Rest Day Recap
2023 Tour de France
Stages 10-15
Jasper Philipsen wins his fourth sprint on Stage 11.Route: 2023 Tour de FranceJonas Vingegaard (JV) goes into the second rest day and third week with a ten second lead on rival Tadej Pogacar (UAE) in the GC battle.
It’s the two-man race that everyone anticipated, with third place overall belonging to Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos-Grenadiers) at more than five minutes behind the race leader. All eyes will be on the Dane versus the Slovenian in the mountains during the third week.
Neilson Powless (EF) goes from being tied with Vingegaard for the polka dots jersey to being tied with Gulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek). Ciccone wins the tiebreaker through the byzantine rules of the Tour.
With so much at stake in the yellow jersey race, it will be tough for anyone not named Pogacar or Vingegaard to make major headway in the polka dots battle in the mountains of the third week. But the race can take strange turns – if Education First rallies all its remaining resources and strategy to chase the King of the Mountains, it could be competitive if Powless is feeling strong.
Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) maintains a commanding points lead in the green jersey race. Four stage wins will do that…
Neither here nor there, but who would have predicted that Cofidis would win two stages by the end of the second week of the Tour, and neither went to Guillaume Martin (Cofidis)? Socrate A Vélo, denied!
Stage 10
Stage 10It was an intense restart to the race after the first rest day. Many commentators had picked this one for a breakaway. Presumably the GC contenders would play it conservative while teams worried about bringing no hardware home would send riders up the road for a stage win.
It was not meant to be. At one point chief GC rivals Tadej Pogacar (UAE) and Jonas Vingegaard (JV) were in the break. So forget about no-name riders stealing a bunch of minutes up front. The level of effort kept everyone guessing until the final sprint finish with the stage win going to Pelle Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious).
American Neilson Powless (EF) retains the polka dot jersey while GC contenders Jonas Vingegaard, Tadej Pogacar, and Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) finish the first day after the rest day in order one, two, three, respectively, in the overall time standings.
Stage 11
Stage 11The vast majority of professional cyclists won’t sniff in a whole career the amount of success that Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) has enjoyed in a single Tour. With his sprint win on Stage 11, the Belgian takes his fourth victory.
He’ll enjoy the wins but not the rest of the second week, which re-enters the mountains. It will be a hard time for the fastmen, but the mountain goats will have their day.
More importantly, the race for the yellow and polka dot jersey will heat up. Can American Neilson Powless (EF) hold onto the King of the Mountains once rival teams Jumbo Visma and UAE start trading blows? And who is the real Jonas Vingegaard (JV) and Tadej Pogacar (UAE)? They’ve taken turns leaving each other in the dust…
There’s another round of mountains in the third week. Shorter, yet potentially decisive. The GC competition does not need to be decided in the second week. But for sure each team with a legitimate GC threat will be looking to land an early knockout punch against rivals.
Stage 12
Stage 12Not one, but TWO wins for Cofidis in this year’s Tour de France. The French team has become something of a punchline for decades as the permanently hopeful and eternally hopeless squad of professional cycling. Though they compete at the highest level of the sport in the biggest races, there are few wins to report.
But forget all that at the 2023 Tour de France. Following Victor Lafay, Ion Izagirre brings glory to Cofidis with a heroic push ahead of the pack on a competitive Stage 12. It was a route with too many mountains for the sprinters and too few for the climbers. For a while it looked like Matheiu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) might steal the stage with a strong push in the second half of the race, but he began to be absorbed back into the pack with 32km to go.
American Neilson Powless (EF) keeps his King of the Mountains jersey, but doesn’t add any points and finished more than 24 minutes behind the finisher. There will be mountain points on offer tomorrow with a mountaintop finish at the end of Stage 13. Is it too much to hope for Powless holding onto the polka dots jersey through the second week and beyond?
After a disappointing start to the Tour and injury on Stage 4, sprinter Fabio Jakobsen (Lotto Soudal) did not start the stage.
Stage 13
Stage 13Vive la Pologne! Michal Kwiatkowski, tireless super domestique for Ineos-Grenadiers, wins a stage for himself up the storied Grand Colombier. It’s been a good Tour for thirty-year olds, with Kwiatkowski, Ion Izagirre (Cofidis), and Michael Woods (Israel-PremierTech) winning the last three stages alone.
Everyone expected fireworks up the final uphill finish between GC rivals Jonas Vingegaard (JV) and Tadej Pogacar (UAE). The former held 17 seconds on the latter. The dual came late on the final kilometers with Pogacar making a break, biking up the steep hill at an incredible clip. Vingegaard followed, both riders out of the saddle. Between time bonus and crossing the finish line ahead of the Dane, the Slovenian managed to scrape back 8 seconds.
