) and Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) all conceding 1:40 on a group that contained Nairo Quintana, Julian Alaphilippe and the Team Ineos pair of Geraint Thomas and Egan Bernal. Alaphilippe heads into the first rest day with a 1:12 lead over Thomas, with Bernal four seconds further adrift. For Pinot, this was a disaster of a day after his stage 8 heroics had seen him rise up the standings. He now sits 10th overall at 2:33.

Van Aert’s sprint was only possible due to the fact that Jumbo-Visma’s primetime sprinter Dylan Groenewegen missed the earlier splits. The Dutch squad need not have worried, however, and as the sprinters opened up their efforts for the line Van Aert proved that he was the strongest. He came through on the left side with Viviani on his flank, but the Italian was unable to find the necessary speed. Ewan finished a distant third, while Michael Matthews and his well-numbered Team Sunweb train could only secure fourth despite excellent positioning until the final 200m.

"I can’t believe it, beating all those fast guys in the sprint. Ah... Sorry, I can’t believe it. It’s above anything else. I felt it in the last 10 days, how big this race is. Winning in my first attempt...wow," said the winner.

"It became quite nervous in the finale. I managed to stay in front and kept our leader Stevie in position. Unfortunately, Dylan was not in the first group and I was allowed to go for the sprint. From the last one, I learned I had to go early, so I went 250m from the line. It was close with Viviani, but one centimetre is enough."

Pinot and Uran blow their Tour hopes

For the GC contenders who lost time, this was a significant blow to their Tour de France challenges. Although Alaphilippe leads the race ahead of the first rest day, it’s Team Ineos who are perfectly placed with Thomas and Bernal. The British team were instrumental in causing the main split and then used the likes of Luke Rowe, Gianni Moscon and Michal Kwiatkowski to good effect. Steven Kruijswijk (Jumbo-Visma), Enric Mas (Deceuninck-QuickStep), Romain Bardet (AG2r La Mondiale), Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) and Daniel Martin (UAE Team Emirates) were all on the right side of the split, but for several others, their chances of winning the Tour or even reaching the podium have been severely dented.

All of the hard work and reward Pinot achieved on stage 8 was undone in an instant, while Uran will be kicking himself after his team pulled off the front just moments before Team Ineos split the race. Another shift saw Mikel Landa (Movistar) lose even more time and George Bennett (Jumbo-Visma) drop almost 10 minutes when he was needlessly sent back to the team car for bottles just as the pace began to increase. Jumbo-Visma’s fourth win of the race will paper over the fact that they sent their best-placed rider and second option for GC back towards the team cars at such a critical point.

The Pinot and Fuglsang group battled through the closing stages and at one point they had reduced the Ineos and Deceuninck - Quick Step echelon to just 14 seconds – mainly due to an extraordinary turn of speed from Astana’s
Alexey Lutsenko. However, that injection of pace shelled the chase of a number of riders, and soon after Porte, Pinot and a desperate-looking Fuglsang were forced to fend for themselves. Up ahead, Moscon and Rowe and Bora’s contingent went through the gears as they marshaled the lead group as the gap began to once again expand. Pinot and Fuglsang grimly hung on with the gap at 28 seconds but as the road turned towards Albi the advantage began to quickly expand as more and more riders aided the first group.

Van Aert's trajectory shows no sign of slipping

The early hours of the stage were a drab affair, with Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck-QuickStep), Tony Martin (Jumbo-Visma) and Maxime Monfort (Lotto Soudal) once again providing the entertainment at the front of the main field. Anyone who has watched this Tour throughout will have the image of those three riders burned into their retinas, such as has been their efforts in break-chasing since the race left Brussels. Surely, even they’re tired of each other by now.

Today’s escape featured Anthony Turgis (Total Direct Energie), Tony Gallopin (AG2R La Mondiale), Odd Christian EIking (Wanty-Gobert), Mads Wurtz Schmidt (Katusha-Alpecin), Natnael Berhane (Cofidis) and Michael Schar (CCC Team), but with so many sprinters yet to open their accounts in the race the chances of success for the break were always limited. The bunch held the leaders at a safe distance over the rugged terrain, and with 39km to go the gap was down to less than a minute.

EF Education First looked to split the race at that point, and although they had the bunch strung out, they were unable to make it count. Other teams would be far more successful a few kilometres later, and with 28km to go the early break had been caught and the peloton split into three distinct groups.

Team Sunweb had the numbers entering the final kilometre, but they were soon swamped when the pure sprinters opened for the line. This appeared to catch Matthews out, with the Australian seemingly looking for wheels rather than clear air, but there was no uncertainty for Van Aert. The young Belgian has taken the WorldTour by storm, but the last few weeks have been something else, even by his standards. A time trial win and a sprint stage at the Dauphine have now been topped by a Tour de France stage win.

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