Greig Leach

Contemporary figurative art created with oilsticks on paper, watercolors, stained glass and mixed media color based images of people, food, cycling and faith-based iconography
 
 

Winning from the Front TdF26-64

Not only did Mathieu Van Der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) win from the front group, he was also forced to start his sprint from the front of the four-man breakaway that just made it to the line. The foursome that included Van Der Poel, Tobias Johannessen (Uno X-Mobility), Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5) and Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost), risked everything by slowing down, each trying to get the other to jump first. In a post-race interview, Pidcock said his only hope of outsprint Van Der Poel was to get him to start his sprint too early, so they all waited as the peloton charged up behind them. It was MVDP who went first, but he had the legs to outsprint them all. The only one who even got close was Johannessen, claiming second for the second time in this Tour de France. As I wrote in the previous post, Pidcock claimed that his gears failed again, making it impossible for him to mount a successful sprint. I didn't see it, but I don't know. They played with fire, the peloton lead by Flippo Ganna (Netcompany-Ineos) and Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) came home just six seconds behind Van Der Poel.