photo credits @ ASO
Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) claimed stage 10 of the Tour de France today, marking the Spanish rider’s first stage victory in his career, out-sprinting Georg Zimmerman (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty) and Ben O’Connor (AG2R Citroën) to take the win in Issoire.
Once lone leader Krists Neilands (Israel-PremierTech), who struck out on his own along the final climb with 32 kilometers remaining, was reeled in during the closing kilometers, Bilbao proved the strongest in a six-up sprint to take a maiden win in the French Grand Tour.
Meanwhile, Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep) finished in a chase group around 30 seconds down before the peloton came home almost three minutes in arrears, while Bilbao’s win and time gains saw the 33-year-old shoot up six places from eleventh to fifth in the standings.
In the meantime, Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) retained his 17-second lead over Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) on a day that saw both the yellow and white jersey infiltrate an early move that had distanced many of the other riders in the top 10, including Jai Hindley (Bora-hansgrohe), who recovered to protect his third place on GC at 2:40.
Race Highlights
A flurry of attacks came and went, but none were made to stick. But, after more than an hour of racing, Bilbao, Zimmermann, O’Connor, Alaphilippe, Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers), Esteban Chaves (EF Education EasyPost) and Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl Trek), along with 14 other riders, eventually rode clear, later building a modest advantage of around 3 minutes over the peloton.
However, their margin began to drop with 60 kilometers to go, with Mathieu van der Poel making a surprise presence at the front of the peloton before he and Wout Van Aert went on a two-man attack out of the peloton. However, the duo later fell back into the main field.
With 35 kilometers remaining, Israel Premier-Tech tried to take advantage of its numerical advantage in the breakaway, with Neilands later making his winning move along the final climb.
From there, the Latvian rider opened up a 30-second gap over the summit ahead of the long descent into Issoire.
However, Bilbao, Zimmermann, O’Connor and others ultimately reined in Neilands during the last 3 kilometers, with Zimmerman and Bilbao opening up a slim gap inside the final kilometer. But, the group briefly came together inside the final 200 meters, with Bilbao emerging victorious in the sprint.
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