It must have been a quiet stage before today's rest that yesterday brought the Tour in Albi, capital of the Tarn department, the river that flows through the ancient Albiga of the Romans. For the 11th time since the first in 1953 – André Darrigade's victory – the Tour returned to the city of the Albigensians, scene of the ruthless repression of the Cathar heresy ordered by Innocent III in the XIII century. Home of stages that have never had any bearing on the fate of the Tour, This time Albi found in the strong and impetuous wind an ally capable of influencing the race more than many difficult ascents. Gusts that suddenly hit the peloton breaking it into several sections: in cycling jargon the French call them "bordures", the Italians "fans".
In the last 30 km the wind was the master yesterday in the Tour and in the peloton, which was now spinning towards the finish line and was about to catch up with the escapees of the day, all hell broke loose: suddenly three groups formed with those of the Ineos (Thomas and Bernal) and of Deceuninck-Quick Step (the yellow jersey Alaphilippe and Viviani) the most skilled at exploiting the wind energy of the vortexes to go on the attack, pushing at full speed because big fish such as Pinot, Uran and Fuglsang were caught in the back squads.
Even more delayed, trapped in another group, there it was ciccone who for the first time understood how difficult it is to stay at the top among the many pitfalls of the Tour. Up front with the big names from Ineos and the yellow jersey were around thirty riders including Quintana, Valverde, Bardet, Krujiswjick, Mas, Van Avermaet and fast wheels, beyond Viviani, like Sagan, Ewan, Matthews and Van Aert. There was also Landa but a rash move by Barguil sent the Movistar Spaniard tumbling to the ground and losing contact with the treads.
The fans are terrible because they deceive those who are chasing, especially on the long straights, that they can get back on the first ones: exemplary what happened yesterday too when Pinot's group arrived just 15" from that of Thomas and Alaphilippe. But the engagement never took place and in a few km Pinot's squad was sucked backwards until they lost 1'40" on the finish line, a delay that caused the French captain of Groupama-Fdj to fall from third to '11th place at 2'33” from Alaphilippe and 1'21” from Thomas who jumped to second place.
Ahead of the sprint was a three-way fight with the Belgian Wout van aert (Jumbo-Visma) who mocked Viviani and Caleb Ewan. Sagan, still in the green jersey, was only fifth also preceded by Michael Matthews. Ciccone finished even further behind at 2'09” together with Aru and the unfortunate Landa. Nibali he got lost even further back arriving at the finish line in melancholy solitude more than 5 minutes behind Van Aert. In the standings, the Shark has now slipped lower than Aru, more than 10 minutes from the podium area. Ciccone also took a negative step back finishing from second to tenth place at 2'32" from Alaphilippe, losing the white jersey of best "under 25" which passes on the shoulders of Egan Bernal from yesterday third at 1'16" from Alaphilippe and just 4” from Thomas. ty50 \lsdlocke