Vingegaard remains in the yellow jersey. American Neilson Powless (EF) remains in the polka dots jersey, but rode deep in the pack all day, making no effort to grab mountain points. With no GC rider (Richard Carapaz out on the first stage), Education First would love to hold onto the King of the Mountains as long as possible but the Vingegaard, Pogacar, and the mountains might not cooperate.
Star sprinter Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Dstny) withdraws from the race as the mountains prove too much. The remaining sprinters will enjoy a little extra elbow room on the next sprint finish if they can survive the climbs themselves.
Stage 14
Stage 14A massive pileup at the back of the peloton and an assortment of crashes ended the Tour for a few strong riders, including James Shaw (EF), Esteban Chaves (EF), Louis Meintjes (Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert), and Romain Bardet (Team DSM).
A crash in the peloton.Otherwise it was the GC duel that everyone expected in the mountains along the Swiss border. Team UAE and Jumbo Visma expertly deployed their support riders to push off the final conflict between Tadej Pogacar (UAE) and Jonas Vingegaard (JV). The former needed less than ten seconds to leapfrog the latter into the yellow jersey. With time bonuses on offer at the final mountaintop, Col de Joux Plane, and at the finish line, the two riders were motivated to fight it out all the way to the finish line.
The real fireworks came up the Col de Joux Plane… The final Jumbo Visma domestique, American Sepp Kuss, peeled of leaving a trio of Adam Yates (UAE) leading teammate Tadej Pogacar (UAE) with Vingegaard alone following right on their heels.
At the critical moment Pogacar slingshotted past Yates, making the move with the intention of burying Vingegaard, getting back precious seconds, maybe more. Unlike yesterday, though, Vingegaard found his legs (or Pogacar couldn’t maintain the same burst), and the two evened up in the final stretch toward the mountaintop. In a moment that’s sure to be reviewed by the handwringing crowd, Pogacar had a second burst cut short when a motorbike blocked his forward progress. Instead it was Vingegaard who picked the right moment and found a clear path to sprint for the mountaintop bonus.
Through all the sound and fury it was easy to forget that a second group of riders were still hanging around not too far behind the GC rivals. Carlos Rodriguez (IGD) caught the pair on the long downhill to the finish and took the stage win, while Pogacar and Vingegaard marked each other through the finish line for a second and third place finish, respectively.
The net result of all these fireworks? Jonas Vingegaard extends his lead in the yellow jersey by two seconds, for a total of a ten second lead on his Slovenian rival. American Neilson Powless (EF) scored some mountain points earlier in the stage, but it was not enough to prevent Vingegaard from pulling even at 54 points apiece. With the Dane in the yellow jersey, the American will keep the polka dots jersey by default for now…
Stage 15
Stage 15This stage was made for Wout Poels (Bahrain Victorious). A grinding series of categorized climbs: three category 1s, one 2, and one 3 to pulverize the riders’ legs on the last day before the last rest day. For years Poels has been a top-level domestique, assisting Grand Tour winners on elite teams. Today he wins one for himself, proving too much for Wout van Aert (JV), who took second on the stage but never threatened Poels once the final climb kicked up.
As for the GC contest, everyone expected more fireworks between rivals Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo Visma) and Tadej Pogacar (UAE). It was the latter who made it into the final climb with the most support – Adam Yates (UAE) looked strong enough to jump into third place overall, but he and Marc Soler (UAE) hung around to usher their team leader to the finish. When Pogacar finally launched his attack, he couldn’t find separation from Vingegaard. The Slovenian and the Dane were credited with the same time at the line, 04h 46' 49''.
Neilson Powless (EF) goes from being tied with Vingegaard for the polka dots jersey to being tied with Gulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek). Ciccone wins the tiebreaker through the byzantine rules of the Tour.
Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) maintains a commanding points lead in the green jersey race. Four stage wins will do that…
Who knows if Jumbo Visma would have had more support for Vingegaard at the end of the race if their riders could have avoided the big crash in the peloton early on. Rumor has it that American Sepp Kuss (JV) was involved, and it may have sapped his staying power in the final climb. Regardless, his team leader stuck with the UAE train, and looked strong, though he could not extend his lead.
Jonas Vingegaard (JV) goes into the second rest day and third week with a ten second lead on rival Tadej Pogacar (UAE). It’s a two-man race, with third place belonging to Carlos Rodriguez at more than five minutes behind the race leader. All eyes will be on the Dane versus the Slovenian in the mountains during the third week.
Photo Gallery
Recaps of Stages 16-21 as the 2023 Tour de France concludes in Paris.