Sooner or later in life everyone passes over it, at least once: Ligabue (the singer, not the painter) defined it as “the day of pain that one has” and that a Courchevel it fell to fate a Tadej Pogacar, literally collapsed between the psychological blow received yesterday in the time trial and above all the physical blow remedied at the start of the stage in a crash that effectively ended the games for the yellow jersey prematurely.
Why the one distributed for the next two thirds of the stage was not Pogacar, at least not what the world has known for two and a half years now: the first real crisis in the Slovenian’s career makes one happy Jonas Vingegaard, who in the last stage in the Alps ends any comeback ambitions of his rival, leaving plenty behind him and giving him more than 5′.
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Tour de France, 16th stage: Vingegaard demolishes everyone in the time trial, Pogacar needs a miracle
How did the stage go?
In general the lead is almost 8′, with Adam Yates on the virtual podium but delayed by more than 10′. In short, the Fisher King closed the games within 24 hours, reiterating that he is out of reach for anyone.
The last alpine stage of the is taken Felix Gall, more and more revelation of the 2023 Tour: the Austrian went on the run and resisted the return of the big names, who in the final also anticipated the comeback, which vanished for a handful of seconds.
Bravo, however, was also Giulio Ciccone, who took precious points in the polka dot jersey classification, where now the most formidable rival is indeed Gall, who will try to rip it off him in the next few days. But with Vingegaard now already certain of doing an encore a Paris (unforeseen permitting), tomorrow the finisseur and sprinter stage will return to play: the last emotions of a race otherwise “killed” by the superiority of the Dane.
The report cards of the stage (the best and the worst)
FELIX GALL 10. It had been more than 60 years since an Austrian had conquered the highest peak of the Tour, and Austria had been waiting for such a brilliant climbing talent for decades. Felix is the photograph of his name: happy for the feat and now determined to snatch the polka dot shirt from Ciccone. It will be a fight at the last point: anything can happen.
JONAS VINGEGAARD 9. He does everything perfectly, certainly facilitated by the black crisis of Pogacar. When Kuss accelerates, he follows and the battle in the Tour closes its doors. Unthinkable until just over 24 hours ago, logical for what we saw later. He is the strongest and he proved it when it mattered most.
SIMON YATES 8. He started the Tour off to a great start with the attack on Bilbao and the sprint with his brother, but it’s on the last real Alpine stage that he proves to be worthy of consideration anyway. He gains positions and completes the family celebration, with Adam now seeing the podium. He is not far away and the party is already starting at Jayco AlUla’s house.
GIULIO CICCONE 7.5. As long as the legs hold up, the GPMs are all his own. Then in the end he’s kind of in reserve, but he’s set himself a goal and (for now) is keeping it up with stubbornness and willpower. Thirty-one years after Chiappucci, if the polka dot returns to Italy it will be a great thing. But Gall is scary now.
TADEJ POGACAR 5. The crisis is more the result of the blow taken yesterday than that of the crash at the start of the stage. Which is there too, it makes his knee bleed and burns in his soul, as well as a beautiful physique. Pogi tried: he probably wouldn’t have made it anyway, because it was already understood at the end of the second week that Vingegaard was better. So, however, there is something to blame for bad luck. Applause for the dedication with which he arrives, instead of getting on the car and saying goodbye to everyone.
CARLOS RODRIGUEZ 4.5. Another lap lost by the climber Ineos, who now sees the podium almost compromised by losing more ground to Adam Yates (and Simon is close by). The last week so far has been an ordeal and it feels like he’s really scraping the bottom of the barrel.
The general classification after the 17th stage
1 – AWESOME GARDEN Jonas Jumbo-Visma 67:57:61
2 – COOKIE Tadej UAE Team Emirates 7:35
3 – YATES Adam UAE Team Emirates 10:45
4 – RODRÍGUEZ Carlos INEOS Grenadiers 12:01
5 – YATES Simon Team Jayco AlUla 12:19
6 – BILBAO Pello Bahrain – Victorious 12:50
7 – HINDLEY Jai BORA – hansgrohe 13:50
8 – GALL Felix AG2R Citroen Team 16:11
9 – KISS Sepp Jumbo-Visma 4:49 p.m
10 – GAUDU David Groupama – FDJ 17:57
Today’s stage
No one would have dared to imagine seeing Jonas Vingegaard ahead by 108 seconds with 4 stages to go in the Tour (5 with the Paris catwalk). Nobody, except the Danish, that in the time trial of Clombloux he reversed the race, in the sense that it brought it back 30 years, when the time trials made ruts that were impossible for any rival to close.
Tadej Pogacar will have a chance to try to overturn the Tour, but he won’t have much margin to do it: the 17th stage, starting from Saint-Gervais-Mont-Blanc of the hamlet that will bring the caravan to Courchevel represents the penultimate hurdle for Vingegaard, who will have to try to respond blow by blow to the ambitions of the Slovenian rival.
The story of the 17th stage of the Tour de France 2023: the route
Which did not come out resized from the chrono, because after all it was the Danish who made history: Pogi doesn’t want to give up and will have 5 GPM to try to come up with something. Maybe with the help of Adam Yatessince yesterday climbed to third place in the general in front of Carlos Rodriguez, that assuming a team game in the Team UAE Emirates he could go on the run and act as a lockpick to track down the yellow jersey.
At that point anything could really happen, but it will also depend on the energy left in the body after 16 grueling stages.
The difficulties of the 17th stage
The last Alpine stage presents considerable asperities: the hardest is placed at the end of the day, the classic arrival of the Tour in the helicopter rescue landing field. First there are to deal with Col des Saisies (13.5 km at 5%), Cormet de Roselend (20 km at 6.6%), Col du Tra (11.5 km climb, with the GPM placed in Longefoy after 6 km at 7.5%, the hardest), and precisely Courchevel.
Here you have to pay attention to the length: 28 km at 6%, but divided between the first section (11 km at 6.5%), the simpler one (pedalable uphill or downhill) with which you get to Méribel and the last 11 km at 8.5% medium and high up to 24%.
From the summit to the finish there are only 6 km, not all downhill: there is a double-digit first climb of about 400 meters with 2.5 km to go and then the final surge (peaks at 18%) that makes your wrists tremble. It remains to understand where he will try to attack Pogacar, but Vingegaard will know how to defend himself, especially if he will be the one seen in the last stages.
Italy trusts in an exploit by Giulio Ciccone, who in the timed trial strengthened his leadership in the classification of the polka dot jersey, but who now has to try to put more hay in the farmhouse in an attempt to avoid dangerous comebacks from the rear. Because the Tour is still long, anything can happen.
General classification after the 16th stage
VINGEGAARD Jonas Jumbo-Visma 63:06:53 POGAČAR Tadej UAE Team Emirates 1:48 YATES Adam UAE Team Emirates 8:52 Rodriguez Carlos INEOS Grenadiers 8:57 HINDLEY Jai Bora – Hansgrohe 11:15 KUSS Sepp Jumbo-Visma 12:56 BILBA O Pello Bahrain – Victorious 13:06 YATES Simon Team Jayco AlUla 13:46 GOLD David Groupama – FDJ 17:38 GALL Felix AG2R Citroën Team 18:19 Source: Getty Images
