Grand Tour rookie Wout Van Aert won Stage 10 of the 2019 Tour de France after a sprint to the line Monday, while Julian Alaphilippe kept the race leader’s yellow jersey ahead of a rest day.
Crosswinds caused the peloton to stretch and break into several groups during the last 35 kilometers of the 217.5-kilometer trek from Saint-Flour to Albi. Defending champion Geraint Thomas reached the finish line in the main pack but several favorites including Frenchman Thibaut Pinot were caught off guard and lost ground.
Pinot was in a group also including Rigoberto Uran and Richie Porte that lost 1 minute, 39 seconds, according to provisional results.
Rigoberto Uran’s EF Education First put the power down with 40km to go and successfully split the peloton, only to find themselves slipping into the second group on the road as Alaphilippe himself took up the baton.
Team Ineos were well positioned to keep Thomas and Bernal safely where they needed to be, along with Mitchelton-Scott’s Adam Yates, UAE Team Emirates’ Dan Martin, Movistar’s Nairo Quintana and Jumbo-Visma’s Steven Kruijswijk.
But there was full on panic for Pinot’s Groupama-FDJ squad as they fell further and further behind.
After Van Aert edged out Elia Viviani to give Jumbo-Visma their fourth stage win of the Tour, the clock began counting to the groups left further down the road.
Pinot and Uran eventually crossed the line 100 seconds after the leaders, in a group which also included Trek-Segafredo’s Richie Porte and Astana’s Jakob Fuglsang, while Quintana’s team-mate Mikel Landa was even further back to concede more than two minutes.
The new-look GC sees Thomas in second, 72 seconds behind Alaphilippe and four seconds ahead of Bernal in third.
Yates moves up to seventh, still one minute 47 seconds down, while Martin is in ninth, a further 22 seconds back.
But Pinot will curse his luck as he dropped from third place to 11th, now two minutes 33 seconds off yellow.
Stage 10 Brief Results:
- Wout Van Aert (Team Jumbo-Visma) at 4h49’39”
- Elia Viviani (Deceuninck-QuickStep) s.t.
- Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) s.t.
- Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) s.t.
- Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) s.t.
- Jasper Philipsen (UAE Team Emirates) s.t.
- Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida) s.t.
- Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott) s.t.
- Oliver Naesen (AG2R La Mondiale) s.t.
- Greg Van Avermaet (CCC Team) s.t.
General Classification After Stage 10:
- Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) at 43h27’15”
- Geraint Thomas (Team Ineos) at 1’12”
- Egan Bernal (Team Ineos) at 1’16”
- Steven Kruijswijk (Team Jumbo-Visma) at 1’27”
- Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) at 1’45”
- Enric Mas (Deceuninck-QuickStep) at 1’46”
- Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) at 1’47”
- Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team) at 2’04”
- Daniel Martin (UAE Team Emirates) at 2’09”
- Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo) at 2’32”
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