The days go by and look the same on the Tour de France 2021. The first alpine stage gave rise to another crazy stage, in the rain.
In Grand-Bornand, it was the Belgian from Bahrain-Victorious, Dylan Teuns, who won.
Behind him, Tadej Pogacar, took a huge option on the final victory by gaining several minutes over each of the other favorites and grabbed the yellow jersey.
Here is the new yellow jersey for this Tour de France: Tadej Pogacar crushed this stage and already took a large lead in the general standings.
# TDF2021 pic.twitter.com/jLdqhd1bAG
- The Gruppetto (@LeGruppetto) July 3, 2021
Tadej Pogacar, the outgoing winner of the Tour, seemed to be practicing a different cycle than his opponents as they could not do anything in the last two climbs of this first and rainy alpine day, the Romme and Colombière passes.
The Slovenian knocked out his rivals on the Tour's first mountain stage.
He widened monumental gaps, more than three minutes over his direct rivals, three days after having already gained the upper hand in the time trial.
The leader of the UAE team donned his third yellow jersey.
Last year, he had donned the leader's jersey after the time trial at La Planche des Belles Filles, just on the eve of the arrival on the Champs-Elysées.
At Le Grand-Bornand, Pogacar took 4th place on the stage behind the Spaniard Ion Izagirre and the Canadian Michael Woods, ahead of about 40 seconds by Teuns.
Roglic and Thomas dropped
Pogacar, sure of his strength, attacked twice in the Col de Romme, approaching the last 30 kilometers.
On his second start, he left Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz, the only one to have painfully kept contact the first time.
In 3 kilometers, the Slovenian left Carapaz behind by more than a minute.
Party in a "one man show", he joined and dropped off the survivors of the breakaway before the last descent that he negotiated with caution.
A hectic first half of the stage, marked by numerous attacks, very quickly condemned the Welshman Geraint Thomas, left behind on the first hill at the exit of Oyonnax, then the Slovenian Primoz Roglic, released after about thirty kilometers.
Thomas, winner of the 2018 Tour, and Roglic, second in 2020, fell last Monday in the third stage.
Pogacar in person muzzled the Belgian Wout van Aert who tried to start at the front before the breakaway, strong of 18 riders, took shape before the halfway (Km 72) behind the Dutchman Wout Poels, very active in start of the course.
Second victory for Dylan Teuns on the Tour
Woods, who started at the front at the foot of Romme, was joined 3 kilometers from the top of the Colombière by Teuns who then left him behind.
Teuns, 29, won his second success in the Tour, two years after that acquired at the top of La Planche des Belles Filles in the Vosges.
He gave the Bahrain team their second victory in two days, after Slovenian Matej Mohoric at Le Creusot.
Sunday, the 9th stage, the most difficult in the Alps, includes 51 kilometers of ascent on the 144.9 kilometer course between Cluses (Haute-Savoie) and Tignes (Savoie) where the Tour returns after a missed finish in 2019 due to a mudslide making the road impassable.
With AFP
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