Greig Leach

I don't think I have ever seen Didi Stenft (aka 'The Devil') hold anything besides his trident before, but then the final climb has been rather raining most of the day. I imagine that the publicity caravan handed that umbrella to him several hours earlier. I was playing around with the idea for the title and then this variation of sheltering from the devil occurred to me. I found it amusing, I hope you do, too. These five were chasing just one man up the road by a half of a minute. Felix Gall (Decathlon-Ag2r-La Mondiale) was setting the pace in hopes of moving up the general classification. Everyone else was watching their nearest competitors in a defensive slosh up to La Plagne. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) was closely watched by Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), one in the Maillot Jaune and the other in the Maillot a Pois. Behind it was a battle for the final possession of the Maillot Blanc of best young rider. The jersey is currently on the shoulders of Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) who is also third on the GC. He has a twenty-one second advantage over the man in front of him in both the GC and the Maillot Blanc, Oscar Onley (Picnic-PostNL). The fact that these two young guys are stuck to the wheels of the best two riders in modern cycling speaks of great battles yet to come.