Last time the Tour arrived at Tolosa in 2008, it was Mark Cavendish who triumphed, in his second of the thirty successes that make the British sprinter the most successful stage runner in the Grande Boucle after Eddy Merckx, record holder at 35 meters. Eleven years later, the “Ville rose”, the pink city due to the color of the terracotta bricks of its palaces, bathed by the Garonne, yesterday greeted the first seal at the Tour of Caleb ewan, the pocket sprinter, a success that was in the air after so many placements. He may be the smallest rider in the Tour at 65m tall, but when the Australian from Lotto-Soudal makes a comeback in the sprints it's like a bullet that hurts: the Dutchman knows something about it too Dylan Groenewegen, mocked at the photo finish when he was already certain of victory.
Behind them he was third Viviani, looking for an encore that so far no fast wheel in the Tour has managed to hit. Fourth was History who in the green jersey continues to lead by a large margin over Viviani in the points classification with the aim of taking her to Paris for the seventh time, beating the record of six that she shares with the German Eric Zabel. Unassailable however remains that of Cavendish, excluded amidst controversy from this Tour, of being by far the still active rider who has won the most stages of the Grande Boucle.
Stage for sprinters after Tuesday's rest and on the eve of today's attack ai Pyrenees with the Peyresourde and the Horquette d'Ancizan, Albi-Toulouse leaves the top ten classification unchanged as the wind had changed it with the many fans of the previous fraction, rewarding Thomas e Bernal and penalizing in particular Pinot. But for Julius Ciccone, involved in a crash which forced him to retire Niki Terpstra, was a sudden tile on his Tour which in the space of two stages, Monday due to the wind, yesterday due to bad luck, saw him fall from the first places in the standings to 29th at 14'35" from the yellow jersey of Alaphilippe.
In the carambola with Terpstra and Ciccone they were also trapped Quintana e Doors, but fortunately for them they got up immediately without damage and managed to get back into the group of the best. Not so the Abruzzese who, injured and in pain, arrived in Toulouse last, in 169th place, more than 12 minutes behind Ewan. After the continuous flops of Nibali, also yesterday finished in a group of latecomers 2'40” behind the leaders, and the misadventures of Ciccone, the first Italian in the Tour standings is now Fabio Aru, 25th at 5'57” from Alaphilippe.
